First time I hear about oil shell. Funny name, but that aside, I have a hard time taking a shell seriously that started out written in python. They describe it as having "python-like types", interesting. And they say it's a shell targeted at people who "write scripts, which may get into the hundreds or even thousands of lines" rather than end-users. If you write complex scripts, please use a proper language. Also, I've been writing "complex" bash scripts since ages, and of course it can be somewhat annoying with bash's quirks. But it runs almost everywhere without extra dependencies, which is the main reason I use it. If I had to install oil on all machines running my scripts, why wouldn't I go ahead and use rather go and distribute binaries? Well, my guess is this will never catch on.