this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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they’ve said “we speak for the widest used extended user service in linux”… because… that’s what they are
to say they “speak for the distros” is ridiculous: in that case, every time they merge a feature they “speak for the distros”… they speak for their own software, which is implemented by distros precisely because they implement things like this
Then the whole premise of systemd is absurd if it does talk for distros (OSes). When I get NixOS, I don't install it because it has systemd. I install it because it is built around Nix. SystemD is a freaking fire-and-forget-style convenience and that's it. When I look at specific features I want or don't want, the first thing I'm considering is not necessarily the init system, I first look at what sort of computer I want, then I think about the OS, and specific programs like Konsole last.
I do not want a stupid init system, in this case an init system bundled in a suite(!), taking the steering wheel like this. I definitely don't want this happening in highly politicised contexts like this one. A layer of perversion is added when you take into account that there are hardly any places to evade these big changes as systemd is omnipresent.
SystemD making these big political statements and practical decisions is just as absurd as GNOME or Xorg doing them. Fuck that shit.
you install a distro because of all the software it includes and how they interact out of the box
you’re completely right that systemd is a background service that most people don’t care about, but it does make the whole system more reliable, and much easier to administer for servers or workstations (enterprise management; not personal)
you certainly do want an init system… even sysv-init is an init system: you need something that runs as pid 1 that triggers other services. systemd starts services, and also ensures they’re in the correct security contexts, running as the correct users, makes sure they’re healthy, tracks dependencies (not just order; this speeds things up because it can be parallel, ensures failures don’t cascade, and means there’s far less jank in random bash scripts)
this isn’t a big political statement: this is an acknowledgment that linux users - not all, but some - will want/require something like this… and systemd user database is the place where that information is stored on modern linux systems