I was confused for a second because I missed which community this was posted in. I kept waiting for some joke at the end like it booted Debian or something. I thought I was in Linux memes. 😆
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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I've been fucking around with Artix in a VM trying both Runit and S6.
Having never successfully installed Arch manually before, it was easier than I thought to get a desktop up and running...getting Pipewire to work on the other hand...still working on it. >.>
Honestly think the official installation guide needs some updating. I had to go off and find other community written guides to get certain things working. And small issues like the linux-firmware package downloading Nvidia drivers on my full AMD system.
I'm still dedicated to switching from Endeavour even though that distro has been very good to me. Their official statement on the matter didn't inspire confidence, more just shifted the blame to FOSS as a whole. No words on plans to protect users or fork/switch away from mainline SystemD when push comes to shove.
Sweet! If and when Arch implements age verification, Artix is where I'm seeking asylum.
A question: I have a fair understanding of Linux - been using it for five years - but only with systemd. Is it hard to transition to other init solutions? Is one better than the others? What about sysVinit?
Its a learning curve for sure, I'm still learning it myself. Openrc seemed to be fairly popular, so thats why I started with that.
There is a few changes such as not using service files and instead using crob jobs, seeing the logs of your tasks need to be hooked into using syslog-ng to consolidate the logs. I'm still learning how you see stuff like the service status etc.
Its been fun learning something new again, and writing a script like this to set it all up for me has been a great way to learn it all.
Btw, s6 (runit too?) supports user services and for dinit exists turnstile.
Well then, that sounds great, because I love tinkering and learning new stuff. :)
I do recall using some minor distro - perhaps antiX - a long time ago to save a broken laptop. I did do init [some number between 0-5] to manipulate the system's power state, I think. That's my experience with it haha.
I dont really understand artix linux. Is systemd really that bad?
I've been using Linux for five years exclusively with systemd, without noticeable issues. I'm only considering the switch since the main branch - which is still the one being used by most distros by default - has added an Age parameter in some config file. Which isn't verification in any sense - you may just leave it blank until an app or the OS requires it - but it's ideologically not my cup of tea.
The inexorable assimilation of large parts of Linux userland by a huge binary constructed by a corporate sponsored developer. The rush by the lead dev to embrace surveillance law infrastructure. But yeah, no big deal right?
"The tragedy of systemd"
the wikipedia article summarizes very well the concerns of the community, mainly under the "Reception" section.
The article also characterizes the architecture of systemd as similar to that of svchost.exe, a critical system component in Microsoft Windows with a broad functional scope.[117]
Comparing someone's Linux software with windows software is probably the worst insult you give give a Linux dev.
But yeah that makes sense, it's just kind of bloated and has more features than it needs.
Also a lot of other libraries depend on systemd?
I can understand now, Linux has always been about options and systemd is making it harder for people to chose different options.
Okay, other than “I believe it’s against the Unix Philosophy” and “hypothetically it will become bloated”, is there anything else worth knowing?
- only systemd or any other init/service manager can exist in the same repo (some distros try hacks with shims and wrappers)
- that and software-side dependencies (a design "flaw" in the service manager part) forced popular distros to Systemd and they can't get away
- runs only on Linux and a very limited set of architectures
- not-invented-here and scope creep (debugging dns issues radicalized me against Systemd)
- design faults as a "integrated service suite" (doing init and services in one), leading to more critical vulns than all other init together
- unpredictable service run order, together with shitty logging
Stuff like that.
Edit: yees, Gentoo & co. support Systemd or Openrc. But that one is mostly service management and was designed as a drop-in, doesn't count.
The sad part is, some of it's nicer new features create further dependencies, won't get implemented in a independent way.
Thank you for the thorough technical explanation, it is clear there are challenges for devs and I understand why the pushback exists now.
As an end user these are things I haven’t felt, are essentially invisible to me so I never felt the need to run away from systemd.
Thanks again.
Age verification
It’s not really mandatory, but I take your point.
I guess it’s the choice between many minor programs running in tandem, potentially only held together by a few maintainers, or an init system that unifies all those programs under one flag, with multiple maintainers including corporations, but the chance for it to get enshittified.
I personally have no choice of init system since I use NixOS. But I also don’t necessarily think the death of the personal computer will come from an init system, it will sooner come from hardware becoming unavailable/too expensive for individuals to buy (basically what we are seeing happen now).
There's always Guix for a declarative system without systemd :)
I’m aware, I just don’t care enough about this particular beef.
Systems works well for me, and in order to get my configuration up to what it is today on NixOS (what I need it to be) I’d have to install multiple proprietary/non-free software/drivers on Guix anyway.
In a roundabout way I’d end up in the same spot.