On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 01:05:27PM -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:
In all of the discussion about systemd, all anyone should care about is:
(1) Does systemd provide *needed* additional capabilities that are not currently available;
(2) What are they?
(3) What are the disadvantages of the switch?
(4) Do the advantages significantly outweigh the disadvantages, taking into consideration the time, talent and energy required to implement the change (for both the developers and end-users)?
If it is justified -- do it. If it is just being pushed because it is somebody pet project, then seriously consider impacting all end-users before foisting the change on them.
My personal experiences with systemd: My interest was piqued when it was first mentioned in the lists so I read all the blogs, man pages and other wide ranging discussions about it on the Internet. Utterly confused I decided to tentatively try it on one of my boxes. Since then the software in the Arch Repositories has slowly matured and I personally do not find, as a user, much difference from the original Arch init scripts. Pros: Faster boot times Cleaner boot screens, -quiet option enabled Cons: udev is now tightly integrated with systemd. Systemd is not KISS. IMHO systemd is unnecessarily complex in trying to do too many separate tasks. One of the big reasons I embraced GNU/Linux over 18 yrs ago is because of its KISS principle. At that time I was disolusioned with both MS Windows and IBM OS/2. GNU/Linux's policy then was KISS and one program for each needed task compared to IBM and MS policies of monolythic operating systems. Since that time I have watched GNU/Linux slowly degenerate from simplicity to complexity and IMHO systemd is just another step along this road of progress. IMHO the cost of Linux embracing complexity is a loss of freedom. We must all decide personally if we are willing to pay this price or we remain true to the principles of GNU/Linux and abandon this type of software. At this time we as Arch users do not have to make this decision but we will shortly. Please no flame wars Regards John