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.
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Boot times aren't really an issue and not really relevant to good vs bad. You should be able to rice each one for speed on your particular use case if you really want to.
Be wary of anything you get from RedHat. I use their stuff sometimes but ensure I can happily live without gnome, systemd, pipewire, wayland or whatever else they are generously gifting to us freeloaders.
As a developer I found my apps switched to Docker about Cloud about the same time as SystemD, so the problems I faced writing reliable init scripts evaporated at the same time.
The traditional init systems suited me just fine, i saw no need to change them. If they were so bad, then they could've been fixed or replaced.
The migration to systemd felt forced. Debian surprised everyone with the change. Also systemd's development is/was backed by corporate Red Hat, their lead developer wasn't exactly loved either and is now working for Microsoft. Of course Canonical's Ubuntu adopted it as well. Overall feels like Windows' svchost.exe, hence people accusing it of vendor lock-in.
It's not just an init system, it's way waaay more. It's supposed to be modular, but good luck keeping only its PID1 in a distro that supports systemd. It breaks the "do one thing right" approach and, in practice, does take away choice which pisses me off.
I had been using Debian since Woody, but that make me change to Gentoo on my desktop which, to me, took the best path: they default to OpenRC but you're free to use systemd if you want to. That's choice. For servers i now prefer Slackware and the laptop runs Devuan whenever i boot it up.
To be fair systemd hasn't shown its ugly face in the Ubuntu VMs i'm forced to use at work.
YMMV. If you're happy with it, fine. This, of course, is only my opinion.
Why do people keep insisting on capitalizing it wrong? It's systemd, all lowercase. Never has it been Systemd, and never has it been SystemD.
I just like the D, baby
It’s one of those divisive FOSS matters that get parroted endlessly by people who think they’re smarter than they really are.
Does systemd have its problems? Sure.
Do those problems actually affect most of the people complaining? No.
See also: “Linus said something funny ten years ago, and I heard from a guy who heard from a guy who heard from a guy who once had to edit xorg.conf by hand, so Nvidia is awful forever for everyone!”
Systemd is tolerable but it still messes up my day. I'm moving away from it soon.
The idea was sound, the implementation not so much.
I make plymouth do the verbose mode because it's cool and hacker-y. Also I like when it says "failed" and I know what failed. For a few weeks I kept having to manually start firewalld and I never would have known otherwise, update seems to have fixed that though.
Tbf, I really only have experience with fedora and thus systemd, so, I like it but I "don't know what I'm missing" in a sense.
God damn I'd forgotten about Plymouth
Is it possible to learn this power?
I can't like it bc its complicated.
I am on Guix works great with shepherd.