I don't think the language is the issue here[1]. It seems inevitable to me that some of the design choices around immutability and isolation are going to resul

I don't think the language is the issue here[1]. It seems inevitable to me that some of the design choices around immutability and isolation are going to result in a larger server image (both on disk and in memory) than if you are prepared to forgo those things. For most people that tradeoff is probably worth it but if you want something to run in an embedded server or with a very low disk footprint it's probably not right for you. Around 20 years ago people who wanted to do this[2] used to make tiny immutable redhat servers by remounting /usr and a few other things read-only after boot so it's certainly doable but it's a lot more of a pain than what nix does and there is no process isolation and no rollback etc when things go wrong. [1] ...or generally in fact but that's a matter of opinion and I know people feel differently about this. [2] me for one, but others also.