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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.
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Because of the ubiquity, nay, monopoly of systemd I always assumed it was miles ahead of other init systems. Nope. I've been using a non-systemd environment for a while and must say I'm surprised by how little breaks, i.e., next to nothing. Moreover, boot and shutdown times are faster, and more of that good stuff. I suggest trying it out.
steady hand and a magnetized needle is all I need. kernel is bloat
I've never had systemd break either
I have. Never had your machine just sit there and refuse to boot because a network share is down? Or because the wifi isn't connected yet? Or because its waiting on some nebulous thing until timeout..
Never had to crawl through journalctl to diagnose things and wanted to claw your own eyes out in frustration?
You are a fortunate person.
If you are having those issues with booting maybe it is because you configured your network share incorrectly? If you are waiting on shutdown timeouts for something then just go edit the timeout. systemctl edit <stuck thing>.
Typically when I crawl through journald it is to diagnose a problem with a specific application. Actually, the fact that those logs are easily accessible in a centralized place with easy to understand commands to access them is a reason why systemd (or more specifically systemd-journald) is so great.
The only times that I have had major issues like that was either because (A) I misconfigured something or (B) a package came misconfigured.
Ever really destroyed your server because the it needed were available? I have. It was so much worse than a boot process that froze.
If Systemd was pausing due to a network share being down, it's only because I (or you) told it to do exactly that. There are lots of good reasons to delay the boot process until all drives the system expects to be there are actually there or the network is up. Cleaning up the mess that happens when the system does not check these kinds of things at boot is so much worse. It's never really some nebulous thing. Like it or not, intentional or not, the machine is doing exactly what you asked it to do and a delayed boot or a boot halted until you can solve the real problem is almost always better (or at least safer) than the alternatives. I've experienced all the things you've mentioned, dealt with each of those issues, and it was so much more of a hassle to diagnose before Systemd.
I hate thoose timeouts. If only there was a way to manually trigger that timeout on shutdown tty, say Ctrl-C or something which can kill it
My system once refused to boot, because I deleted a partition and didn't remove it from fstab. Thankfully it was an easy and fast fix but I would expect it to just boot and give an error.
That's why I always put a nofail option for all my drives except the boot drive
Right, that happened to me too.
And it's a problem 100% unrelated to systemd, so I wouldn't count it here.
I've never had systemd break either
That's not what I'm implying. Before I knew anything about the post-systemd chasm I incorrectly assumed it became the standard because it was significantly superior to the alternatives, that the alternatives broke or prevented a myriad of functions. Turns out they don't. At least not judging from my experience in general PC usage.
Use what works for you.
Develop what scratches your itch.
Don't tell OSS devs who are volunteering unpaid labor what they should do for you.
If you want a solution that's non-systemd go for it. If it doesn't exist make it or pay someone to do so. Write from scratch or fork a project and get to work. That's the way of the Bazaar.
I'll be in my unenlightened "things work for me good enough" Linux world using what works. Systemd is fine and rarely gives me problems. Actually, I'm not even sure I can remember any.
Huge thank you's to the devs who make this all possible. You rock!
Systemd is developed primarily by paid developers.
I think that is a good thing, isn't it?
Of course it is, I was just addressing the part about "unpaid volunteers". I think it's fair game to criticize a corporation throwing their weight around to push their tools on the ecosystem.
Its built antithetically to the unix principles, it uses binlogs, its slow and its a big ol' bloated mess on low-memory embedded devices, and seemingly is creeping into the whole system.
Also the original author has since fucked off to microslop so I don't care what he thinks or does.
It, as a project, also bent the fucking knee.
Oh hey it's the same nonsense people have been saying for a decade now.
First of all, Linux is not Unix, and Unix principles were developed in like the fuckin 80s when what a computer is and does was different from what it is and does today. I'm betting you also use other software that doesn't follow the 'Unix' philosophy all the damn time, like, I dunno, the browser you used to post this nonsense. It was a guiding principle, not meant to be a dogmatic religious ideology. Also it not being the best choice for low memory embedded devices doesn't mean anything. It was designed for the desktop. These are very different platforms with very different needs. That's like complaining that the wheels on my car don't let it fly.
