this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
-60 points (23.2% liked)

Linux

48074 readers
1138 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Systemd is the most common software suite for managing Linux-based systems. It includes init, rc, device manager, temporary files manger, network name resolution service, cron alternative, machine manager, spoon, fork, nuclear reactor, remote control of the world, etc.

Let's see what problems could not be solved even after 14 years of development.

  1. Many maintainers use the entire systemd suite, even if they don't require all its components.

  2. Systemd-init, the core part of systemd, offers a wide range of features surpassing other init systems. More features lead to more bugs and security vulnerabilities.

  3. Source-based distributions may experience increased compilation time due to systemd.

  4. Systemd is exclusive to Linux and cannot be used on other Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD or OpenBSD. This limitation means that software dependent on systemd, like GNOME, won't be compatible with these non-Linux systems.

  5. The project is primarily led by Red Hat. There is a possibility of Red Hat stopping systemd development as a completely FOSS software and making it an exclusive feature of RHEL. Red Hat is a commercial company that will prioritize profit within legal boundaries. SystemD is still a tool used by Red Hat to increase its influence on GNU/Linux. The interdependence between SystemD and udev nowadays highlights the significance for Red Hat to encourage widespread adoption of their suite, rather than utilizing components developed by multiple teams of developers.

But you will still end up using SystemD, or at least some of its components. This is because opentmpfiles (the only alternative to systemd-tmpfiles) has been abandoned. Udev/Eudev has no alternatives and is a dependency for NetworkManager, Gnome, KDE, and many others. Gnome cannot function without logind/elogind. Systemd-boot is the default bootloader for certain Linux distributions (such as NixOS, for example). And it won't get better from here. The further we go, the more dependent we will become on SystemD. And this needs to be somehow stopped. Because the more widely used a software is, the more people will search for vulnerabilities in it. And with the amount of code in SystemD, finding a serious vulnerability is not that difficult.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 1 points 10 months ago

Technically, it isn't true that there is no alternative whatsoever to udev/eudev. It's possible to build a system around Busybox's mdev, although it's nontrivial enough that most people aren't going to want to try to do that for an interactive desktop.