ok last one from this bunch for now (anyway), but I think this is all very
educational for many:
(Alien Bob
Slackware Contributor)
"I would not consider systemd for this reason only: it is being written
specifically to work only on the Linux platform.
I am very much an advocate of cross-platform development, UNIX is bigger than
Linux alone. Systemd is expected to be used by "userland" programs like KDE
and Gnome. However these are also used on BSD, Solaris, HP UNIX etcetera. It
is as if Poettering expects that the userland programmers (KDE/Gnome and
other desktop environments) and distributors of UNIXes should deal with the
incompatibilities and patch their code to make it work on non-Linux OS-es
where systemd will be unavailable.
Code that shows this amount of contempt for anything that is not Linux,
should be buried without ceremony.
Poettering also said his code is "more efficient" because he does not stick
to POSIX compliant programming. The programming shortcuts he takes are
non-portable.
I think "more efficient" and "cross-platform" should not be mutually
exclusive. Taking shortcuts to make your program do fancy stuff is an
immature coding style and better suited for the demo scene. You can optimize
code and still keep it cross-platform, there is a lot of software that proves
this - look at the multimedia applications that use platform-specific
assembler code to squeeze all the available performance out of a computer.
Still those applications compile cleanly and can be used on Linux, UNIX, and
on several hardware platforms. It takes effort to make software portable and
you have to be willing to spend that time - you do it for the users of your
software.
Poettering defends his systemd with vigor, but his comments reflect his
contempt for any other way of thinking. One of his typical statements is that
all his critics are "amazingly badly informed". You can not go into a
dialogue with the guy, he just won't listen to your arguments.
So, what are the advantages of systemd? Using "error-prone shell code"
instead of systemd is bullshit - it's not as if we have to write new init
scripts every week. Replaces consolekit? Poettering and Zeuthen are two
Redhat employees who infest computers with half-assed software that they
deprecate faster than distros can adopt it. Does it make your computer boot
faster? Well wow... how many seconds of productive time do you gain per day?.
It is not worth the hassle.
Eric"
