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Devuan just released their LTS stable Jessie system:
Devuan GNU+Linux is a fork of Debian without systemd. The latest 1.0.0 Jessie release (LTS) marks an important milestone towards the sustainability and the continuation of Devuan as a universal base distribution. Since the Exodus declaration in 2014, infrastructure has been put in place to support Devuan's mission to offer users control over their system. Devuan Jessie provides continuity as a safe upgrade path from Debian 7 (Wheezy) and a flawless switch from Debian 8 (Jessie) that ensures the right to Init Freedom and avoids entanglement.
And if getting it has to be a secret, check out http://devuanzuwu3xoqwp.onion
-- hendrik
[See also the Devuan 1.0.0 stable release (LTS) announcement for more information on how to install/upgrade, the support services that are available (bug tracking/reporting, user forums, etc.) --martyb]
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday May 26 2017, @11:51AM (1 child)
I don't think that there is any *reason* why all the main desktop systems can't work on a Devuan base.
Please, explain the reason, if there is any.
I've heard second-hand (but I could be wrong) that Gnome 3 had an explicit dependency on systemd, because the Gnome developers wanted it that way. There's nothing anyone can do about that (except fork).
At the moment it's only XFCE and LXDE I think because the project is pushed as far into "user-friendly desktop" territory, as is sufficient for the needs of the people running the Devuan project :-)
But if the base system is strong, other people can build their distros on top of it, just like the multitudinous offspring of Debian.
I have not been paying attention, so I don't know which desktops are supported today. There was one distro (but I forgot its name, sorry! maybe EXE or Refracta) that was going for Devuan base + re-animated KDE 3; the Trinity [trinitydesktop.org] project.
Personally, I found KDE 3 fantastically user-friendly; and I regret the upgrade to KDE 4 just to exchange the working KMail for something complicated and arcane involving a cashew nut glued to the upper right corner of the screen.
I once tried to study consolekit and logind, for shits and giggles, but I found it quite difficult to understand how these projects were the minimum dependency-poor solution to the problem of users at a Linux workstation, and the special system access rights a logged-in user needs (such as stick in a DVD or a USB stick, shutdown, etc). Before you know it, dbus and udev are pulled in, and then the avalance starts.
(Score: 3, Informative) by coolgopher on Friday May 26 2017, @12:41PM
Two words: systemd dependencies.
Actually, add a third word: time.
Unravelling and evicting systemd's tendrils takes effort.