The systemd is a init replacement and basic building blocks for a Linux system. The majority of Linux distributions have adopted systemd and replaced older init systemd such as the UNIX Sys V and BSD init. This article covers a historical and technical retrospective of systemd.
systemd 10 years later: a historical and technical retrospective
From the essay:
10 years ago, systemd was announced and swiftly rose to become one of the most persistently controversial and polarizing pieces of software in recent history, and especially in the GNU/Linux world. The quality and nature of debate has not improved in the least from the major flame wars around 2012-2014, and systemd still remains poorly understood and understudied from both a technical and social level despite paradoxically having disproportionate levels of attention focused on it.
I am writing this essay both for my own solace, so I can finally lay it to rest, but also with the hopes that my analysis can provide some context to what has been a decade-long farce, and not, as in Benno Rice’s now famous characterization, tragedy.
In the first chapter, on the basis of contemporary mailing list posts, I discuss efforts to modernize init, rc and service management that took place before systemd.
In the second chapter, I discuss the early history and design philosophy of systemd.
The third chapter is a technical critique of systemd.
The fourth chapter discusses other historical parallels to systemd in FOSS development.