I use it for tethering with my iPhone since my phone internet is better and more stable than the cable internet I have otherwise. I wouldn't be aware that this is possible without Libimobiledevice.
If your wireless carrier enables it, you can create a wifi hotspot under Settings > Personal Hotspot.
I believe he is talking about tethering via USB, which should be a more stable connection than Wifi.
Ah but the Settings app does USB hotspots too
With Linux?
Yes with this library and a companion kernel module it will appear like a standard network interface (connected to the phone acting as a NAT router).
You need this library in order for the connection to work. Then it will show up as a LAN connection.
It may support that, but the tethered hotspot mentioned previously works perfectly well without this library for me on my Mac. When tethered together and hotspot enabled, I can use the iPhone's cellular data with no wifi on the Mac at all.
This library is really targeted toward non Apple systems.