1. A method for providing a common operating system, comprising: defining operating system components; identifying dependencies of the operating system components; creating component groups such that the operating system components in a group share common dependencies; establishing dependency rules among the component groups such that each operating system component is dependent on a minimum number of other operating system components; and enforcing the dependency rules such that the execution of an operating system component implicates the execution of a minimum number of other operating system components, wherein the common operating system provides a base operating system layer that is configured to support the operating system components.