[cycloptic]

If you can't pull your own weight and don't want to try anymore then yes, you should leave and come back when you can. Sorry if that sounds rude but this is the way it is. OSS (and software in general) has always been driven by people who are fortunate enough to have access to expensive computers and who have the free time and motivation to spend programming. You can't let what they do bother you, and there's nothing wrong with taking a break and coming back later when you're ready. I'm sure the companies who employ these armies of developers are hiring so you could probably work there too if you really wanted.

If anything the power differential has gotten much smaller in recent years with things like github, and last time I checked systemd was accepting pull requests. And even though they won't guarantee it, it sounds like Debian also will continue to accept contributions from those who want to spend time trying to support sysvinit. What exactly is the barrier you're having?

[rezonant]

Before I comment here: I am a fan of systemd in many ways, and I happily use it on my systems. That being said, you do really have to think about the systemic factors at play here. As noted in the original article, Debian found itself in a position where the amount of work to sustain a non-systemd path in a systemd-dominated ecosystem would be too much work _for them_. If you personally have more development time then the entirety of the Debian project, then by all means. Let's just not assume that this is a feasible thing for a single person to handle, and really for all intents and purposes, trying to maintain a Linux distribution (or even just a personal Linux system) without using systemd at this point is folly, no matter how much you dislike it.

That being said, SysV init is (in fact) terrible. I'd say put the effort into something that can supercede systemd some day. That part of the problem is tractable, though success is quite a long-shot given its entrenchment.

[JdeBP]

The person who wrote the headlined article also wrote commentary back in 2014 on discussions of systemd, which highlighted the false dichotomy that people propound that the decision is between van Smoorenburg init+rc and systemd. You are doing that very thing, years later.

That was never the case, especially so for Debian that you mention. In the Debian Hoo-Hah, the choices were van Smoorenburg init+rc, OpenRC, Upstart and systemd; the latter three being the main contenders, as was acknowledged partway through the affair. In Fedora and Ubuntu, the choice was between Upstart and systemd, Upstart having been what they used for some years before systemd.

* https://web.archive.org/web/20141222234706/http://uselessd.d...

[rezonant]

I do want to say that despite my comment here, seems like projects like Devuan, Void, and Arch are doing OK with this, in concert with projects like elogind and eudev etc that forego systemd while providing compatible replacements.

[martinflack]

> Debian found itself in a position where the amount of work to sustain a non-systemd path in a systemd-dominated ecosystem would be too much work _for them_

Just as a side note for the interested, there is a project named Devuan that launched to keep alive a Debian sans systemd.

https://devuan.org/

(I've never run it myself; I just happen to know it exists.)