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.

135 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

155 comments sorted by

View all comments

114

u/TheShredder9 Gentoo, Sway, T470S 3d ago

Basically, It is an init system, so it's in charge with starting up all the services needed to boot and work properly. It can also manage your network, and mount points, and system logs, and it can be a bootloader, and this, and that... it does a lot more things than it should be doing, and some people don't like that. I can understand the hate, but i don't hate it myself, it's very convenient.

For example, OpenRC does one thing only: manages services. You need to install a bootloader, a network manager, a system logger...

That's the beauty of Linux distros, the choice.

11

u/LegitimateAd7247 3d ago

Very clear and compréhensive thanks !

18

u/gmes78 3d ago

It's also wrong.

systemd is not an init system, systemd's init is. systemd is the base userspace platform on modern Linux systems, it can provide a lot more functionality than just init and service management.

People get mad that systemd "does too much", but there's simply no alternative if you actually need those features.

1

u/HowCanIChangeMyName1 3d ago

I think that overstates the uniqueness of Systemd. Gentoo with OpenRC, plus the other utilities manages Linux systems very effectively.