I use both embedded files and external links in various applications. There are definite benefits to using linked files, but there are definite pitfalls as well. One of the biggest is the trouble you can get into trying to clean up obsolete and unused files.

If there were a utility you could run that would read every file on a given partition and list, for a given file, any links to that file in any other file, then I might vote for linked bitmaps. ('Course, you might have to include multiple partitions in the list, depending on how you work.)

Otherwise, embedding is much safer in the long run. I vote no links.