To any new Linux users, this is a good example of Linux “antivax” mindset.
Actual Linux admins, people who use Linux at scale, people who design things and use Linux to do things disagree.
There is a reason why Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, and Arch all ship with and recommend systemd as the startup system. ALL as in 100% of large Linux deployments on bare metal use systemd.
If you want to play with startup systems that’s fine there are obscure distros out there for you. Startup system swapping can be a fun hobby.
But don’t be tricked by the very loud but very small Linux “antivaxers” group.
Systemd fucking sucks, and it’s a very big issue in the Linux world, because it centralizes everything into what should be the simplest process of the OS. It has a huge attack surface (and many recent critical CVEs have happened due to systemd). It forces everything into their unit files, which are very flawed and lack features that previous systems actually had. One of the big reasons the enterprise Linux community is looking to Alpine instead of the more traditional RHEL or Ubuntu Server is exactly the lack of systemd.
Aside from that, on the personal side, systemd has bit me in the ass way more times than any of the more traditional systems. I wish it wasn’t so common. It’s very rapidly taking over the Linux ecosystem, limiting freedom to choose another init system. And it’s lead by a Microsoft employee.
It’s very rapidly taking over the Linux ecosystem, limiting freedom to choose another init system.
Nobody working with Linux professionally in 2026 would say this. Systemd has taken over and has been the defacto choice for a LONG TIME. The last production grade Linux to not use Systemd was rhel 6. Rhel 6 was released in 2010 and full support ended in 2016.
Also no companies are using Alpine for “lack of systemd” Companies aren’t installing alpine Linux on bare metal outside of embedded devices. The appeal of Alpine Linux is containerization or embedded. Alpine Linux lets you release 20mb container images compared to 200mb for even slim Debian images. This is a great thing. But not related to systemd.
If we look at what professionals working with Linux use on bare metal or even on non ephemeral cloud hosts we find RHEL / OEL / Rocky / Alma, Ubuntu LTS, Suse Enterprise, Amazon Linux, Azure Linux, and rarely Debian.
Yes there are outliers but antivax doctors are outliers too.
The grand majority of systemd haters have no idea why they hate systemd or what an init system even is, they just know their favorite youtuber told them “systemd bad” and blindly agreed.
No. It does some things right and many things wrong. Difference in priorities, that’s all. Except you often don’t have a choice, because of some of the things Systemd does (intentionally) wrong.
But there is something weird about comparing any start up system to cancer. It was weird when Balmer compared Linux to cancer. It was weird then and it’s weird now.
As someone else in the thread said „Rent Free“. It’s true.
I’m against the systemd monopoly; the lack of choice on most major distros while other init systems are perfectly fine for the majority of users; as a consequence against the perhaps unintentional incorrect narrative that systemd is the only reasonable/modern option.
I do agree that in this thread you do are pressing into the “not anti” image. This being said that was not the case prior to this thread.
Also there is no systemd “monopoly”. Systemd was chosen by volunteers at community centric distros like Arch and Debian, as well as by more corp distros like Redhat or Ubuntu.
Those distro maintainers (volunteers and paid) looked at all the options and chose what they thought was best.
Those maintainers also chose not to support alternative startup systems for the same reason why VW does not offer alternative chassis options on the VW Golf. (In this example the engine would be the kernel)
Aka the maintainers don’t want to massively increase the workload they would need to do. Volunteer community distros only have a limited amount of resources and choose to allocate them how they will.
Corpo distros just are being corps and want to save money.
Using the term “monopoly” in this context dismisses the Linux community’s choice as developers and contributors. The Linux community is unique in that we are both the producers and consumers of the community project.
systemd haters are the antivaxxers of the Linux world. There. I’m sure this statement won’t lead to any heated discussion at all.
The UNIX philosophy is “Everything is a file.”
systemd doesn’t follow that, with its binary logs and stuff.
Just part of why I keep going back to FreeBSD.
Replace everything is a file with “everything is a byte stream with a file handle” and your there.
There is A LOT of Unix that doesn’t stick to the convention of “everything is a text file” and for good reason.
Systemd ‘haters’ are the people who know better and learned from best-practice.
Systemd ‘haters’ are no more haters than your parents who told you not to eat candy all day were candy haters.
To any new Linux users, this is a good example of Linux “antivax” mindset.
Actual Linux admins, people who use Linux at scale, people who design things and use Linux to do things disagree.
