

Linux without systemd: what to choose? - nine_k

After 16 years of being a Debian user, I plan to jump ship as the next release introduces systemd.<p>I run a few desktops and small servers. What are my choices? What is your experience?<p>I&#x27;m looking for something mature and reliable, as opposed to bleeding-edge. I prefer binary distributions for their speed.
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bhgraham
Someone just pointed this out to me today.
[https://devuan.org/](https://devuan.org/)

Apparently they are forking debian and going to go on without systemd.

Good luck and let us know what other options you find!

EDIT: Found a list for you here:

[http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page](http://without-
systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

Operating systems without systemd in the default installation

Alpine Linux

Crux

Dragora GNU/Linux Libre

Funtoo

Gentoo

Linux from Scratch

PCLinuxOS

Slackware

TTYLinux

Void Linux

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anonymous2013
Before you do it, please ask and answer the question 'why'? what is it about
systemd that makes you think that you can't use it?

------
friede
Gentoo, I moved in the last two weeks. Being sure never to look back.
Installation needs more time as every thing is compiled for you...

~~~
the_why_of_y
But Gentoo does not meet nine_k's criteria since it supports systemd as an
alternative init system.

[http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Systemd](http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Systemd)

~~~
nine_k
Supporting systemd is fine, _requiring_ it is what I try to avoid.

~~~
the_why_of_y
Then I don't understand why you want to migrate away from Debian, since there
is a resolution from the Debian technical committee that multiple init systems
shall be supported.

[https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-
announce/2014/08/msg00...](https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-
announce/2014/08/msg00001.html)

------
Myk267
Slackware might be something to look into. While everything you might want
isn't going to be a binary, there's some pretty good third party sources that
regularly package things up for each release and the recommended full install
is quite complete.

I used it as a desktop for a while and it was as rock solid as any good
distribution can be.

------
networked
The upcoming GNU Guix is a shaping up to be an interesting alternative to more
normal Linux distributions. It uses dmd [1], an init system written and
scripted in Scheme (GNU Guile), and Scheme for system configuration in
general. It is a fork of NixOS [2], which uses systemd. What's interesting
about NixOS and GNU Guix is that they implement declarative configuration
management and a purely functional package manager, meaning that you should be
able to reproduce your system configuration from a single configuration file
like the following:

    
    
      ;; This is an operating system configuration template.
    
      (use-modules (gnu))
    
      (operating-system
        (host-name "antelope")
        (timezone "Europe/Paris")
        (locale "en_US.UTF-8")
    
        ;; Assuming /dev/sdX is the target hard disk, and "root" is
        ;; the label of the target root file system.
        (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sdX")))
        (file-systems (cons (file-system
                              (device "root")
                              (title 'label)
                              (mount-point "/")
                              (type "ext4"))
                            %base-file-systems))
    
        ;; This is where user accounts are specified.  The "root"
        ;; account is implicit, and is initially created with the
        ;; empty password.
        (users (list (user-account
                      (name "alice")
                      (comment "Bob's sister")
                      (group "users")
    
                      ;; Adding the account to the "wheel" group
                      ;; makes it a sudoer.  Adding it to "audio"
                      ;; and "video" allows the user to play sound
                      ;; and access the webcam.
                      (supplementary-groups '("wheel"
                                              "audio" "video"))
                      (home-directory "/home/alice")))))
    
    

This approach pretty much removes the need for external configuration
management tools like CFEngine, Puppet or Ansible.

I don't really mind systemd myself but I am looking forward to Guix as a more
Lisp-flavored Unix. Should it succeed perhaps it could eventually become a
kind of a Lisp Machine-light if enough of its userland got rewritten in
Scheme.

Guix does not meet your requirement of being mature and reliable yet but you
may want to keep an eye out for its stable release.

[1] [https://www.gnu.org/software/dmd/](https://www.gnu.org/software/dmd/)

[2] [http://nixos.org/](http://nixos.org/)

