[vincentkriek]

As an init manager, systemd is the best thing that has happened to the wider linux ecosystem. Being able to indicate dependencies, document order and being able to let an application tell the init manager it is done and dependents of it can be started makes starting up way better.

I understand the downsides people have of systemd, but I have the feeling the huge upside is often overlooked.

[MathMonkeyMan]

I've worked with init.d style init systems that had those features using special comments and sourced helper functions, but I bet if you wanted to do it all properly you'd end up with something like systemd. Or GNU Shepherd!

[shevy-java]

It is more than merely an "init manager". And I disagree that it is the best thing ever - it is perfectly possible to operate linux without systemd.

> but I have the feeling the huge upside is often overlooked.

It is fine to objectively compare trade-offs. However had, it has to be a fair comparison; we can not start with "init manager" because systemd does a lot more, so how can a comparison to any software with less code be fair then? runit doesn't do much more than for initializing.

[graemep]

> As an init manager,

The objection to it is not to it as an init manager. To quote the description from the systemd site:

> systemd is a suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system