This is highly off-topic, and systemd-related, so if you don't want your breakfast with a healthy amount of flames, skip it.
iTWire posted an interview with Linus Torvalds[1], where the Big Penguin himself gave a succinct and pretty fair opinion on systemd. The gist of it can be resumed in two lines: "I don't personally mind systemd, and in fact my main desktop and laptop both run it." I post it here because several times in the last discussions about systemd, there was people asking what opinion Linus had about systemd. I personally don't think Linus particular opinion matters at all in this particular issue; in general people who likes systemd will continue to like it, and people who despises it will continue to do so, for any good, bad, real or imaginary reason. However, I *really* like several things Linus says in the interview; some juicy bits: • "So I think many of the "original ideals" of UNIX are these days more of a mindset issue than necessarily reflecting reality of the situation." • "There's still value in understanding the traditional UNIX "do one thing and do it well" model where many workflows can be done as a pipeline of simple tools each adding their own value, but let's face it, it's not how complex systems really work, and it's not how major applications have been working or been designed for a long time. It's a useful simplification, and it's still true at *some* level, but I think it's also clear that it doesn't really describe most of reality." • "...systemd is in no way the piece that breaks with old UNIX legacy." • " I'm still old-fashioned enough that I like my log-files in text, not binary, so I think sometimes systemd hasn't necessarily had the best of taste, but hey, details..[.]" • (About the "single-point-of-failure" "argument") "I think people are digging for excuses. I mean, if that is a reason to not use a piece of software, then you shouldn't use the kernel either." • "And there's a classic term for it in the BSD camps: "bikeshed painting", which is very much about how random people can feel like they have the ability to discuss superficial issues, because everybody feels that they can give an opinion on the color choice. So issues that are superficial get a lot more noise. Then when it comes to actual hard and deep technical decisions, people (sometimes) realise that they just don't know enough, and they won't give that the same kind of mouth-time." It's an interesting read; I highly recommend it. [1] http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/65402-torvalds-says-he-has-no-strong-opinions-on-systemd -- Canek Peláez Valdés Profesor de asignatura, Facultad de Ciencias Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
