this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
-5 points (46.2% liked)

Linux

48186 readers
1517 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

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ultra@feddit.ro 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But that kernel is still some version of Linux. Good luck installing the Darwin kernel or FreeBSD kernel on arch

[–] Shrexios@mastodon.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ultra@feddit.ro 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I only gave that example to prove my point

[–] Shrexios@mastodon.social -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@ultra you proved you’re just looking for an excuse to hate these systems.

[–] ultra@feddit.ro 1 points 1 year ago

The person I replied to said that it's really easy to change the kernels on distros, but hard to change the init system from systemd. However, most custom kernels on distros are just Linux with patches, but the core functionality and API are mostly the same. I'm pretty sure it would be easy to change the init system to a fork of systemd with some extra patches.

I don't have any issue with other init systems, the only reason I use systemd is because NixOS was built to use it.