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.
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.