Software >

(on Wikipedia)
https://systemd.io/

An init system.. and more.

systemd is a pox on Linux. It has huge amount of dependencies. As it’s critical to a distribution, and it’s folding in a whole lot of code, it’s widely considered unnecessary bloat and a point of attack.

• https://suckless.org/sucks/systemd/
• Combating revisionist history

• tech-ctte: Decide which init system to default to in Debian.

  • decided
• https://sysdfree.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/186/

• without-systemd.org/wiki/ might have been a nice idea at the time, but it’s dated and incorrect about a number of distributions.

  • See also https://web.archive.org/web/20210707170656/https://without-systemd.frama.wiki/
• Broken by design: systemd

Notes ∞

• I heard that MATE will have systemd integration.

Overview ∞

2014-08-08 – Probably the biggest issue I have is that it’s written by Lennart Poettering, the author of PulseAudio and Avahi. He works for Red Hat. Fuck all that. PulseAudio has a spectacular vision, but is a massive undertaking to get right. It took years and years for it to get through its teething pains. I could only use it after a distribution handled ALL of it on my behalf and made it “just work”. I don’t want to see that sort of thing happen with systemd.

Fedora/Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a major drive behind systemd. The systemd developer works for Red Hat.

• 2010-07-30 – Rethinking PID 1 by Lennart Poettering — Manifesto on systemd.
• 2010-08-23 – systemd for Administrators, Part 1 by Lennart Poettering

• 2010-12-27 – 27th Chaos Communication Congress talk by Lennart Poettering

  • on YouTube
  • (unreviewed)

• 2011-04-28 – Why systemd? — Lennart Poettering’s explanation, justification and comparison post.

  • lwn.net comment thread
• 2011-05-04 – The systemd fallacy

• 2011-06-13 – Lennart Poettering replying to a thread

  • (only partly reviewed)

• 2011-07-17 – A few observations about systemd by Juliusz Chroboczek on the Debian development list.

  • 2012-08-20+ – Systemd, some reading about what, how and why with some critical views

Trivia/notes ∞

• Reportedly Debian was to have an installer that gave a choice between systemd or sysvinit, but it was discovered to not actually be included in that upcoming release of Debian. This omission was pointed out, and then the devs said it was too close to release to put it back in. The choice never appeared in later versions of the installer in any future release or update of Debian.

Linux distributions which use systemd ∞

/tag/linux-distributions-which-use-systemd

• openSUSE

  • 2012-09-10 – OpenSUSE: Not Everyone Likes SystemD by Michael Larabel

Linux distributions which do not use systemd ∞

/tag/linux-distributions-which-do-not-use-systemd

• Category:Linux distributions without systemd

Developer responses ∞

• Goodbye, Arch Linux – The Sporkbox Blog

  • 2016-04-09 – I checked him out again, and he has since become a Gentoo developer. Haha. =/

• 2014-08-28 – ignorantguru, the developer of SpaceFM, has suspended its development, as he’s not likely to be on a current Linux distribution until he figures out what he’s going to switch to.

  • He has since continued SpaceFM development, and his opinion on systemd has not changed.

Alternatives to systemd ∞

• Comparison of init systems – Gentoo Wiki

—

• OpenRC

• udev fork

  • udev is from systemd. This is an alternative udev developed to circumvent that need.
  • developer thread
  • Arch thread

• upstart – event-based init daemon (wikipedia)

  • This was Ubuntu deciding to give the finger to everyone and make their own thing, but they reversed their position and switched to systemd.

• ignite

Random notes ∞

• Solaris 10 switched to Service Management Facility

It seems curious that “major” distributions push odd new technologies which fundamentally undermine the spirit of the generation.