Are you using systemd or an alternative, what do you recommend?
2026-04-02 22:07 UTC
Replies (29)
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@undrwater@lemmy.world 2026-04-02 22:50
I have heard that systemd is “heavier” than alternatives. I haven’t experienced that. I don’t think gaming is impacted at all. I use openrc on Gentoo for desktop. It requires some script hooks for things that expect systemd, but works quite well. I don’t pay attention to it much, unless I’m writing an init script.
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@SolarPunker@slrpnk.net 2026-04-02 23:05
Runit is softly better but Systemd is perfectly fine. I would prioritize runit on very old hardware.
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@chrash0@lemmy.world 2026-04-02 23:52
it’s one of those cases where if you have to ask, you should probably just use systemd. anything else is outdated or a passion project based on some idealism, which i’m all for, but if you’re worried about gaming performance as a primary concern i’d put it out of your mind. for example, i’m an obsessive tinkerer that uses NixOS and Arch before that and i use nushell and Neovim and Hyprland, but i use systemd cuz i don’t see a reason not to. it’s well supported and stable.
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@Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 2026-04-03 04:59
OpenRC here, on Gentoo. It works pretty well, fast and simple, honestly I never felt the need for SystemD. I use the latter at work sometimes, I don’t really like how it changed the way stuff works, but I have nothing against it. I just feel the extra complexity is not needed in all of my home setups (laptops, servers, etc). So it’s OpenRC everywhere for me.
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@idriss@v3m.pw 2026-04-03 07:06
Are you using systemd or an alternative, what do you recommend? systemd in one machine pending the switch and Artix on another (switching after the introduction of the age field to comply with the age verification law). I have been using GNU/Linux for 15 years, more than a third of that without systemd. So going back to something else felt normal and I recommend switching away from systemd What are some significant differences to expect when switching to an alternative Systemd is bloated so expect better performance here and there can that affect gaming compatibility and performance? Compatibility issues yes, but performance difference no What last thing to consider is using the systemd forks like the unshitted one, you get the best of both worlds
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@v0x@lemmy.zip 2026-04-03 07:46
I use OpenRC on most of my systems, which honestly works well enough that I’ve never felt the need to change. SystemD at work though, which is also fine. If I have any complaints, it’s just not what I’m used to. Switching could be tricky, and may not be worth the hassle. It’d really depend on what you want to get out of it. As always though it’d be a good way to learn as you’ll inevitably break something and need to figure out how to fix it.
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@hunger@programming.dev 2026-04-03 10:12
What you can expect when switching from a system management tool written for Linus to an init tool targetting the least common denominator of general Unix functionality? Less functionality, less security, less information about the state the system is in, less reliable switching between states and a whole lot less of linux kernel features exposed to your use in convenient ways. It’s not as if systemd was started to be complicated, the world got complicated. E.g. we used to just create all the device nodes in /dev statically during system installation. Then USB became a thing and supported so many different kinds of devices with thousands of potential ports to connect them to. They would not fit into the device node namespace! So we needed to make device nodes dynamic, which is also convenient.You do not have lots of device nodes that do not exist on your system and you no longer need to change system configuration when you plug your mouse into another port of your system. Filesystems, security (often linux specific) features, everything is easy more complex (and more dynamic) today than it was when sysv init was a thing. That simple stuff was great when you had to power off your machine to change its available devices. It is less cool when you plug an USB-C cable into your laptop and want to use all the stuff that is now suddenly available.
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@Sivecano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-04-04 01:42
I’ve not had any gaming issues. The only real perfmance impact is boot time (which can be better or worse than systemd). The future I hope for is dinit with turnstiled. dinit is really quite nice. But openRC also works quite nicely. Unless you wish to excessively engage with system services, none of it makes that much of a difference. The real difference in usability is in how well everything is packaged and maintained (which is why openRC on gentoo is great for example,).
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@muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2026-04-04 03:09
Oh good, this again!
