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Should i switch from systemd to another init system, What are the advantages of using another init system? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I have seen so many times that systemd is insecure, bloated, etc. So i wonder ¿does it worth to switch to another init system?

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[–] -1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I don’t see any fundamental reason why systemd would be insecure.

You mean aside how the author answer to CVEs, right ?

If anything, I would expect it to be less prone to security bugs than the conglomerations of shell scripts that used to be used for init systems.

Not sure. In the end the shell script were just an easy and consistent way to start/stop programs. If the programs were secure (read: checked the input and sanitize it, did the check for permissions and so on) there is not a big difference.

Also, systemd performs way better than the old init systems anyway.

In what regards ? Boot faster ? Fine, but on a server it does not mean anything, a server does not reboot that often; for a desktop it not that the 5 seconds you gain are a fundamental gain.

One problem I see is with the logs: it is true that the format is documented, but a text format is always readable while a binary format... (been here, done that 🤬 )

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I agree those CVE responses are not great. Those are from quite a few years ago though. Has their handling of CVEs improved since?

    Boot times are not that big of a deal to me either, but some people seem to care about it a lot.

    I've never personally had any problems with binary logs. You could always forward to a different logging daemon if that's a concern.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I’ve never personally had any problems with binary logs.

    I had it and I am sure that I could have solved the problem faster if I could have solved it faster if I did not needed to first understand how to access the logs on a damaged system.

    You could always forward to a different logging daemon if that’s a concern.

    This does not solve the problem, it only move it to somewhere else.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    In what regards ? Boot faster ? Fine, but on a server it does not mean anything, a server does not reboot that often; for a desktop it not that the 5 seconds you gain are a fundamental gain.

    Are you sure it doesn't mean anything? It means to a LOT of people.

    Anyways are you aware of systemd-analyze and that you can profile your boot and services even with graphical representations? Have a look at https://www.apertis.org/guides/boot_optimisation/ and https://opensource.com/article/20/9/systemd-startup-configuration

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Are you sure it doesn’t mean anything? It means to a LOT of people.

    Fine, still not understanding why something that I should run once in a while (on a server) or it is not that critical seems to be so important. Look, I had way bigger gain moving from a HDD to a SDD than switching to Systemd from the old init.

    I refuse to belive that for a desktop user a 5 seconds longer boot time is that important. I could understand on a server where, if you work with it, you can have fines for downtime but even in this case it is a thing that could be handled in different ways.

    Anyways are you aware of systemd-analyze and that you can profile your boot and services even with graphical representations? Have a look at https://www.apertis.org/guides/boot_optimisation/ and https://opensource.com/article/20/9/systemd-startup-configuration

    Good, but I am not interested in booting my laptop 5 second faster and for my server I have not fines if it start in 20 seconds instead of 10 😁

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    systemd-analyze isn't only about reducing your boot time by 5 seconds, it's about when you've problems knowing exactly what is happening and when and also about having a clear view of dependencies between services.

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