[zanny]

> Why "standardize" Cairo?

Because it means you can start making assumptions about available resources on platforms you target. If all you need is the included 2d api in the standard (which would be terse at best) then as soon as you can throw a compiler flag for, say, c++14, you can assume those primitives are there. You don't have to fight to either bundle a 3rd party library with your software, or pray to god the included version on the target system still has a version with the same abi, etc. You can just use it outright without hesitation because standard compliance means you have it at your disposal.