> I question that it is the most distributed library on the planet. Is there something backing that up? It would be cool but very shocking.
I recall seeing that claim made ~2 years ago, with data to back it up. I think many people forget that it is shipped (or statically compiled into an application that is shipped) on every android device (handset, TVs, etc), every Linux installation, every Windows installation and every OSX installation.
I do not know of any other library that has that penetration.
I don't know about iOS.
I can't say it's the most, but it does get used a lot. Chromium and descendants, Firefox, bunch of chat apps (Telegram, WeChat), and so on. You probably have multiple copies per machine.
I question that it is the most distributed library on the planet. Is there something backing that up? It would be cool but very shocking.