...the problem with purchasing libraries as object code.

Agreed. I always give a preferential standing to a vendor that provides a library in source code form.

The way vendors of large Unix applications sometimes do it to avoid target hardware/compiler dependencies, is to supply their entire application (to be hip) WareZ in so-called "shrouded" source code form. Consumers are unlikely to pour through megabytes of shrouded (obfuscated) source code to figure out how it works, but they can compile it on their current (and future) target Unix systems.

Don't ding me for knowing something about Unix applications -- that's not where my background or heart is. I'm a small embedded systems guy through-and-through, but I once managed a stable of Unix developers along with firmware folks.