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Re: Buster without systemd?



On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 04:31:33PM +0000, Tony van der Hoff wrote:
> I know it's a sensitive subject, and I really don't want to upset the list,
> there's been enough of that already, but why are some people so afraid of
> systemd?

Well, there seem to be several reasons.  In no particular order:

1) It's new.  Some people hate new things, simply because they've
   become accustomed to the old things.

2) Because it's new, it has not had a chance to reach maturity.  There
   are still flaws being worked out.

3) It's extremely large.  Compared to sysvinit, it is a sprawling
   leviathan of software.  Not only does size = bugs, but some people
   object to the increase in memory usage, disk space usage, etc.

4) It does way more than just replace /sbin/init.  It has components
   that try to bring up network interfaces, implement DNS resolution,
   implement NTP, implement cron-like functionality, and so on.  Many
   people feel this is over-reaching.  (And to be fair, Debian disables
   most of these optional subsystems by default.)

5) It does not write logs in human-readable files.  You need systemd's
   tools to read systemd's logs.  This makes post mortem diagnostics
   much more difficult.

6) It is more complex than sysvinit.  There's a lot to learn.  However, it
   should be noted that there is an enormous degree of *hidden* complexity
   in sysv-rc (decades worth of hacks developed to work around sysv-rc's
   fundamental flaws), and these things go away with systemd.  So, really
   it's trading one set of complexity for a different set of complexity.
   But some people don't see it that way.

7) Some people have developed a personal dislike of the author.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are the main ones of which
I'm aware.


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