[nfoz]

> I'd love to see a clean slate replacement for the shell that still feels Unix-like and retains most of its existing benefits.

I've been working on one, in my spare time for about a year. I can't tell you how exciting it is. It's still a ways from being ready for actual use, but I'll have a website up in a couple of weeks to showcase the approach, and will surely post to HN when it's up.