[cairo] Interesting Linux distribution problem

[Travis Griggs]

I've been working through various platforms building Cairo, in the  
interest of being able to distribute it with our app, for wide  
consumption. I've got OSX and Windows both figured out. Thanks to all  
who have helped here or in IRC along the way.

Now I'm to Linux. We build on "old" platforms, because a number of the  
people that use our software are often running under old installs. An  
up to date ubuntu may be something you can count on for developer  
types, but for some legacy shops, you don't get so lucky. So I'm  
trying to get .configure to work and I've run into this error:

configure: error: Cairo requires at least one native font backend.   
Please install FreeType and fontconfig and try again.

Not a surprise, really. I'm curious what others would do. Download and  
compile FreeType and fontconfig so Cairo can compile and then... what?  
Do I distribute those libraries too with the cairo libs? What happens  
when it is an up to date version of Linux with a modern freetype/ 
fontconfig?

The question really boils down to "how would you build/compile/package/ 
distribute Cairo so that your Linux app can use it on as wide a  
variety of Linux installs as possible?"

TIA
--
Travis Griggs
Objologist
No other topic generates more heat and less light than code formatting  
--Kent Beck