Linux Linux distributions without systemd, Init Freedom - some thoughts.

cool_cat

cool_cat

Level D
https://devuan.org/os/init-freedom/

Older Linux users find systemd as default init (and more) as the biggest failure happened to Linux sphere. They may be wrong. But, corporates (RedHat) and agencies may have pushed systemd into almost all major Linux distros now. systemd tries to be more than an init; It has various projects swallowed off as part of it like udev. Creates logind and other daemons, as part of it. I have Ubuntu 18.04 which uses systemd, in two of my systems. Random waiting for services to start/close due to systemd problems is common. It is difficult to troubleshoot systemd errors. The logs are in binary format and needs journalctl to read. It may omit early boot processes as well. The problems of systemd is explained elsewhere in deep: http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Arguments_against_systemd
http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/List_of_articles_critical_of_systemd

I was used to the runlevels (1-5), simple text based scripts and logs as well as sysVinit (system V init) over the past 16+ years. In fact, OpenRC offers parallel execution of services just like systemd, but without the extra cruft and security issues. The alternate init options are many including runit, s6, openRC etc.

I tried searching for distros without systemd:
http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Linux_distributions_without_systemd

So far, I've checked Devuan and MX Linux, since Debian package management and systems are more stable (in my experience). Devuan is a fork of Debian project removing systemd dependencies and repack affected packages. They still have libsystemd0 installed which is considered harmless. Devuan upholds init freedom and choices. https://devuan.org/

Devuan and such distros lacks necessary developers and community, since most people aren't aware or even care for the issue they put forward - freedom to choose init and prevent homogeneity of Linux community.

I installed Devuan ascii on my desktop hard drive using installer iso. Many issues with policykit, elogind arises. Thankfully, with the help of their community, resolved these and currently has Cinnamon desktop with Devuan ascii. So, this may not be easy for newbie Linux users as developers are still neglecting or negligent of the bugs in the packages. I hope this community grows and improves.

Now, MX Linux is a new desktop user oriented distro which is based on Debian stretch and uses sysV init. It is very user friendly, uses less resources, comes with MX tools and other options in a XFCE environment. It is solid and stable. MX Linux, however has systemd installed, but uses sysV init as default. MX Linux is jointly developed by the old Simply Mepis Linux devels and antiX developers. I will recommend this for newbies who wants a midweight Linux distro without cruft. antix is another distro of the same developers team which is focused on low resources. antix completely removes systemd and related packages.
https://mxlinux.org/
https://antixlinux.com/
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-rising-linux-distro

The other important choices are Gentoo, Void Linux, artix, alpine Linux (uses musl libc instead of glibc).

This page is also relevant: https://sysdfree.wordpress.com/

My intent was, to make aware of Linux distributions which are still thriving without systemd and other suspecting wares from RedHat and others.
 
Yeah, I've experienced the random waiting for service to stop during shutdown causing delays, very annoying. But when it does not occur then startup and shutdown are pretty damn fast anyway.
 
vishalrao said:
Yeah, I've experienced the random waiting for service to stop during shutdown causing delays, very annoying. But when it does not occur then startup and shutdown are pretty damn fast anyway.
Click to expand...
Until problems occur, systemd is hailed as fast and path-breaking invention in Linux sphere. In reality, it is a huge mess. Systemd, Speck encryption by NSA etc are all existing to serve some vested interests. I will tell without doubt that, Linux is no more a secure operating system as many expects. It is already compromised to serve the various governmental agencies. Average desktop user doesn't need to care..but, at least can be made aware..to support free and neutral Linux options including Devuan, antiX etc.
 
Yep, there is no privacy in linux either.... There's this "machine ID" file in /etc which is world readable and unique identifier for your installation. Everybody cries foul about Win10 privacy settings but nobody seems to care about linux being sneaky.
 
Devuan ASCII is going good so far. Devaun is using sysVinit or OpenRC as init and not systemd. Pretty stable. It depends on elogind and eudev and such parts instead of consolekit/consolekit2.

I'm also using FreeBSD 12-Beta2 with Gnome-3.28 on a ZFS root. Needless to say, no way can systemd enter here!. This OSS eco-system of BSD's seems better than Linux, to me. Of course, BSDs may not be for all, it needs some basic UNIX knowledge. ZFS is a big advancement, you can have incremental snapshots.
 
For me and most of others; systemd is a corporate decision. but yeah, systemd needs to die, ZFS needs to die.
 
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