this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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Linux

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[–] Pandasdontfly@anarchist.nexus 32 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

This centralization of Linux worries me

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 45 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

It shouldn't. Linux users are like cats. The harder you try to herd them in one direction, the more directions they find to go. Just because they all happen to be in one place at one particular time doesn't mean they will suffer any obligation to stay there the moment someone decides they want them to.

[–] foster@lemmy.hangdaan.com 26 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Linux users are like cats. The harder you try to herd them in one direction, the more directions they find to go.

This comparison genuinely made me laugh because it's so true. 🤣

[–] john_t@piefed.ee 16 points 3 weeks ago

Meow. I mean... exactly.

[–] Pandasdontfly@anarchist.nexus 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Sadly I just dont think this is true. For now non systemd distros work fine but eventually if this course doesn't change you'll be heavily inconvenienced at the best and downright struggling at the worst if you choose to not use it I fear.

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[–] vagrancyand@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It's less that and just the absolute ridiculous scope creep of systemd. Again it was meant to just replace init. All it needs to do is boot the kernel and run at launch services, and people disagree on that last part.

It shouldn't be basically a second layer to the kernel in both application and necessity.

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 20 points 3 weeks ago

Systemd should've stayed in its lane instead of wildly taking up the whole road like an entitled asshole.

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

systemd is a name for a set of modular tools. That would be like saying that GNU is scope creeping and should stay in their lane.

[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.org 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, but the centralization runs so much deeper! We should ditch the centralized linux kernel and create at least 10 completely new kernels that are barely compatible to each other but will ensure our freedom and provide choice to the community!

[–] mech@feddit.org 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.org 7 points 3 weeks ago

That Hurds 😜

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

the monolithic kernel must really mess with your noggin

best of luck with devuan

[–] chris@l.roofo.cc 7 points 3 weeks ago

Why? Systemd is open source.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 20 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Coincidentally, today I removed systemd from my laptop (Debian Trixie.) It was reasonably easy. I booted from a USB drive into a shell through debian's "rescue" mode and typed plausible-looking apt commands until it worked. For some reason it didn't create /etc/inittab and I made a typo when I tried to do it myself, but other than that no problems. Differences noticed so far that a normal user would care about: none. If nothing goes wrong I guess I'll do the same on my desktop at home this weekend, because why not.

Nothing against systemd, but I think it's valuable to continue having other options and it was fun to see that it's still pretty easy to use them (maybe harder if you're a GNOME user, idk.)

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

NixOS is the only thing that made systemd a reasonable tool for me.

I do not like the entire paradigm of how it works.

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I love NixOS, but I hate how coupled to systemd it is.

I tried to make a microVM image of NixOS the other day, using tini as the init system. Large parts of the core NixOS lifecycle simply don’t work at all without systemd.

[–] kopasz7@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ah hell, I keep seeing recommendations for Guix. I guess I’ll have to try it out soon.

It would be hilarious though, because in addition to wanting to get off of systemd I would like to try getting off of glibc. If the answer to “no systemd” is “more GNU”, that would be poetic.

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[–] TomB19@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

No problem. I'm drifting away from flatpak, anyway. Anything that's married to systemd is going to be a problem for an increasing number of people, over time.

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[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Guaranteed absence of flatpak will be a motivation for some to choose a non-systemd distro

[–] phx@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Flatpak has been pretty optional on most distros I've used. Snap on the other hand...

[–] far_university1990@reddthat.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

apt install firefox

Look inside: snapd installed

[–] phx@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

One of the reasons I've been avoiding or actively moving off Ubuntu these days. The snap ecosystem is bloated AF

I've lived without Flatpak for over 20 years. I'm not worried.

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[–] Auth@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Systemd is open source. Its bindings are open source. If snowflake distro's want to maintain this compatibility they can maintain it.

[–] commander@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Looks like postmarketos already put in work to have systemd working in it. That takes care of my concerns there

[–] BB_C@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago

OH NO, they must be devastated!

[–] majster@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

That sucks for me as a Guix user. I haven't managed to package a GUI app I'm using from Flatpak so it was a nice escape hatch for me.

[–] mrbigmouth502@piefed.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago

Well this sucks. I use Flatpak all the time, so I guess this means I'm going to be even more dependent on systemd than I was before.

I don't hate systemd as much as most of its detractors; in fact I like how easy it makes it to manage services, but with the age ~~verification~~ attestation controversy, and the performance improvements I witnessed switching my Pi-Hole box from Debian to Alpine, these things have caused me to question my use of systemd.

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