# glibc 29 Hacker News commenters recommended glibc and 75 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Free C library praised for strong ABI stability and backward compatibility; critics say its design decisions and versioned symbols hurt portability. ## Why people recommend it - Strong ABI and backward compatibility (10 comments): "It's basically the only library on linux that actually has a strong commitment to providing a stable ABI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115807)) "glibc and a small list of other base system libraries have strong backwards compatibility" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106134)) "glibc is backwards compatible as long as a) your program is running on a newer version" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358023)) - Careful symbol versioning (2 comments): "glibc actually does a good job of using symbol versioning" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47509210)) "At least glibc uses versioned symbols." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46436812)) - Free, widely deployed, successful (3 comments): "gnu developed a system that worked, and then made it free to everyone to consult and use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49355283)) "Each of these libraries is extremely popular and has a user base of billions of devices." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47988108)) "GNU such as GCC and Glibc was also quite useful and successful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45890341)) - Skilled, careful developers (3 comments): "In their defense the people working on glibc and gcc are pretty intelligent" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49061593)) "It did help for programs built by those who know what they are doing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46588457)) "debugged and hardened run-everywhere never-fails code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781785)) ## What people warn about - Questionable design decisions (5 comments): "The fact that multiple cancellation points are discreetly buried in the paths of these functions is an element of unfortunate design." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46251683)) "Because I do not like certain decisions in the design of glibc, I am skeptical about their ability do define good standard APIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46717099)) "These projects have made controversial design decisions which impact the entire ecosystem of Linux software." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47998053)) - Versioned symbols hurt portability (4 comments): "It seems impractical to expect every piece of software on your computer to be built against a specific version of a specific library" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46440584)) "nothing ever lets you pick which versions to link to. You're going to get the latest ones and you better enjoy that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46439787)) "Versioned glibc symbols are part of the reason that binaries aren't portable across Linux distributions and time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46436955)) - Breaks software with newer versions (2 comments): "I've had instances when the loader would refuse to load the executable because the installed glibc is too new for it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48990580)) "Glibc has been a source of breakage for proprietary software ever since I started using Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47030702)) - Few developer-facing improvements (2 comments): "glibc really doesn’t provide improvements to any of the kernel interfaces or really any comfort stuff for developers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996701)) "glibc has a bug where it doesn't support communicating a link-local scope ID in its name resolution subsystem." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49511900)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [musl libc](https://hackerapproved.com/p/musl-libc.md): 34 recommend - [Cosmopolitan libc](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmopolitan-libc.md): 29 recommend - [Sp.h standard library for C](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sp-h.md): 11 recommend - [GLib](https://hackerapproved.com/p/glib.md): 6 recommend - [Lib0xc](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lib0xc.md): 6 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "glibc", https://hackerapproved.com/p/glibc/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).