Three Linux distributions without systemd

The world of Linux (or GNU/Linux) is full of passionate discussions among developers that, many times even for those of us with a level of knowledge somewhat higher than that of the common user, are incomprehensible. One of them was a few years ago by the incorporation of systemd.

Of course, thanks to the characteristics of free and open source software, if you're a developer, you can always fork a project by removing components you don't like. That is why in this post we are going to list three Linux distributions without systemd.

what is systemd

Of course, to know whether or not to install a distribution without systemd, The first thing we need to know is what systemd is.. Let us first define a previous concept.

In the context of daemon computing (Literal translation of deemons) it is a service that runs in the background at system startup or login. Provides services used by other applications such as document printing or sound playback.

systemd is a set of daemons used by many Linux distributions to boot the system. In addition to controlling which programs should be run at system startup, it keeps track of system activity, handles user login, runs scheduled jobs. deals with date, location, maintaining a list of registered users and running containers and virtual machines, managing system accounts, directories and runtime configurations and daemons for managing simple network configuration, runtime synchronization network, log forwarding, and name resolution.

We can summarize the role of systemd as follows:

1. When you turn on the computer, the BIOS performs hardware initialization.
2. The boot loader relinquishes control to the Linux kernel.
3. The kernel loads an initial RAM disk that loads the system drives and then looks for the root file system.
4. systemd takes control by mounting the file system and initializing the necessary services.

Who could have a problem with such a useful tool?

In principle, many of the criticisms come from personal problems between the creators and the critics. But, there are also technical issues such as the excessive complexity of the project.  systemd does too many things and takes up a lot of space where until now the norm was simple and focused tools, which guaranteed its stability. In fact, the UNIX philosophy, on which Linux was based, holds that every tool should do one thing and do it well.

Linux distributions without systemd

Devuan

With this distribution based on Debian I have a little history. Beyond the technical issues, I was interested in your proposal not to make negative comments towards any distribution. It is known that many members of the Debian community tend to make very negative comments towards Ubuntu. I had no better idea than to propose on the Ubuntu user-developer exchange mailing list that it be based on Devuan. I didn't take into account that many Ubuntu developers are Debian developers. Except for Shuttleworth, I think there was no one left without insulting me.

Devuan is based on the stable version of Debian and allows us to choose between 3 alternatives to systemd. It has the same desktop capabilities as the source project and is available in the following formats and architectures:

i386 and amd64

• Live desktop image.
• Network installer.
• Desktop dvd (For installations without Internet).
• employee
• Minimal desktop.

amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386 and ppc64el

• Network installer.

Nitrox

other distribution based on Debian and without systemd it comes with the KDE desktop with layers of customizations of its own. It uses the Appimage package format for program installation and only includes 100% free applications.s

It comes in two versions. It completes it with the personalized desktop and a minimum without the customizations.

Void Linux

This distributionn it is not based on any other. It uses its own package manager written from scratch by its own developers and offers detailed documentation. to be able to configure the installation without problems.

It is available for the x86_64, i686, arm architectures, and arm platforms.