First of all: Thank you for developing FreeFileSync.
This is the best sync software that I have seen so far.
The only thing that bothers me is the Linux long-term stability.
Recently, I switched from Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04 and got the following error message:
./FreeFileSync: error while loading shared libraries: libpng12.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Fortunately I was able to upgrade to FreeFileSync 10.15, which is working with Ubuntu 18.04.
I know that this is not your fault, but it is still painful to see that so many Linux binaries stop working after such a short period of time.
Is there anything you can do to make the released Linux binaries more stable?
Linux Longterm Stability
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Your usage of "stable" does not seem to match how most other people use the word. "Stable" usually means the software works the same way, over a long period of time, in the same environment. Switching from Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04 is definitely a major change through which the reliability of a program is not really measurable.
A distribution of Linux generally upgrades its libraries across major versions, as you observed with the libpng12.so.0 issue. The official release of FreeFileSync attempts to cover all the major distributions ("distros") of Linux but can't perfectly match all of them. A distro tries to package applications and libraries in a predictable way. I realize Ubuntu does not have FreeFileSync, so perhaps you could ask the Ubuntu folks to start packaging it. They would be able to build FreeFileSync against their exact libs for each version of Ubuntu, so that it would work as expected within each release.
A distribution of Linux generally upgrades its libraries across major versions, as you observed with the libpng12.so.0 issue. The official release of FreeFileSync attempts to cover all the major distributions ("distros") of Linux but can't perfectly match all of them. A distro tries to package applications and libraries in a predictable way. I realize Ubuntu does not have FreeFileSync, so perhaps you could ask the Ubuntu folks to start packaging it. They would be able to build FreeFileSync against their exact libs for each version of Ubuntu, so that it would work as expected within each release.
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It could be packaged as an AppImage, Flatpak, or Snap. All three methods incorporate the needed binaries and libraries to run the program and will continue to work even if the system libraries change. AppImage seems to be the most universal and distro-independent way to do it.
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Flatpak seems like a reasonable solution.
The thing is that I am a very security-paranoid Linux user.
I avoid to download binaries from the Internet whenever possible. If I still download binaries, then I try to run the binary within a virtual machine (which is no good for FreeFileSync).
The older a binary, the more confident I am that it does not apply any unpatched zero-day exploits or any other advanced malicious software.
In other words: I feel more confident if the same FreeFileSync binary lies around on my disk for several years.
The older the binary, the better.
Of course, this rule does not apply for software that is prone for remote exploits, like browsers, network protocols or any complex file parsing code.
The thing is that I am a very security-paranoid Linux user.
I avoid to download binaries from the Internet whenever possible. If I still download binaries, then I try to run the binary within a virtual machine (which is no good for FreeFileSync).
The older a binary, the more confident I am that it does not apply any unpatched zero-day exploits or any other advanced malicious software.
In other words: I feel more confident if the same FreeFileSync binary lies around on my disk for several years.
The older the binary, the better.
Of course, this rule does not apply for software that is prone for remote exploits, like browsers, network protocols or any complex file parsing code.
