I was hangin out in the C# newsgroup and I found this post in a thread concerning the size of the framework:

An alternative way is to simply develop everything in C#, then compile the app into native code without .NET dependency. We are working on such a tool (Salamander .NET Native Compiler), which links everything together and emits x86 machine code. It does not require .NET framework, but the file size will be much larger.

Huihong
http://www.remotesoft.com
note: He mentions C# in this post, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work when compiled in any other language.

I became extremely interrested in this. After exchanging several emails, I came to realize that this IS actually possible! It's not done yet, but he said the beta will be out in about a month (I'm a tester ).

I am very impressed by his other software as well, and I wanted to plug his site. Check it out, there might be something you're interrested in: http://www.remotesoft.com
I hope you're as impressed as I am!