this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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Surge in Systemd forks after the latest changes (github.com)
submitted 1 week ago by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/62192988

The latest changes implemented in the Systemd repo, related to or prompted by age-verification laws, have made many people unhappy (I suppose links about this aren't necessary). This has led to a surge in Systemd forks during the last days ("surge" because there have always been plenty of forks). Here are some forks that explicitly mention those changes as their reason for forking (rough time ordering taken from the fork page):

Hopefully the energy of this reaction won't be scattered among too many alternatives, although some amount of scattering is always good.

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[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's concerning how dismissive people are about this change considering this is the first in a long line of adversarial changes to what is a critical piece of software.

[–] pglpm@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

It is. My impression, which can be completely wrong, is that it's mostly younger generations, who have not experienced this kind of danger and inch-wise progression, and therefore underestimate it.

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 11 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I'd rather just go back to sysvinit tbh.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

100%

Why trade one metastatic syphilis for another? Just go back to what worked and gave us reliable, fast boots, no fstab fuckery, and no "I'm sorry I can't shut down because I was designed by a guy who wanted to work at Microsoft (and now does)" bullshit. It's all fucking baling wire.

Heaven forbid we need to learn what xinetd is for, or how to make a fucking loop in a bash start script.

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The stop job bullshit pisses me off so much. I shut down the computer because I want it off JUST KILL THE PROCESS.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This drives me absolutely nuts. For my Linux machines, I just type sudo shutdown now and that does the trick no problem. 9 times out of 10 I have a terminal window open anyway.

But my work laptop running Windows 11? lmao, after deliberately shutting it down on Friday last week, I just pulled it out and opened it up to a prompt from Outlook saying "Do you want to delete everything in 'Deleted items'?" and a nearly-dead battery. Thanks Microsoft. That's definitely what I want it to do when I hit "SHUT DOWN".

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Agreed. I prefer windows to shut down as God intended: without any notice while I'm playing a video game so that it can do some stupid update.

[–] forestbeasts@pawb.social 6 points 1 week ago

openrc's pretty great too. Nice to write scripts for (...but writing sysvinit scripts gives you compatibility with other init systems for free, so...) and has user services and stuff.

Never tried any of the other other init systems, but there's plenty out there!

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I wouldn't personally. But either way all these forks are silly considering the non issue they're addressing. Though it's their developers, God-given time to waste. Should they choose to.

It was a merge request from an external unassociated developer. To add an optional text field to a bunch of other already optional and generally unfilled text fields. With no method to check or enforce anything. To the nameD subsystem of systemD. If the text field offends you don't fill it. Save your powder for those implementing checking and enforcement.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The pr was merged. It's not just a request from an external developer any more, it's part of systemd.

[–] Sophocles 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I can definitely see both sides. On one hand I do agree the actual change itself is pretty meaningless. Just don't fill the systemdb entries with any info. However what the change represents is much more alarming. It signals a foot in the door to open source devs conplying to the authoritarian whims of a governmental power. They should definitely not comply with dumb legeslature like this, especially considering their userbase.

TLDR: the change itself is dumb and small, but what it means for the foss community is much more alarming and dangerous.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 1 points 1 week ago

I still don't. Unfortunately these groups are still required to follow laws regardless of how stupid they are. And many more than this are indeed, very stupid.

If you want to have riteous anger at someone who deserves it that might have positive impact. Rail against the governments. Not to downplay what happened in Nazi Germany. But would you think it reasonable to harras and harangue German Jews who wore the star of David to identify themselves as required by the government? I don't think a reasonable person would. When I bump into groups that have to comply with stupid state laws here where I live, I don't blame those groups. I blame the state like any sensible person would. Not attacking and blaming other victims of the state.

Do you think they should resist the state? That's all well and good. Will you be there to defend them when the state comes? To fund these random devs defense? No? You won't and they're largely on their own? Then what do they owe to us? What entitles us to give them so much grief?

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Almost sounds like a grave overreaction to nothing.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 0 points 1 week ago

Agreed.