Systemd or Sysvinit?

[viking60]

Systemd is this new thing that has confused everybody and forced conservative Linux users to handle services in a new way.
But is it a good thing?
Well it does represent a standardization of how to handle Linux services, but isn't it a growing hairball? It will grow and get more complex and in the end nobody will have the overview over what systemd actually does - right?
Well the chief penguin did certainly swing his hammer:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n ... px=MTY1MzA
And others have good arguments too:
http://boycottsystemd.org/
But on the flip side; there is no distro that will not use systemd except Gentoo, even Ubuntu and Debian have caved in. And that is where I start to get worried; those unified standards are just a way for the NSA tog get unified access - or at least it will become interesting to them.

So how about some good old flexibility and choice?

Well Gentoo is providing it but let's face it; Gentoo is not about to become a common alternative to Windows.

Manjaro on the other hand already is a brilliant alternative to Windows and it has started on a path that will ensure you flexibility and choice.
It has not reached the stable repos yet but I assure you that the unstable version is working well;
https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=14395.0
https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=14080.0

So why should you try this?
Well Openrc is an alternative to systemd that lets you control your daemons and it is way faster than systemd based distros. It is so fast that a reboot almost is unbelievable fast - this thing is so snappy that all old computers will come to live again.

Simply because the bloat of systemd is gone.

You like systemd you say?

No problem mate, just continue using it - you are in a clear majority.
If you like the underdogs and do not mind speed and flexibility why not give OpenRC a try? Manjaro users can follow this wiki.

Basically you will have to switch to the unstable repos (pretty much the same as Arch repos) like this;

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sudo pacman-mirrors -g -b unstable

and then make it permanent you need to edit pacman-mirrors.conf:

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sudo gedit /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf

And replace the stable repo with unstable - like this;

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## Branch Pacman should use (stable, testing or unstable)
Branch=unstable

I will certainly use it on low spec boxes because this thing is super fast and snappy.

[viking60]

Well this thing is almost ready now so here is a sorry excuse for a video:

The point is that this thing does not use systemd which is getting bloated these days. So it is fast and lets you control your daemons.
It does not use much MEM either (only 182M):


Here the Terminal Tmux and Glances are running. And 182M of memory use is very little AFAICT.

[viking60]

I made another video since I am ashamed of the one above

This simply shows that reboot and shutdown works for a normal user. It also shows the Areosnap in Openbox where you can tile your windows to your liking. I use the Tint2-svn panel because it allows me to pop a menu from the panel.
As you can see I have not used many calories on finding icons for it

The video shows a reboot to give you a feel of how snappy this thing is - without systemd.

[viking60]

Ok I have taken interest in Openrc so that people can have system without systemd which is pretty much dominating the Linux world.

Manjaro is has made an iso with Openbox that is really light, the problem is that out non english keyboard friends will have to do some manual adjustments, sine the keyboard will brutally default to "us".

To correct this just pick your language on the lxdm login screen on the first login and then open a terminal and enter

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keyboardctl -l de

..If you are german replace de with no if you are Norwegian and...you get the point.
That will make your keymap stick.

English keyboard people do not have to worry about this.

OpenRC will enable them to use the good old commands and the good old structure - no need to learn that bloated systemd stuff.
This thing is fast!