On 15/09/2026 20:31, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
I would never consider using systemd as a bootloader. What if, for example, I wanted to delete everything except my Alpine Linux installation one day? Alpine Linux doesn't support systemd, so I'd have to set everything up from scratch again. I think a bootloader should be like a portable script.
Contrary to popular belief, while systemd comes with all sorts of flavours of headaches and a very unique ability to tense up muscles you didn't know existed in your body, systemd-the-project actually has several pieces of it that aren't tied to systemd-the-pid1 and can be used in "systemd-free" contexts.
systemd-boot is one of them, and as a matter of fact is officially packaged by Alpine Linux [1]. It just happens to be maintained as part of the systemd project, but (thankfully!!) does not leak itself into whatever system it's booting up. It's actually a pretty solid offering when it comes to KISS-friendliness.
See also: OpenRC abandoned its custom systemd-tmpfiles replacement, citing that sd-tmpfiles was a small standalone binary that even worked just fine with musl, which meant any effort to get rid of it wasn't really warranted. Don't judge a book by its cover, or because it has systemd in the name. I know the systemd trauma is huge and it makes itself (very) easy to hate at times, but sometimes it's not always as bad as it seems ;)
Cheers ~sys-subsystem-human-cynthia.device [1] https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/main/x86_64/systemd-boot
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