Reading the thread would have pointed out the reason for a more complicated build system - Makefiles or autotools do not meet the requirements set out above. more complicated sounds ok, as long as it is only complicated Does that include Premake and scons? at least premake, there were a few things with scons too but i don't remember which things.. hm, I don't have much Linux experience, but only linking in the bare necessities doesn't exactly sound like a killer feature. Is that so important? yes it is. for some linker specific stuff i recommend: http://blog.flameeyes.eu/ (tags: as-needed, linker) and also interesting is: http://www.makelinux.net/make3/make3-CHP-2-SECT-8.html some major issues has been fixed now, see http://trac.wildfiregames.com/changeset/7077