Before anything else, I would like to say that I admit systemd has brought great change to GNU/Linux. sysvinit wasn’t the best, and custom scripts for every distro is a pain I’d rather not have.

With that said, Poettering now works for Microsoft, systemd has basically taken over all of the common/popular distributions (if this is about the argument of “systemd making it easier for developers”, disclaimer: I don’t know. I’m not a developer), and this has led to a rampant monopolisation of the init system.

Memes aside, this has very real consequences. If you don’t want another CentOS-style “oof, sorry, off to testing” debacle happening with your init system, might want to look at the more “advanced” distributions that let you choose the init system.

I am well aware that systemd works well for the most part, and that gamers and most other people likely don’t care - which is fine, at least for now. I do expect to see a massive turnover in sentiment if something ever happens to systemd (not that I’d like for that to happen, but no trusting RedHat anymore), but I suppose we’ll get to it when we do.

My sentiments are well enunciated in this recent post on the Devuan forum: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=5826

Cheers!

  • @[email protected]
    3•1 year ago

    The main argument coming against it is not following the “Unix philosophy” which I’m a proponent for

    Gosh, don’t use a “GNU’s Not Unix” system then!

    I think you’re confused about what “Not Unix” means in the name “GNU’s Not Unix”. It’s nothing to do with the Unix philosophy. It’s to do with overcoming the limitations of proprietary Unices from the 1980’s. From the GNU Manifesto:

    “GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for communication.”

    https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html

    • @woelkchen
      1•1 year ago

      I think you’re confused about what “Not Unix” means in the name “GNU’s Not Unix”.

      Nah, I’m not confusing anything, I just decent to the level of people claiming that systemd was not following the Unix philosophy.