For that matter, the actual Linux kernel need not be large at all. It's really the user space stuff that takes up the bulk of what people think of as the largess of Linux.

Still, there's a whole pile of stuff there that many applications don't need. If you truly can run the entire of the OCaml runtime and standard libraries etc without it, and you're happy writing your apps in OCaml... MirageOS has always felt winning-ish to me as a general idea.

And to TFA's point, now with LLMs the relative exotic nature of OCaml as a platform need not be a huge hindrance. I like the language, but have only dipped my toes in. Definitely tempting to try writing apps on it w/ MirageOS now. Though I doubt I'd convince anybody to pay me to do that...