hot take: systemd is what makes Linux a real OS. Without it we are basically just banging sticks together, nothing else comes close
https://social.treehouse.systems/@cas/115362584678575210

@cas I really agree, for desktop Linux other init systems just dont implement everything you need, for just servers you can justify others, but not for a desktop or mobile

@angelthorns server stuff like VM management at scale or other bare metal single purpose usecases (embedded too) sure can do whatever bespoke stuff they want

if you are doing anything remotely general purpose though you just want systemd

@cas I think there are some cases where systemd is the only thing that actually does it, but for most of what I do openrc is good enough. busybox init (buildroot-style) is even not far off.

@cas tbf i think systemd demands a lot of changes in how one sets up linux systems and a lot of applications/admins/devs are not used to making things dynamic in a way that meshes properly, which can definitely cause problems and limits its usefulness
systemd also suffers from outlook syndrome where it does so much that most people will never know about, despite much of that functionality being incredibly powerful or useful
stuff like in-band config editing, freezing/thawing units, slices as a whole, container management, automatic service management based on system state, all sorts of stuff that is incredibly powerful yet esoteric and not documented or utilized nearly enough

@doskel @cas yeea, i have to often edit systemd units provided with packages to get rid of atrocities like service users and use DynamicUser or to isolate them.

@erindesu @cas credit where due, systemd edit is a very clever thing to have

@cas
I *like* banging sticks together...

@cas really depends on your usecases

@fun *for general purpose computing*

and i mean this from an OS developer perspective not a user perspective

@cas well if it works it works, right? :D

systemd does seem to try to cover every usecase possible, for many they do this quite well TBH

@cas and it does certainly have features that make things less of a pain to deal with too