Comment

Comment on systemd

To any new Linux users, this is a good example of Linux “antivax” mindset.

Actual Linux admins, people who use Linux at scale, people who design things and use Linux to do things disagree.

There is a reason why Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, and Arch all ship with and recommend systemd as the startup system. ALL as in 100% of large Linux deployments on bare metal use systemd.

If you want to play with startup systems that’s fine there are obscure distros out there for you. Startup system swapping can be a fun hobby.

But don’t be tricked by the very loud but very small Linux “antivaxers” group.

source

Sort:hotnew top

Holytimes@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I dislike system D. I actively choose to use it tho because I don’t hate myself more then I dislikelt system D.

Give me a better option and I’ll use it. Till then I choose to not hate my self.

source
black0ut@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Linux system administrator here.

Systemd fucking sucks, and it’s a very big issue in the Linux world, because it centralizes everything into what should be the simplest process of the OS. It has a huge attack surface (and many recent critical CVEs have happened due to systemd). It forces everything into their unit files, which are very flawed and lack features that previous systems actually had. One of the big reasons the enterprise Linux community is looking to Alpine instead of the more traditional RHEL or Ubuntu Server is exactly the lack of systemd.

Aside from that, on the personal side, systemd has bit me in the ass way more times than any of the more traditional systems. I wish it wasn’t so common. It’s very rapidly taking over the Linux ecosystem, limiting freedom to choose another init system. And it’s lead by a Microsoft employee.

source
- mholiv@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  A few issues here.
  
  It’s very rapidly taking over the Linux ecosystem, limiting freedom to choose another init system.
  
  Nobody working with Linux professionally in 2026 would say this. Systemd has taken over and has been the defacto choice for a LONG TIME. The last production grade Linux to not use Systemd was rhel 6. Rhel 6 was released in 2010 and full support ended in 2016.
  
  Also no companies are using Alpine for “lack of systemd” Companies aren’t installing alpine Linux on bare metal outside of embedded devices. The appeal of Alpine Linux is containerization or embedded. Alpine Linux lets you release 20mb container images compared to 200mb for even slim Debian images. This is a great thing. But not related to systemd.
  
  If we look at what professionals working with Linux use on bare metal or even on non ephemeral cloud hosts we find RHEL / OEL / Rocky / Alma, Ubuntu LTS, Suse Enterprise, Amazon Linux, Azure Linux, and rarely Debian.
  
  Yes there are outliers but antivax doctors are outlier too.
  
  source
  - black0ut@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Notice how I put the “taking over” part in the personal issues. It has long taken over in the enterprise world, as I mentioned with RHEL and Ubuntu Server. Mainly because those are the biggest 2 options, and most other enterprise systems are based on them or try to be like them. The enterprise Linux scene is very homogeneous. Systemd is now taking over consumer Linux, where you historically saw less homogeneous systems.
    
    Alpine Linux has already been used a lot for containers and embedded devices, but companies are starting to see the value in it. It’s fast, it’s lightweight, it has a small attack surface and it can be used for many things, not just containers. We have full VMs running on Alpine and hosting systems, and they’re very appealing because they’re reliable, and their images are smaller. Alpine also takes less time to install, and it’s more reliable when starting from a generic image than any other systemd distro.
    
    source