I am running Wheezy (v7 = oldoldstable) and intend to replace it with a fresh install of Stretch (v9 = stable) before Wheezy's support runs out on May 31st. I will try the default systemd installation and see how I like it.
After the installation, I will want to build my system from my favorite window manager (fvwm). With sysvinit, I would set initdefault to runlevel 3 in /etc/inittab. In /etc/rc3.d, I would rename gdm3 so that I would boot into a terminal interface (command line) instead of Gnome. Then I would quickly install fvwm, call startx, and happily finish building. I know systemd doesn't have inittab. Will the default installation leave me with a terminal interface whenever I boot? If not, how will I accomplish that? I also thought I had read about some problem with window authentication in Stretch, but I can't find any such posts now. Thanks.
