this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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Linux

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[–] mrbigmouth502@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day 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.

[–] Pandasdontfly@anarchist.nexus 46 points 2 days ago (5 children)

This centralization of Linux worries me

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

the monolithic kernel must really mess with your noggin

best of luck with devuan

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 57 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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 25 points 2 days ago

Meow. I mean... exactly.

[–] Pandasdontfly@anarchist.nexus 6 points 2 days 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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[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.org 20 points 2 days 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 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.org 10 points 2 days ago

That Hurds 😜

[–] vagrancyand@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 days 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.

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days 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.

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 30 points 2 days ago

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

[–] chris@l.roofo.cc 6 points 2 days ago

Why? Systemd is open source.

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

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

[–] kbal@fedia.io 22 points 2 days ago (1 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.)

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I find it extremely hard to believe that worked, let alone left you with a bootable system, let alone properly working.

[–] mech@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago

You know, just maybe...this whole doomsaying about systemd running everything on a Linux system is a bit overblown?

[–] kbal@fedia.io 11 points 2 days ago

I was surprised as well. I found the instructions at debian.org somewhat confusing, and I'm not sure if they're completely comprehensive or accurate — but they were the most useful reference I found and provide a good idea of what it's like.

[–] TomB19@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days 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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[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Works for me

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days 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 9 points 2 days 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.

[–] ultimate_worrier@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Another poster mentioned this. Here’s Finix: https://github.com/finix-community/finix

And here’s Sixos: https://codeberg.org/amjoseph/sixos

They both replace systemd. Both very interesting projects. Finix is reportedly daily-drivable but I’d steer clear of SixOS for anything but learning about alternative init systems. The talk linked from the repo is mind-altering; This SixOS guy is utterly brilliant.

[–] kopasz7@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 2 points 1 day 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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[–] majster@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days 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.

[–] commander@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days 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 5 points 2 days ago

OH NO, they must be devastated!

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