There is a reason why Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, and Arch all ship with and recommend systemd as the startup system. ALL as in 100% of large Linux deployments on bare metal use systemd.
If you want to play with startup systems that’s fine there are obscure distros out there for you. Startup system swapping can be a fun hobby.
But don’t be tricked by the very loud but very small Linux “antivaxers” group.
Linux system administrator here.
Systemd fucking sucks, and it’s a very big issue in the Linux world, because it centralizes everything into what should be the simplest process of the OS. It has a huge attack surface (and many recent critical CVEs have happened due to systemd). It forces everything into their unit files, which are very flawed and lack features that previous systems actually had. One of the big reasons the enterprise Linux community is looking to Alpine instead of the more traditional RHEL or Ubuntu Server is exactly the lack of systemd.
Aside from that, on the personal side, systemd has bit me in the ass way more times than any of the more traditional systems. I wish it wasn’t so common. It’s very rapidly taking over the Linux ecosystem, limiting freedom to choose another init system. And it’s lead by a Microsoft employee.
A few issues here.
Nobody working with Linux professionally in 2026 would say this. Systemd has taken over and has been the defacto choice for a LONG TIME. The last production grade Linux to not use Systemd was rhel 6. Rhel 6 was released in 2010 and full support ended in 2016.
Also no companies are using Alpine for “lack of systemd” Companies aren’t installing alpine Linux on bare metal outside of embedded devices. The appeal of Alpine Linux is containerization or embedded. Alpine Linux lets you release 20mb container images compared to 200mb for even slim Debian images. This is a great thing. But not related to systemd.
If we look at what professionals working with Linux use on bare metal or even on non ephemeral cloud hosts we find RHEL / OEL / Rocky / Alma, Ubuntu LTS, Suse Enterprise, Amazon Linux, Azure Linux, and rarely Debian.
Yes there are outliers but antivax doctors are outliers too.
The grand majority of systemd haters have no idea why they hate systemd or what an init system even is, they just know their favorite youtuber told them “systemd bad” and blindly agreed.
Linux tech types told me Linux windows
No. It does some things right and many things wrong. Difference in priorities, that’s all. Except you often don’t have a choice, because of some of the things Systemd does (intentionally) wrong.
Wrong from my view, that is.
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png
‘new standards’ vs ‘dunning-kruger-based decisions you are locked into’. Sure.
Exactly. A very small but VERY disproportionally loud group.
They uninstalled systemd from their computers and installed it on their brains.
Systemd is running rent-free in their heads
What’s systemd? (I use OpenRC btw.)
Perfect example. This person has systemd so much on the brain I actually tagged them as weirdly against systemd some time ago. lol
There’s nothing weird about being against metastacizing cancer.
But there is something weird about comparing any start up system to cancer. It was weird when Balmer compared Linux to cancer. It was weird then and it’s weird now.
As someone else in the thread said „Rent Free“. It’s true.
“This person plays volleyball, he must hate basketball so much.”
No?? In the past you were saying weirdly anti systemd stuff. So much so that I went out of my way to tag you.
More like “this person rants so much against basketball that it’s weird”
I’m against the systemd monopoly; the lack of choice on most major distros while other init systems are perfectly fine for the majority of users; as a consequence against the perhaps unintentional incorrect narrative that systemd is the only reasonable/modern option.
systemd has flaws, but I’m not anti.
I do agree that in this thread you do are pressing into the “not anti” image. This being said that was not the case prior to this thread.
Also there is no systemd “monopoly”. Systemd was chosen by volunteers at community centric distros like Arch and Debian, as well as by more corp distros like Redhat or Ubuntu.
Those distro maintainers (volunteers and paid) looked at all the options and chose what they thought was best.
Those maintainers also chose not to support alternative startup systems for the same reason why VW does not offer alternative chassis options on the VW Golf. (In this example the engine would be the kernel)
Aka the maintainers don’t want to massively increase the workload they would need to do. Volunteer community distros only have a limited amount of resources and choose to allocate them how they will.
Corpo distros just are being corps and want to save money.
Using the term “monopoly” in this context dismisses the Linux community’s choice as developers and contributors. The Linux community is unique in that we are both the producers and consumers of the community project.
I would recommend reading this mailing list announcement thread to get a better understanding. The Linux from scratch dev team explains why they went from offering a choice to a “monopoly”. https://lists.linuxfromscratch.org/sympa/arc/lfs-announce/2026-02/msg00000.html
Edit: The announcement is wrong in that KDE in fact does not require systemd.