Also, bent the knee to who?
Really? Okay, so curl. You use it everyday. How's that using 'unix' principles?
You're just parroting the same old tired arguments.
Use what works for you.
True, but many don't know other init systems might work for them because of the same wrong assumption I had.
Huge thank you’s to the devs who make this all possible. You rock!
Definitely. One big ecosystem with a multitude of developers working on a multitude of projects.
Boot speed is meaningless. Having to almost never reboot is everything.
Sleep is your friend.
Sleep doesn't work well in some environments, like right now my current one using AMD+AMD hardware on EndeavourOS. Therefore I do boot. And couldn't care less for 10 seconds faster or slower boot times.
Lol, I meant this to be a tongue-in-cheek saying
Oh... :D But you were right.
I'm sure this post isn't going to be controversial at all lol
Honestly for desktop usage it doesn't really matter. All inits have their idiosyncrasies ("A stop job is running for Session"/logging hell on openrc/etc). But for managing a fleet of bare-metal servers I find systemd to be the best, most polished one out of the lot.
Honestly for desktop usage it doesn’t really matter.
Which is a big reason why the systemd dominance irks me.
But for managing a fleet of bare-metal servers I find systemd to be the best, most polished one out of the lot.
Fair enough. My experience lies mainly with the former so I cannot argue this.
After over a decade using systemd in arch and Debian, I never had any direct issues with it. However, I never truly got my head around it or got comfortable with how it functioned. I recently swapped arch for void which uses runit, and after over a month using it I to an amazed both how clean and simple it is, how everything just works, how easy to interact and use runit is and am blown away by boot and shutdown times. My arch / systemd setup was heavily optimised for boot, and I thought was quick, but runit starts in about 4 seconds and shutdown is about 2 seconds.
for script in $(find /etc/init/start); do
exec $script &
done
sleep
Undoubtedly the best init system that exists. No fluff, just starts services.
Why do you need services at all? Just start each program when you need it. Shell is bloat.
You only need programs if you're unhappy with the current state of your life. Delete computer, become enlightened.
Or just set init=/bin/sh.
Yeah but lacks some functionality. I prefer /bin/emacs so I can edit text as well as run commands. EXWM is bloat.
SysV wants to have a word.
Next to nothing breaks... unless you use GNOME, KDE, or some self-hosting apps - the latter one is unfortunately a deal-breaker for me, as that would require me to manually migrate my Fediverse services from YunoHost to Docker/Podman while somehow keeping the same encryption keys and HTTPS certificates. I'm still investigating how to do so.
Systemd is mile ahead of the others, thing is that solves problems that you most likely don’t have or even know that exist. To boot a regular machine or small server pretty much any init system is good.
Systemd has been putting a lot of effort into eliminating the need for SUID binaries with run0 and polkit integrations, so I'm curious if other init systems are doing anything similar.
Advanced Distro-hopper over here: I am actually fine with cachyOS. If I want to leave systemd, only good alternative I found is artix. Someone tried their new stable release of 2026? Arch + openrc + Wayland + pipewire + KDE would be my usecase.
Funnily enough OpenRC is probably the slowest of the inits offered by Artix. The current best in both features and stability are Dinit and s6. Dinit is far more user friendly. Both boot ~20% faster than the others, and much faster than systemd. Generally though, simplicity without expense to features is what Dinit and s6+66 excel at.
Gentoo wiki page comparing inits: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Comparison_of_init_systems
From the Dinit developer: https://github.com/davmac314/dinit/blob/master/doc/COMPARISON
Void.
These days OpenRC even has user-services. And writing a simple OpenRC service file is barely more complex than a systemd unit file, maybe even simpler, because it's readable bash, not some declarative DSL.
Obviously there is in no way feature parity between those two, that's the point, personally the one thing I'd like to have is something similar to systemd's timers (which I actually prefer to old-school cron) built into OpenRC, but most other things I can live without.
Readable bash
That's an oxymoron.