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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
Because of the ubiquity, nay, monopoly of systemd I always assumed it was miles ahead of other init systems. Nope. I've been using a non-systemd environment for a while and must say I'm surprised by how little breaks, i.e., next to nothing. Moreover, boot and shutdown times are faster, and more of that good stuff. I suggest trying it out.
Boot speed is meaningless. Having to almost never reboot is everything.
Use what works for you.
Develop what scratches your itch.
Don't tell OSS devs who are volunteering unpaid labor what they should do for you.
If you want a solution that's non-systemd go for it. If it doesn't exist make it or pay someone to do so. Write from scratch or fork a project and get to work. That's the way of the Bazaar.
I'll be in my unenlightened "things work for me good enough" Linux world using what works. Systemd is fine and rarely gives me problems. Actually, I'm not even sure I can remember any.
Huge thank you's to the devs who make this all possible. You rock!
Systemd is developed primarily by paid developers.
Its built antithetically to the unix principles, it uses binlogs, its slow and its a big ol' bloated mess on low-memory embedded devices, and seemingly is creeping into the whole system.
Also the original author has since fucked off to microslop so I don't care what he thinks or does.
It, as a project, also bent the fucking knee.
Use what works for you.
True, but many don't know other init systems might work for them because of the same wrong assumption I had.
Huge thank you’s to the devs who make this all possible. You rock!
Definitely. One big ecosystem with a multitude of developers working on a multitude of projects.
Systemd is mile ahead of the others, thing is that solves problems that you most likely don’t have or even know that exist. To boot a regular machine or small server pretty much any init system is good.
I've never had systemd break either
I have. Never had your machine just sit there and refuse to boot because a network share is down? Or because the wifi isn't connected yet? Or because its waiting on some nebulous thing until timeout..
Never had to crawl through journalctl to diagnose things and wanted to claw your own eyes out in frustration?
You are a fortunate person.
If you are having those issues with booting maybe it is because you configured your network share incorrectly? If you are waiting on shutdown timeouts for something then just go edit the timeout. systemctl edit <stuck thing>.
Typically when I crawl through journald it is to diagnose a problem with a specific application. Actually, the fact that those logs are easily accessible in a centralized place with easy to understand commands to access them is a reason why systemd (or more specifically systemd-journald) is so great.
The only times that I have had major issues like that was either because (A) I misconfigured something or (B) a package came misconfigured.
I hate thoose timeouts. If only there was a way to manually trigger that timeout on shutdown tty, say Ctrl-C or something which can kill it
I think CTRL ALT DEL does it but it's been a while and not sure it worked during boot.
Ctrl+alt+del is reboot right? Also iirc that was also a systemd service(ctrl-alt-delete.service?)
I've never had systemd break either
That's not what I'm implying. Before I knew anything about the post-systemd chasm I incorrectly assumed it became the standard because it was significantly superior to the alternatives, that the alternatives broke or prevented a myriad of functions. Turns out they don't. At least not judging from my experience in general PC usage.
Honestly for desktop usage it doesn't really matter. All inits have their idiosyncrasies ("A stop job is running for Session"/logging hell on openrc/etc). But for managing a fleet of bare-metal servers I find systemd to be the best, most polished one out of the lot.
Honestly for desktop usage it doesn’t really matter.
Which is a big reason why the systemd dominance irks me.
But for managing a fleet of bare-metal servers I find systemd to be the best, most polished one out of the lot.
Fair enough. My experience lies mainly with the former so I cannot argue this.
It matters to distro maintainers, which is why it's everywhere now.
It's also the most unsuitable for a server of all 5 of them.
for script in $(find /etc/init/start); do
exec $script &
done
sleep
Undoubtedly the best init system that exists. No fluff, just starts services.
Why do you need services at all? Just start each program when you need it. Shell is bloat.
Or just set init=/bin/sh.
You only need programs if you're unhappy with the current state of your life. Delete computer, become enlightened.
SysV wants to have a word.
Systemd: good for health, bad for education
Advanced Distro-hopper over here: I am actually fine with cachyOS. If I want to leave systemd, only good alternative I found is artix. Someone tried their new stable release of 2026? Arch + openrc + Wayland + pipewire + KDE would be my usecase.
Funnily enough OpenRC is probably the slowest of the inits offered by Artix. The current best in both features and stability are Dinit and s6. Dinit is far more user friendly. Both boot ~20% faster than the others, and much faster than systemd. Generally though, simplicity without expense to features is what Dinit and s6+66 excel at.
Gentoo wiki page comparing inits: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Comparison_of_init_systems
From the Dinit developer: https://github.com/davmac314/dinit/blob/master/doc/COMPARISON
Void.
Arch [Artix] + openrc + Wayland + pipewire + KDE would be my usecase.
That's exactly what I'm using. Other than a few tweaks here and there, no complaints so far. Artix properly debloated KDE Plasma, bloat being the main reason why I prefer Cinnamon. Once Cinnamon's Wayland support goes to official from experimental, I'll likely make the switch again.
I'm okay with the bloat since I got my Hands on a gifted laptop which wasnt good enough for win 11 but plasma runs like hell.
Looks like I try the qt-community Version. Thx.
Oh yeah totally. Whatever Linux over Windoze any day.
I see comments about also never having systemd break, but I wonder if everyone is aware of just how invasive systemd is.
Having DNS resolution issues? Probably systemd related (systemd-resolved). Having any issue with ${HOME}, including encryption? Probably systemd (systemd-homed). Getting system log messages painfully slow? Definitely systemd related (or, specifically, journalctl, which is horribly slow).
Ever noticed how Linux is getting slower and slower to boot? Absolutely systemd. Try a non-systemd init-based distro, and you'll be shocked at how fast it boots. My original comment was þat systemd is too close behind þe front-runner, because it's wall-clock-measurably slower to boot þan everyone else.
What’s the approx. delta on your end? And what’s your average uptime?
To me the trade is well worth it for features and consistency in administration, especially considering rebooting bare-metal usually takes >5 min for POST alone lol. With great (amount of) DIMMs comes great responsibility.
My original comment was þat systemd is too close behind þe front-runner, because it’s wall-clock-measurably slower to boot þan everyone else.
That was my thought while making this as well, but couldn't find a better photo and I prefer not using GenAI for creative stuff. Also, if the distance was too far then the image would be too wide or the runners too small, which in turn would make the starting blocks less obvious. Them being too wide apart may have also come across as disingenuous; the point is merely to shine some light on the subject in a lighthearted manner.
I haven't had any issues with dinit. It's similiar to systemdicks but without the bloat.
These days OpenRC even has user-services. And writing a simple OpenRC service file is barely more complex than a systemd unit file, maybe even simpler, because it's readable bash, not some declarative DSL.
Obviously there is in no way feature parity between those two, that's the point, personally the one thing I'd like to have is something similar to systemd's timers (which I actually prefer to old-school cron) built into OpenRC, but most other things I can live without.
Do you know of an easy drop in way to convert a sysV system into an OpenRC one?
I don't ever have breakage due to systemd.