[still_grokking]

> The direction we're heading is to provide POSIX compatibility as an emulation layer on top of a cleaner foundation, rather than just doing POSIX at the base layer.

What's that "cleaner foundation"?

Next thing is: POSIX is the legacy stuff. If it's there nothing will change.

And not even to mention that the stack is going to look something like:

Hardware >> Hardware emulating some ISA (e.g. x86) >> C abstract machine >> POSIX >> VM emulating some ISA >> "container" emulating POSIX >> WASM VM >> emulation of POSIX APIs >> legacy applications written for some ISA & POSIX

I call this construct "layers of madness"… ;-)

[sunfish]

That cleaner foundation is shared-nothing linking, capability-based security, virtualizable APIs, and more, and a WASI organized around things like streams as first-class types.

The goal is to build a new platform. Initially, that looks like adding layers on top of existing platforms (which, as you say, already have multiple layers). If we succeed, then we get to start taking out some of the layers.