[ale] [Fwd: Advertising on ale.org] - OT MS vs Apple vs Linux/UNIX

[Steve Litt]

On Sat, 12 Sep 2015 15:51:43 -0400
Solomon Peachy <pizza at shaftnet.org> wrote:

> > Find me one "alternative", except for Upstart, that does anything
> > more than act as PID1 and run a process manager. The criteria that
> > makes systemd supposedly so awful is that it subsumes huge portions
> > of the operating system (udev, su, initramfs, and who knows what
> > else).
> 
> 0) So, you're saying that there's nothing that can act as an 
>    "alternative" to systemd -- implying that it genuinely does more,
> but that's actually a bad thing.

That is exactly, 100% precisely what I'm saying, Soloman. Every piece
of software should keep to its problem domain scope, and not subsume
the functionality of wide-ranging other software that already do it
well.

What I described in the preceding paragraph has always been the belief
of Linux (and Unix before it). Perhaps the new breed thinks otherwise.
That's fine, just don't make your software almost impossible to
replace, for those of us who do believe in small tools that do a
specific task.


> 1) udev is independent.  Use of it does not require use of systemd,
> and if you can show the udev developers otherwise, they will treat it
> as a bug report and correct it.

OK, I'll do just that, the next time I alt-init anything. Of course,
because installing udev on a systemd distro pulls in systemd, I'll also
have to hand compile it. If I have problems, I'll submit a bug report.

> 2) systemd does not replace interactive use of 'su', although 
>    executing daemons as different users does necessarily require 
>    equivalent functionality.
> 3) What does systemd have to do with intramfs, other than systemd 
>    often being physically present on one?  

You really don't know?

Systemd doesn't just let the initramf' /init script run and fire
off the hard disk's /sbin/init. It gets in with the initramfs and does
stuff. Other people can describe it exactly, but it messes with
initramfs.

Systemd likewise uses /initramfs for shutdown.


> 4) I'm still waiting for "what", not "what else"

What are you asking?

SteveT

Steve Litt 
August 2015 featured book: Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
http://www.troubleshooters.com/tjust