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@downhomechunk@midwest.social 2026-04-04 18:59
I’ve been daily driving Slackware since the late 90s or early 00s (don’t remember). There’s no systemd, and no drama. I run KDE plasma 6, steam with proton, flatpak, rocm for AI shenanigans and whatever else I want. Even the rolling release is solid as a rock. There are dozens of us! And we’re not all greybeards. I started going grey in high school, but I ate cookies for breakfast today because I’m both a grown ass man and a child.
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@infinitevalence@discuss.online 2026-04-02 22:48
I use systemd it's fine and requires very little extra thought.
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@thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2026-04-03 02:35
If you have to ask this, then its probably good idea to stick to systemd. I don't see any reason to change, other than to protest. In the process doing so you will probably encounter issues. People switch away from systemd for various reasons, but not for performance. In example they don't like who develops and controls systemd. And they don't like that it does more than just initializing the system, as bunch of other tasks are bundled into it. If all of that does not bother you, stay with systemd in my opinion. And if you really want to switch to systemd, then I recommend to use a dedicated operating system (a distro) with that in mind. Don't forget, that systemd has many features and services, that its expected as a standard. You do not just change an init system, but replace all other components too.
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@just_another_person@lemmy.world 2026-04-02 23:48
Systemd is fine. Stop getting trolled by antiquated neckbeards. Unless you find a specific problem with something, don't go looking for reasons to fix that which is not broken.
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@mholiv@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 07:09
The main functional difference between systemd and others is that systemd will just work. Others will require you hand tune and hand tinker with a non-mainstream Linux distro. If your hobby is init systems by all means mess around though. I personally quite like systemd. Unit files are clean, timers services and sockets are easy to manage etc. Honestly it’s a non-problem. Best advice is to use what is best supported. Don’t let the extremely fringe (but loud) tiny group of systemd haters throw you off.
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@MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2026-04-03 11:16
Dinit for desktop, s6 for server. Btw, why is systemd even a thing for server distros?
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@monovergent@lemmy.ml 2026-04-03 01:56
Except for systems with very limited resources, systemd or not won't make much of a difference in performance. A lot of tutorials on reading system logs and managing background services will assume that you are using systemd. I've only ever used distros with systemd, not necessarily with intent, but because it was the default and well-supported. Probably won't switch unless - Debian switches - there's a change that breaks my workflow - it somehow starts phoning home to a big datacenter.
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@Peasley@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 04:26
If you are asking about "gaming compatibility" you should not switch to a non-systemd distro. You will end up going through extra hoops for zero benefit.
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@giacomo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-04-03 00:57
i actually like systemd. i'm not sure why I wouldn't want to use it.
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@boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 2026-04-03 12:08
Systemd, systemd-boot, systemd-snapwn Good stuff
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@moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 2026-04-02 23:31
I would say the big thing that might give you trouble is not the init system, but NetworkManager. NetworkManager is the... network management software (wow who woulda guessed?) used on desktop linux distros. People have many criticisms of it, that are similar to criticisms applied to systemd (it's also Red Hat software), so I see my friends switching to iwd, wpa_supplicant, or other alternatives when trying something other than systemd as well. It gives them a lot of pain. None of the other alternatives are as reliable as NetworkManager when it comes to connecting to Wifi. Switching away from Systemd shouldn't be too hard, but NetworkManager is much tougher to give up. Thankfully, you can run NetworkManager on non-systemd setups.
