Me too Jerry...
I'm fine with PAM, I use pam-automount, pam-sssd, pam-nss, and a few other things... My only intention was to point the other side of this "spectrum"... I'm seeing that Slackware is there, far away from Debian (and happy)... And now Debian is getting too close to RedHat (never like it), so, disabling it (or removing it - PAM) was just an idea to show a point of view, so people can see the two extremes more easily...
Like this:
"Linux Distro Spectrum"
redhat (shit, shit, shit) <-----> debian (dbus, pam, systemd, systemd-udev) <--------------------------------------------------> slackware (no dbus, no pam, no systemd, udev optional? I don't know for sure)...
We need to "pull" Debian away from RedHat, if not, why not just use RedHat instead?! I'm with Debian because I do NOT like RedHat and its "derivatives / ideas / stuff / things". Now that Debian is becoming a RedHat-Like distro through this systemd-scam (but with dpkg, instead of rpm), Debian is loosing its point, its meaning of existence (at least for me, it is, and I'm not alone thinking about this).
We cannot let that happen! Can we?!
My problem with systemd started when they engulfed udev and "transformed" it into "systemd-udev" (pure marketing), now, we'll need to take udev back. Otherwise, systemd, because of udev, will be a requirement, like it or not. Even Slackware, if its users really uses udev, it will require systemd sources there.
So, if we take udev back, a light appears at the end of the tunnel.
If systemd was just like uselessd, awesome ideas and minimal / sane base, cgroups process support and etc, slim-based design, if you know what I mean, then, I would like to make the init switch! Au contraire, if systemd is an elephant in the room, and it is, everybody knows that, then, no, thanks. I don't want it. If I needed CoreOS, then, I was using it.
The entire point of a "INIT Replacement" debate was supposed to be JUST that, a init replacement decision. But systemd isn't just a new init system (uselessd seems to be, think about it). Instead, it is spreading itself into Debian in a very disturbing way. Totally outside of the "init system" scope. Something definitely is wrong...
I'm fine with uselessd + new udev. Wouldn't that be enough?!
Best!
Thiago