On 2017-07-06 at 04:09, Dejan Jocic wrote: > On 06-07-17, David Griffith wrote: > >> I'm aware of that technique. What I was talking about is a menu >> option that pops up when the install is running that explicitly >> asks the person installing which init to use. > > There was no such option when SysVinit was default. Why would it > exist now? Because now there are multiple prominent init-system alternatives from which to choose, and the question has been brought to the forefront since we are no longer running purely on inertia in this matter. My own preferred way of addressing the init-system dispute would have been to add exactly this sort of installer option for jessie, without changing the default away from sysvinit, and then change the default to systemd for *stretch*, while retaining the installer option. We had no option for a long time because there was only one init system that was meaningfully available, and then because the possible alternatives (even if being seriously considered) were not particularly controversial. That was inertia and laziness, and is not a good way of doing things. Now that the fact of this omission has been brought to our attention, the right thing to do would be to provide such an option, and once the option is established in the ecosystem, *then* change which alternative is selected by default. I would say that even if sysvinit were still the default alternative. Once the fact that you've been omitting an option to choose where meaningful choice exists is known, to fail to correct that omission is a fault. > There are also no options to choose default browser, editor, video > player, music player and so on. But everyone is free to install and > set as default whatever they like. Including init system. IIRC there is an option to choose default WM or DE, however, albeit from a limited list (I'm thinking of task-gnome-desktop, task-kde-desktop, task-xfce-desktop, etc.) - and there is the option to install without any of the above and make the decision later, whereas there is no such option for the init system. Most of those aren't nearly as controversial as the init-system choice has proven, either - and the ones which are (vi vs. emacs, anyone?) don't tend to install *any* of the controversial options by default, last time I checked. Since not installing an init system isn't a meaningful possibility, providing a "select your choice" option is the next best thing. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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