The self-proclaimed "Veteran Unix Admins" forking Debian in the name of init freedom have released Beta 2 of their "Devuan" Linux distribution.
Devuan came about after some users felt it had become too desktop-friendly. The change the greybeards objected to most was the decision to replace sysvinit init with systemd, a move felt to betray core Unix principles of user choice and keeping bloat to a bare minimum.
Supporters of init freedom also dispute assertions that systemd is in all ways superior to sysvinit init, arguing that Debian ignored viable alternatives like sinit, openrc, runit, s6 and shepherd. All are therefore included in Devuan.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MadTinfoilHatter on Sunday December 04 2016, @06:02AM
Debian is basically Devuan + systemd support ;-)
While I realize you're (partially) joking I think there is a need to clarify this issue, which the starter of this thread seems to not have grasped:
With Debian you can pick any init you want, but if you pick anything except systemd, you're relegated to second class citizen status. Some things won't work with non-systemd inits, because everything is built from a systemd-über-alles point of view. With Devuan you can pick any init you want (except of course systemd), and will still be a first class citizen, no matter your choice.
I think Devuan is doing the sane thing. Systemd is basically like a bully in the sandbox, who refuses to play nice with anyone else. The right thing to do is to banish the bully from the sandbox until he learns that if he won't play nice, he won't play at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @08:31AM
Actually with devuan you can install any init system and you get a second rate experience with all of them. Upstream projects do use systemd to improve security, features or convenience and that then gets removed by devuan.
Systemd does play nice with a lot of developers and helps them solve problems in the Linux platform. Yes, it does break stuff in the process. Yes, that is annoying at times. But at least the platform improves that way.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Sunday December 04 2016, @11:50AM
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.