Nolibc: a minimal C-library replacement shipped with the kernel

if you manually adjust your kernel config, depending on your disk layout, you can get down to no/ a nice small initrd. If not using lvm or raid or luks for / you can just build everything into the kernel and be fine without one. I use lvm for my / and have a 2.5 M initrd with static lvm, fsck, busybox, and microcode. to get root mounted.

boots faster than the autogenerated giant initrds too.