[rdtsc]

> Running before systemd helps ensure that all services established by Ignition are known to and can be managed by systemd when it subsequently starts. This allows systemd to do what it does best: concurrently start services as quickly as possible.

I think this looks like a slight jab at systemd ;-)

Systemd thinks it does a lot more other things best

[wmf]

I think that was poorly explained on their part. Digging deeper into the docs, it looks like Ignition writes unit files that systemd runs; e.g. networkd is still used to configure networking.

[thebeardisred]

Affirmative. This is just a mechanism to make sure that interfaces can be properly plumbed, disks formatted with the desired states & filesystems, etc.