Stasis Linux
Stasis is like a traditional GNU/Linux vessel, setting sail by the skarnet lighthouse, built in the KISS tradition, navigating by Lua charts and steering toward the far shore of Oasis.
Stasis is like a traditional GNU/Linux vessel, setting sail by the skarnet lighthouse, built in the KISS tradition, navigating by Lua charts and steering toward the far shore of Oasis.
GNU/Linux for amd64. s6 init. Static musl C binaries. Source-based builds. Lua declarative recipes. Reproducible. Deterministic.
No package manager. No runtime shared libraries. No systemd. No logind. No udev. No D-Bus. No polkit. No PAM. No desktop environments. No dependency hell.
2026-03-29 Have you heard the Gnus!? There is finally a static GNU distro coming soon. There has been non-GNU ones for a long time. But nobody made a GNU one. This one tries to be good and do GNU right. It still sucks, but it just sucks less than other GNU distros, while not being technically suckless. Stay tuned.
declarative / hermetic
^
|
| Nix
|
mutable / dynamic <----+----> sealed / static
conventional distro | artifact output
|
| Oasis
| Stasis
| KISS
|
Debian Arch Artix |
v
traditional / direct admin
Inspired by KISS, Oasis, Artix, and Nix.
KISS. Per-package recipes. Upstream build systems. configure, make, install. Stasis keeps that workflow but replaces shell with Lua and cuts down what a recipe is allowed to do.
Oasis. Static musl userspace. Samurai replaces make and configure. Stasis keeps the static base but stays with the KISS workflow: configure, make, install. Both use Lua - Oasis to generate Ninja manifests, Stasis to drive configure and make.
Nix. Content-hash caching. Clean build environments. Fixed toolchain. Rebuilds that check whether the system can build itself from its own tools. Stasis wants the same end without the store model, derivations, its own language, or PATH/env hacks.
Artix. s6 for init and service supervision. No systemd. Stasis is closer to traditional Unix admin than Nix, and closer to GNU userland than Oasis or KISS. bash, coreutils, grep, sed, gawk, findutils, tar, make. Familiar tools without the usual runtime sprawl. The base stays static.
Arch has five principles. Stasis is built against most of them.
On simplicity. Arch keeps upstream defaults and patches lightly. Stasis does not have that luxury. Upstream assumes shared libraries, dynamic linking, and a package manager. Stasis strips those assumptions out. That means more work in recipes and less mess at runtime.
Arch avoids GUI admin tools. So does Stasis. Edit text files in /etc. Done.
On modernity. If modernity means systemd, udev, initramfs, rolling churn, and a moving base, then Stasis rejects modernity.
s6 runs services. mdevd handles devices. The kernel is static. Packages carry their source URL, version, and hash in the recipe. Releases are git tags. Upgrades are rebuilds from a known commit. You will roll alone, building your own releases in pursuit of a stable tag. Ideally staying close to versions in a Debian stable release, reusing their security patches where applicable.
Content-hash caching, deterministic builds, and scrubbed build environments are modern enough. None of that requires systemd.
On pragmatism. Arch says it is pragmatic, not ideological. Fine. So is Stasis, up to a point.
Binary firmware for hardware support is pragmatism. Shipping age-verification hooks and privacy-compromising defaults because the industry settled on them is not. That is surrender.
Stasis accepts the cost of its design. Static musl means no glibc world, fewer prebuilt binaries, and less software. No package manager means upgrades are rebuilds. Declarative recipes mean fewer ad hoc escapes. Good. Limits are part of the design.
On user centrality. Arch is built for a large user base. Wiki, AUR, forums, constant motion. Stasis is built to fit in one person's head with no user base in mind.
One tree. One recipe format. One base system. No AUR. No package feed. If you want to change it, send a patch or fork it.
On versatility. Stasis is general-purpose in the only sense that matters. It boots, builds, compiles, edits, serves, and administers. A full C/C++ musl toolchain and the GNU build system ship on the rootfs. It is a real operating system. It just has a narrower base and stricter rules.
One init system. One C library. Static binaries only.
Software that cannot be built static, such as a Steam chroot or a Firefox AppImage, goes in /sucks. Keep the rootfs clean.
None of this would exist without them.
sta.li / Oasis / KISS / suckless / skarnet / musl / GNU / Linux
Stasis is upstream source code and build logic. It is not a consumer platform, hosted service, or finished product. No installer, no ISO, no binary distribution, no telemetry, no hosted accounts, no app store, no child-facing marketing, no claims of consumer readiness.
Compliance obligations, including age-verification, identity, app-store, telecom, consumer-protection, and regional distribution rules, are the responsibility of any party that packages, distributes, hosts, sells, or operates a finished product or service built from it.
If the internet is the highway, Stasis is not a car. It is a components list, a workshop, and a manual for building one. It is designed to function fully without the internet as a required component. You assemble the system yourself, to your own specification, for your own lawful requirements. Any duties tied to distribution, deployment, or operation belong to you, not the upstream codebase.
This codebase is provided for research, study, and experimentation and is licensed under the MIT License on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, to the extent permitted by law. To the fullest extent permitted by law, it is also published as expressive source code. Stasis is the work of one guy in a garage, not a corporation, platform vendor, or compliance department.
MIT
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.