[jraph]

> Systemd has this problem

It seems like it is a solution for anything that lives in /usr and could break your system / cannot directly be put there because it's read only when you are developing it. Not systemd-specific though obviously the part that manages the system boot and system services is going to be particularly concerned by this.

> IMHO systemd has amassed too many features

But systemd is not some monolith that does a lot of things. It's a set of tools that do one thing, well, quite like GNU and that happen to be called systemd-something. Often, thin wrappers around kernel features, like nspawn. I find them very cleanly designed and easy to use. To each there own but I find the possibility to create services declaratively with systemd unit files particularly useful, instead of having to write custom shell scripts and copy paste boilerplate. Upstart was a step in the right direction in this respect. It's not just "fine for basic desktop needs", it's a great fit for desktops and also particularly helpful on servers as well (not speaking about Ubuntu, just systemd).

[ldng]

"But systemd is not some monolith"

It. Does. Not. Matter.

Still to much code in one place. Not enough review and unrelated subproject bitrot at different rate without visibility.

[lazyier]

That is like saying Apache project is subject to not enough review and unrelated subproject bitrot.

https://projects.apache.org/projects.html

or GNU

https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/GNU

Or FreeBSD or OpenBSD....

Having a single large overall project that manages a diverse number of individual software products is a common pattern and certainly something that isn't remotely unique to Systemd. There is no reason to denigrate systemd for that.

[ldng]

You're making an Apple to Orange comparison here. Your examples are not released to the outside world as a single product "take-it-or-leave-it" and painting it so is borderline bad faith.

[throwaway82652]

Painting systemd in that way is also bad faith, because it's not a single product "take-it-or-leave-it" either. If you think it doesn't have enough review for your purposes then it's time for you to step up and start reviewing, either in systemd or in another project.

Part of the reason why people seem to (falsely) think systemd is monolithic is because distros have been historically bad at packaging it and haven't split up the components, but that's been improving over time.