Right now my computer is in the shop.

[Steve Litt]

On Sat, 2022-08-27 at 05:44 -0700, James Mcphee via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sat, Aug 27, 2022 at 4:38 AM Michael via PLUG-discuss <
> plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
> 
> > Why would u not want system d?

I never used systemd for the same reason I kicked every KDE executable and library
off my computer in 2013: I'm a big believer in modularity and simplicity. Every
single thing systemd does for you, except for PID1 responding to certain signals and
possibly managing daemons, could have been done outside of PID1 and could have been
done much more simply. One time a systemd afficianado said systemd was required for
live plugging and unplugging, because systemd is event driven. Two hours later I
showed off a shellscript, based on inotifywait, that automounted thumb drives. This
is just one of hundreds of possible examples.

>From my perspective, systemd makes sysvinit look good, but there are much better
choices than sysvinit, including runit, s6 and OpenRC. I've initted with runit for
seven years now, and I'm still in love with it.

There's one more reason I wouldn't want systemd: If systemd is on your computer, it
erects all sorts of barriers to replacing it with a different init system. Systemd
proponents will point out that it isn't systemd that does this, it's the
applications that depend on it. OK fine, for sure for sure, but it doesn't erase the
fact that if you use a distro with systemd, it's murder to replace it with a
different init system. Meanwhile, if your distro uses sysvinit, runit, s6, OpenRC,
Epoch, or Busybox Init, switching to another init system is trivial.

I just thought of another reason. Systemd is propped up by, I would guess, a 7
figure development budget just to keep it operational. Even with that monetary
support, look at all the "wontfix" and the "sorry, this version isn't maintained
anymore, resubmit with the latest version, after the bug report has been there for
two years. If that money stops, systemd will collapse on itself. I don't want be
there when it happens.

Lennart Poettering was just hired by Microsoft, but still works on systemd. Can
anybody promise me systemd won't acquire all sorts of "windowsisms" such that the
systemd user isn't really using GNU/Linux anymore?

SteveT