Removing Libsystemd0 From a Live-running Debian System

"The introduction of systemd has unilaterally created a polarization of the GNU/Linux community that is remarkably similar to the monopolistic power position wielded by Microsoft in the late 1990s. Choices were stark: use Windows (with SMB/CIFS Services), or use UNIX (with NFS and NIS). Only the introduction of fully-compatible reverse-engineered NT Domains services corrected the situation. Instructions on how to remove systemd include dire warnings that "all dependent packages will be removed", rendering a normal Debian Desktop system flat-out impossible to achieve. It was therefore necessary to demonstrate that it is actually possible to run a Debian Desktop GUI system (albeit an unusual one: fvwm) with libsystemd0 removed. The reason for doing so: it doesn't matter how good systemd is believed to be or in fact actually is: the reason for removing it is, apart from the alarm at how extensive systemd is becoming (including interfering with firewall rules), it's the way that it's been introduced in a blatantly cavalier fashion as a polarized all-or-nothing option, forcing people to consider abandoning the GNU/Linux of their choice and to seriously consider using FreeBSD or any other distro that properly respects the Software Freedom principle of the right to choose what software to run. We aren't all "good at coding", or paid to work on Software Libre: that means that those people who are need to be much more responsible, and to start — finally — to listen to what people are saying. Developing a thick skin is a good way to abdicate responsibility and, as a result, place people into untenable positions." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/15/1959209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 12:35:30 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
"The introduction of systemd has unilaterally created a polarization of the GNU/Linux community that is remarkably similar to the monopolistic power position wielded by Microsoft in the late 1990s."
What a load of bullshit.

I wrote:
On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 12:35:30 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
"The introduction of systemd has unilaterally created a polarization of the GNU/Linux community that is remarkably similar to the monopolistic power position wielded by Microsoft in the late 1990s."
What a load of bullshit.
To those who may not understand the background to this, systemd is a project, headed by Lennart “PulseAudio” Poettering, to modernize the Linux system startup mechanism. It hasn’t been the only such project, but it does seem to be technically the most sophisticated. What some people don’t like is that it seems to be spreading its tentacles into more and more corners of system functionality, in order to properly manage startup and shutdown of all your system services. Also it is Linux-only: Poettering has no interest in making the code portable to the BSDs, for example. This in itself doesn’t seem to me to be a bad thing, but some others disagree. A major effort was launched to try to topple Debian’s decision <https://lwn.net/Articles/618277/> to go with systemd. This effort proved unsuccessful. So the losers went off in a huff to found their own fork of Debian. And good luck to them. But to try to describe widespread adoption of systemd among major distros (even Ubuntu has abandoned <http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1316> its home-grown “upstart” project in favour of systemd) as anything like “monopolistic power position wielded by Microsoft” is, to me, a step too far. People using terms like that are stupid mischief-makers, and a lot of them cannot even coherently explain why they hate systemd. As they say: “Do Not Feed The Trolls”. End of story.
participants (2)
-
Lawrence D'Oliveiro
-
Peter Reutemann