Systemd is open source. Its bindings are open source. If snowflake distro's want to maintain this compatibility they can maintain it.
this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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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.
Works for me
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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This centralization of Linux worries me
the monolithic kernel must really mess with your noggin
best of luck with devuan
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!
BSD has entered the chat.
That Hurds 😜
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.
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.
That's because systemd is just good, if it stops being or something better comes along, people will move. There's no loyalty or entrapment here. This would be bad if a company did it with proprietary software, because then the company could lock people in... this is just nothing like that.
Right, I don't think its actually 'bad' in anyway centralization is convienient! I just think its overall terrible for the users. While jumping ship obv can happen every hour spent on developing one option means that get rid of it as you have more systems to remake.
Meow. I mean... exactly.
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. 🤣
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.
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.
Systemd should've stayed in its lane instead of wildly taking up the whole road like an entitled asshole.
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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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NixOS is the only thing that made systemd a reasonable tool for me.
I do not like the entire paradigm of how it works.
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.
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.
Guix is your friend with an infinitely better language
Maybe Guix or Finix?
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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