New Linux Systemd can spy on you!

Off-Topic
21

I don’t know what your definition of a kernel is, but systemd is entirely running in userspace. It contains an init system (by the UNIX definition, that is just “the first userspace process that is run when the machine starts”) as well as, indeed, many other useful and some possibly less useful tools.

It thus provides an unified system, with all the tools developped by the same team and using the same conventions. This means the team can make transverse changes as needed, instead of having to do years of negociation and coordination between different projects.

They also settled down on a single kernel (Linux) instead of trying to support every operating system out there.

I know another project with a very similar philosophy, and that is Haiku.

So, systemd is the thing that makes Linux distributions a whole operating system, rather than just a kernel and a disparate set of userspace tools stacked on top.

Then, it has the usual Linux limitations: these days the focus for Linux is mainly on big servers, and on embedded systems. Which means systemd is certainly not designed for end-user machines. I guess that explains why I don’t understand the problems with it: my experience with Linux is indeed geared towards non-user-facing machines. And there, systemd does what it is meant to do, and does it very well.

6 Likes
22

Except that on Haiku having something unified is a will from beginning. They are trying to replace things that have been messy for about thirty years. I think that it shows that if you let things go by themselves for too long, it becomes hard to clean the mess.

Though the simple replacement would probably have gone well. But, while at it, they also incorporate new things and, since they are now focussing on a single kernel, are initialising things deeper.

I think on linux rejection is part of the process, Pulseaudio hasn’t been very welcome either, now people are starting to see good sides of it. It’s a matter of time till we see adjustments here and there and perhaps a lighter version for desktop use.

23

What was a reason of introducing JavaScript in systemd? It is ridiculous and add a lot of attack surface. Why not Lua?

4 Likes
25

same here, and yes, it uses systemd fwiw;-)

1 Like
26

Ha, ha, Linux needs to go back to using LiLo…Slackware still has it,
(but runit is a good alternative).

3 Likes