Systemd is incredibly versatile and most people, including myself, are unaware of its full potential. Despite its usefulness, it is often overlooked due to controversy and the current state of things when it comes to software development. Begin today your journey thought Systemd's capabilities and discover how to efficiently manage systems with fewer processes than traditionally used.

After a few conversations with people on Lemmy and other places it became clear to me that most aren’t aware of what it can do and how much more robust it is compared to the usual “jankiness” we’re used to.

In this article I highlight less known features and give out a few practice examples on how to leverage Systemd to remove tons of redundant packages and processes.

And yes, Systemd does containers. :)

  • Thorned_Rose@kbin.social
    297·
    11 months ago

    Ah yes, a piece of software that people can choose to use or not use is just like an unexpected, devastating disease that no one in their right mind would ever choose to have and that causes huge amounts of suffering and can be incredibly difficult or impossible to treat.

    Yep, cancer patients and survivors totally think having cancer is just like using systemd. 🤦🏻‍♀️

    • hansmeiser666@lemmy.world
      838·
      11 months ago

      Except you’re NOT free to choose, every major distro shoves it into your face

      And it BEHAVES like cancer, that’s what I meant

      • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
        335·
        11 months ago

        Except you’re NOT free to choose, every major distro shoves it into your face

        You can’t have been using Linux long if you think this is what not being free to choose means.

        Don’t use a “major distro”, use one made by likeminded folks. Example: https://www.devuan.org/

        Why do major distros have to make only the decisions you want them to make? Bugs the shit out of me that Gnome is the default desktop damn near everywhere, but so what? Are you paying their bills or otherwise contributing to some degree that they should change their decisions to suit you?

        Here’s a list from 2021: https://www.howtogeek.com/713847/the-best-linux-distributions-without-systemd/

        Another from2022: https://itsfoss.com/systemd-free-distros/

        Or build LFS without systemd.

        Or build Arch yourself without systemd.

        Want to remove it from Ubuntu? Here you go. I’m sure there are similar howtos for most major distros.

        The freedom of Linux and FLOSS is that you can roll up your sleeves and do it differently if you want to. Not that anyone owes it to you to do it for you. For that you have to hope other folks who have rolled up their sleeves have the same opinions you do - and in this case, some do!

        I have no concern about your opinion on systemd. But you seem really confused about what freedom is.

      • Tobias Hunger@programming.dev
        214·
        11 months ago

        How is that different to when every distribution shoved their implementation of sysv-init into your face? You were never free to choose your init, it always came from the distribution. You could (and still can) replace the init system, if you are willing to do the work involved.

        That’s the whole point: Nobody is willing to do the work for one distribution, if they can just improve systemd and fix a whole bunch of distributions at once. That’s why developers flock to the systemd umbrella project to implement their ideas there, which is why systemd keeps getting cool be features for the plumbing layer of Linux – which is far more than just the init system.

      • GlowHuddy@lemmy.world
        103·
        11 months ago

        Thinking about it from your point of view, maybe MS was right and Linux is a cancer too. Technically it behaves similarly to systemd, since most Unixes are actually Linuxes nowadays (excluding BSD ofc, but they are still in the minority, similarly to alternatives to systemd). It even is a binary blob as well!

        Should every distro use/develop a different kernel? Should we focus our resources on providing alternatives and again have a multitude of different Unix versions, every incompatible with each other? Isn’t it better that we have this solid foundation and make it as good as it can be?

        Overall I think standardization of init is not so bad, just like adopting the Linux kernel was. It is actually quite nice that you can hop from distro to distro and know what to expect from such a basic thing as init process.

        Anyways, in Linux land you actually have a possibility to replace it. Granted, it is not as easy, however there are plenty of distros that allow you to ditch systemd in favor of something else.

      • Jajcus@kbin.social
        61·
        11 months ago

        Every major distro uses systemd, because before that it was nearly impossible to properly implement things that distros have to provide.
        Most startup scripts were incredible set of hacks to make services behave. Those were very inefficient (they could not be efficient being shell scripts calling other commands for various simple repetitive tasks) and would often break when circumstances were different from ideal.

        Systemd just makes building Linux distribution much easier, and the resulting system is more reliable, more consistent and more flexible. Why would distro developers chose anything else?

      • Thorned_Rose@kbin.social
        62·
        11 months ago

        Missing my point. It’s a shitty comparison that is incredibly insensitive towards people who suffer with cancer and their friends and family.