Systemd redux: The end of Linux

The project being run by people who hold unreasonable and downright odious views who act like, frankly, utter asshats, is a much more serious problem.

The Kay/Linus debacle is something you can expect to see more of from these fine folks going forward. Mark my words. Ask yourself if you want software developed this way running your OS.

This informal fallacy is based on the idea that everything in the world can be distilled to a single answer. The real answer is more complicated. For example:

Red Hat is on board because they pay its creator's salary. So they rely on an individual bias.

Debian is on board because they rely upon 'collective wisdom' and committees to make decisions. So they rely on the bias of group thinking.

Ubuntu is on board because Debian is on board. So they rely on the bias of the other.

Other distributions are using it because 'every other distribution is using it', or they're small enough that it doesn't cause conflicts for its use base, or because it's a GNOME dependency, or because it's just new technology.

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To make someone think something is a good idea, show them someone else thinks it's a good idea. This is a fact of all human beings' thought processes. Decisions are not based on merit, or logic, or even a quorum; it is based on fallacies created by heuristics. There exists a heuristic in which the more an idea is adopted, the more other people think it is a good idea.

We imagine our thoughts are logical, and that other people also think logically, and that their decisions must be made for a good reason. But in fact, the great majority of all decisions we make are based on guesses; this is how our brains are able to carry out complex calculations and come to decisions in split-seconds.

For example, you might look at systemd and say, "it fixes so many problems! it provides so many features! it standardizes Linux! CLEARLY this is superior. we must adopt it."

For people who care about the purity of the highest technical ideals, this makes sense. For people who care about being able to use their computer, these things don't matter, and in the systemd implementation, actually makes things worse for them. The changes systemd purports to make are not bad things. It's really just the way in which they did it that is bad.

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It's like wanting to upgrade your bicycle to four wheels, but requiring the rider now operate it lying flat down and using mirrors to navigate. The four wheels was a great idea. Using mirrors to navigate? Maybe not so great.

Of course, its creators will turn this inconvenience into a feature, saying "you get to lay down! it's therefore more efficient and easier to use!", completely ignoring how other people want to ride a 4-wheeler.

But, ultimately, what happens in tech is as much about people and personalities as it is about actual technical merit. To delude ourselves otherwise is dangerous. When someone claims to be arguing from technical merit, look very closely at their history and probable motivations. There's always more there.

"Myth: systemd is incompatible with shell scripts. This is entirely bogus. We just don't use them for the boot process, because we believe they aren't the best tool for that specific purpose, but that doesn't mean systemd was incompatible with them. You can easily run shell scripts as systemd services, heck, you can run scripts written in any language as systemd services, systemd doesn't care the slightest bit what's inside your executable. Moreover, we heavily use shell scripts for our own purposes, for installing, building, testing systemd. And you can stick your scripts in the early boot process, use them for normal services, you can run them at latest shutdown, there are practically no limits."