this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
7 points (56.9% liked)
Linux
48245 readers
511 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
the init is just a binary, the others systemd features are different programs from different binary, and you are not forced to use them, you can use only the init and don't use the others, it's not gonna affect security, systemd init is the most tested one
and you can't, a lot of technology that make NixOS and others immutable distros works exists only because of systemd
and if others init system worked as well, the entire of the linux community would not have changed voluntarily nor indenpendently to it
doubt, is too much work just to make a systemd alternative, without the reliability and support that systemd have, but i think it could be a fun hack
To set the record straight, since you apparently have no idea of the history: systemd isn't the original Linux init system, and wasn't foisted on the Linux community because it was technically superior for most people's use cases. It still isn't the only viable Linux init system, but it pulled a Microsoftian embrace-extend-extinguish on udev, which makes it more difficult to switch away. Its current popularity is still not based on technical merits. Instead, it's political, because most people don't care about what init they're using and most distro-makers take the path of least resistance.
It's true that you're not required to use all of the individual executables that comprise systemd, but most distros will require you to install them. So they're still present as unwanted clutter, and bugs could still pose a security risk if an attacker can run the executables. (This doesn't mean that OpenRC or runit would necessarily be any more secure—every non-trivial piece of software has bugs, and some percentage of those are going to be security-relevant. You're not required to care about small amounts of on-disk clutter, either, but some people choose to make their system partitions small and micromanage the contents even if they're not working on embedded.)
Compiling your own copy of systemd without the clutter, judging from the contents of the systemd ebuild, requires setting more than 30 compiler options. And then installing the result manually without trashing your system. Not trivial, in other words.
If systemd works for you, then by all means use it, but accept that other people may choose to install something different on their own machines for what you consider to be bad reasons, or no reason at all, and arguing about it just annoys them without providing any benefit to you.