History of Arch without systemd

While researching the development of consolekit and its fork, consolekit2, I run into a really interesting thread in the Arch forum.  This was the beginning of Arch-OpenRC it seems and this is how the Arch hierarchy dealt with the inquiry and proposals.  The very first thing they did was to hide the thread from search engines, visible only to registered users.  Then they tried to push the guy in pursuit of this project to do what he wants elsewhere, not seek collaboration through the Arch forum.  The guy is none other than @Artoo, the force behind the Manjaro-OpenRC project, and one of the people who last year founded Artix.

Vote on your favorite init system on Distrowatch

Opinion poll: Preferred init software

It is time to really show that the non-systemd movement is not of negligible importance and people are going out of their way to avoid it, like the plague!

For a long while we have been blasted with the idea that “most” or “almost everyone” uses systemd, but there are no reliable data on the number of users, nor does such number conclude of what people use is what people like, or would rather use.  Interestingly enough this weekly issue of Distrowatch’s editorial finds this poll and a top headline review of Devuan 2.0.  Despite of MX linux being a systemd-free distro and climbing to top 10, or antix following close behind, Devuan receives priority by reviewers. 

Manjaro free of Systemd – Obarun-ization – S6 init

For all of those who like their custom made minimal desktops, i3, awasome, jwm, openbox, etc. or are pure console freaks, there is Arch and there is an established and verified way to change from Arch to Artix and have OpenRC and lately Runit as an init system.  This makes a low resources fast booting machine faster and lighter yet.  Artix is progressively rebuilding all Arch pkgs and growing their own repositories, while 2/3 of Arch pkgs can be used still straight out of Arch.  But it is a blend of things with the Arch-Core repository left out.

For those that don’t like or know how to tinker too much with stuff, like conf and rc files, they prefer a precustomized desktop with all the possible bells and whistles predesigned by the distro designers.  Ubuntu, Mint, and Manjaro are really such products appealing to such audience.  But they all have the resource hog complex init system we love to hate.  We have to admit that Manjaro’s desktop designs are state of the art, aesthetically.  People get addicted to Manjaro and stick with it, even if they like further customizing things themselves.

But then there is a gray area of those who slowly are graduating from OEM ready out of the box setups to making the same installation lighter and faster.  That is to improve on the core system where a desktop really floats on.  So how do you go from a Manjaro full desktop installation to something faster and lighter?  Obarun

Hypothetical project and expected feasibility (Manjaro –> Obarun) systemd –> s6

I noticed on Distrowatch’s inquiry statistics that in the past 6mos and less, Manjaro has climbed gradually from #4 to #1.  Mint, ubuntu, and debian are each one click down on the leading in popularity among distro hoppers.  Not that it really matters what distrowatch “reports” or how easy it is to click a distro up, but it is generally accepted as a benchmark of what many people are looking for on a distro.

So what if, Manjaro can boot up with less than half of resources that is currently using, and can be liberated from the plague;  systemd that is, or sysDsease as I like to call it?