OSS + ELC EU 2026

Linux userspace is built on a long history of trusted pieces c, libc, shell scripts, BusyBox, coreutils, PAM, NSS, and many assumptions that most systems inherit by default. These pieces work, and they have solved real problems for decades. But they also carry complexity from a different time.

We explore a userspace with fewer moving parts, no traditional libc dependency, simple deployment, easy cross-compilation, readable system code, and fewer external runtime dependencies. The goal is not to replace everything just for the sake of being different. The goal is to understand what still needs to exist, what can be simplified, and what becomes harder when we stop relying on the usual stack.

By rebuilding familiar userspace components from the ground up, we learn which old assumptions are still valuable, which ones are accidental complexity, and where embedded or minimal Linux systems can become simpler without becoming fragile.

This is a practical report from trying to redesign Linux userspace instead of only replacing individual tools. It covers what worked, what broke, and what the experiment teaches us about building smaller, simpler, and more maintainable Linux systems today.