So, known parties tirelessly work to make Linux a new Windows. Gnome announces even harder dependency on systemd.
GDM will depend on systemd userdb infrastructure. gnome-session will use systemd service manager instead of its own code that "has received very minimal attention in the 17 years since it was first written".
As per article, even now they do not test Gnome in non-systemd environments.
It's like a writing on the wall.
https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2025/06/10/gnome-systemd-dependencies/
#Gnome #Linux #systemd
Introducing stronger dependencies on systemd

PSA for systemd-free distros about work they'll need to do to continue running GNOME

Adrian's blog
The Tragedy of systemd

YouTube
@kkarhan this. Every time this. Other systems need to move on and have something around that provides functionality. It's not an option to cry why blah desktop is not supporting you anymore and how bad they are if you stuck in a 20years ago-world
@fabiscafe @kkarhan The trouble is that this modernisation makes Linux progressively less flexible - hence the comparisons to Windows. At work we're constantly fighting to preserve the ability for things like the same user account to be logged in twice. Anything that doesn't fit the simplified view of single user systems gets broken. Everything is constantly reinvented, with mistakes from earlier generations repeated and we're forced to come up with fresh workarounds.
@okapi it gets streamlined. Functionality that was made with different tooling on different distros is now mostly only one across all (important) linuxes. I don't miss the old times thanks to systemd.
On your example, what's the use-case for logging in multiple times with the same user?

@fabiscafe @okapi espechally in the form of an interactive desktop...

  • I could see it valid for multiple shell sessions, but #tmux & #screen cover that pretty well.

  • If one has to login into different machines then chances are #aithentification is centralized anyway.

Needless to say #modernizations like #SystemD don't happen because people like #Poettering are "hobbyless", but because the preexisting status-quo (#SysVinit) was slow, inflexible and error-prone by strict linearity and non-parallelization.

  • With a literal /etc/init file one can literally get a system to hang due to a mistake (i.e. certain call doesn't get invoked correctly), whereas on #SystemD (and competing solutions like #LaunchD on #macOS and #SMF on #Solaris) your desktop / laptop will continue to noot even if it doesn't have a network connection.

Not to mention as Benno Rice explained: 'Shit just gotmore dynamic!': We don't have that one big ass maingrame and serial terminals, instead we have laptops that may he carried around a campus or traveled with all day and that constantly switch between wireless and wired networks and have VPN tunnels open and whatnot...

@fabiscafe @okapi OFC @chesheer 's criticism is understandable on #FreeBSD given that #SystemD is inherenty focussed and intertwined with #Linux (just as it's Inspiration, #LaunchD, is intertwined with #macOS's Darwin/NeXTstep kernel).

  • The problem is after some hefty "init wars" with like #Upstart and others SystemD became the de-facto standard, and the "(statistical) rounding errors" of #BSD users got sidelined, in part because BSDs looked at that mess and went like "Nyet, SysVinit is fine!" and continued their fiddling around...

And sadly there's nothing they (or anyone else) could've done unless they had multiplied suddenly and being able to keepcthe old tech stack maintainable.

OFC I wish for more diversity in solutions, but #Linux being #streamlined is what makes #portability across distros easier and boosted adoption as well as providing massive gains in solutions like #DXVK, #Proton and #Wine in general.

  • And TBH most "#TechIlliterates" aka. "#Normies" frankly don't give a shit what OS they use. All it needs to do is serve them their eMails and allow them to 'consoom themselbes happy' as in watching YouTube, Play games, etc.
chesheer (@[email protected])

So, known parties tirelessly work to make Linux a new Windows. Gnome announces even harder dependency on systemd. GDM will depend on systemd userdb infrastructure. gnome-session will use systemd service manager instead of its own code that "has received very minimal attention in the 17 years since it was first written". As per article, even now they do not test Gnome in non-systemd environments. It's like a writing on the wall. https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2025/06/10/gnome-systemd-dependencies/ #Gnome #Linux #systemd

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