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@mlxdy@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 11:23
Why you want to switch from systemd? I hate how complex it is, this age verification and that they're trying make make Linux more Windows like, but in that bad way (it's created by people who prefer Windows over Linux so yeah). But if your installation is working and don't have troubles then don't switch. Switching to "alteratives" shouldn't affect gaming compatibility at all, cause you don't need any daemons to play your games (maybe if you want to host server or use vpn for multiplayer). Remember that systemd is not init system, but software suite which provide init system also. I think that systemd might use more resources than other solutions. Some software can rely on systemd, but when are you installing program from your system repositories it will work cause it's prepared to work if you're using solid Linux distro. I had situation on MX Linux that I downloaded Mullvad VPN from Mullvad's Debian repositories and it wasn't working, because of no systemd. Then I discovered that MX Linux have Mullvad VPN in own repositories and it worked. On every non-systemd Linux distro you can install elogind which is usually preinstalled and it also care about compatibility layer. If we speak just about other init systems try what you like. My favourite is runit, but the most popular alternatives are OpenRC (this is what I usually using, even right now on laptop and PC) and sysvinit. sysvinit was terrible experience for me on Devuan, on MX Linux okay; OpenRC is just okay, but I have few reasons to hate it. Systemd is used by the most of people so if something will screw up more people can help you and there's more tutorials on internet, also sometimes you need to tinker more on other init systems from my experience as systemd is more handholding. But using different init system will give important experience and learn you more how your system works. If you're looking for non-systemd distros check MX Linux which is the really good system, also for not advanced users who just want to run their games. It's using sysvinit and you have GUI tools to control daemons.
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@juipeltje@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 04:45
I'm using shepherd right now and i've used runit in the past. Shepherd is definitely a beast of its own since it's configured in guile scheme, but in the case of runit it just runs schell scripts and the commands are for the most part just as simple as systemd. I've seen people claim that some programs won't work without systemd but i've never come across something that didn't work.
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@ChrisG@lemmy.world 2026-04-04 10:29
If you want the convenient features of systemd without the cancerous assimilation of the entire userland then dinit is recommended. OpenRC is a mature choice. Server folk seem to recommend S6 but I dont have enough personal use of it to verify. * expect every response trying to provide useful info here to be drowned out by systemd brigading
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@DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml 2026-04-04 13:16
Try OpenRC. It's pretty simple.
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@DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 2026-04-06 17:30
I'm personally running Artix with runit and things are fine so far, but as ChrisG pointed out, dinit is basically a drop-in replacement for systemd syntax-wise. [Although if you're on Artix, you'll need to enable Arch's `[extra]` and `[multilib]` repos or you'll run into dependency issues on some apps due to some packages not being available in the main Artix repos. I learned this when trying to install `steam-native-runtime`, there were some Python deps which weren't available in the main Artix repos, but that *were* available in the Arch repos, if I'm remembering right.](https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Repositories#Arch_repositories) Also, I recommend enabling the unofficial `[liquorix]` repo in order to get a newer kernel with more frequent updates than what Artix provides in their repos, eg. the default and zen kernels in the Artix repos lag a bit behind the lqx kernel from the `[liquorix]` repo, [and I still recommend enabling `[chaotic-aur]` as a convenience repo on *any* Arch distro.](https://aur.chaotic.cx/docs) I also switched to MATE from KDE out of concern that KDE could end up following GNOME's path after SDDM is deprecated, plus I just wanted a lighter and different desktop, that and MATE's default two-panel layout is completely usable from stock although you might wanna set the panels to auto-hide to maximize screen space.
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@Tarambor@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 18:03
systemd....works fine for me. Have changed from systemd-boot to Limine because I dual boot and it's better at handling Windows and Window's EFI partition being installed on a separate drive. It just auto-detects it and means that if I do decide to completely ditch Windows I can just wipe that drive.
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@Peasley@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 04:28
20 seconds isn't that fast... I'm using Fedora on a sata SSD and mine boots in about 15 seconds. My laptop running Ubuntu on a sata SSD is about 17. Both running normal systemd edit: i just timed ubuntu at 12 seconds. i do not have luks encryption though
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@Amaterasu@lemmy.world 2026-04-03 14:50
In Fedora, and other distros using Systemd, potentially in some distros that don't use Systemd as well, using tools like dracut or mkinitcpio you can enroll TPM2 to Secure Boot and seal TPM to NOT request LUKS password every boot.
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@ulu_mulu@lemmy.zip 2026-04-03 09:03
I installed Void on my laptop to learn it, loving it so far. On my gaming desktop I'm using Devuan, but I have room for additional distros so I'll definitely dual-boot Void as soon as I feel confident with the basics.