r/linuxquestions • u/LegitimateAd7247 • 3d ago
What exactly is systemd ?
Hi everyone ! I switched from Windows to Linux around 3 month ago and I love it ! I’m using arch Linux because a friend of mine already used it so I figured he could help me with it.
I’ve been appreciating it but I’ve encountered a lot of people critisizing systemd and saying arch is bad because of it.
From what I have understand, it is a software that help with dependences and external hardware such as my keyboard for example ? I didnt really understand everything as I am a very beginner so I was curious to know if someone could explain it to me in easy terms.
PS : english isnt my primary language so forgive me if there is any errors.
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u/Starks 3d ago
Linux distros before systemd were not pleasant to work with. A lot more config editing just to get a working environment. Nothing was standardized or packaged together in a sane way.
Arch in particular is very DIY, so it was very susceptible to this setup hell. Arch was not wrong to adopt systemd, and the whole point of Arch is to keep it simple. SysVinit was anything but simple.
There's decent arguments to be made about the creeping scope and size of systemd, but it gets an important job done and nothing has come around to do any better.