[toggle]

True, but I think you could say the same thing about git. It's a big bundle of binaries, and there aren't alternatives available that you can swap in and out. And yet, git is seen as the perfect example of the Unix philosophy.

People whip out the Unix philosophy the same way they do every other philosophy: whenever it supports what they already want. I don't think it's a valid argument anymore.

[e12e]

I think that's moving the goal posts a bit. Git is a VCS. You can replace some of git with RCS. More of it with CVS, or all of it with mercurial (modulus a few git corner cases). Git interfaces with email and diff/patch. It can produce text output that can be turned into reports with awk if you're so inclined.

I think arguing that systemd breaks with the unix philosophy is entirely valid -- it's taking what could (does!) arguably exist as separate systems with clean, separating interfaces into one monolithic whole for a somewhat unclear gain.

I wonder how hard it would be to write a compiler/translator from systemd service files to sysv init-scripts?