There was a question about thoughts around systemd or other systems. I’m not aware of any tangible difference between them, and didn’t know if anyone here has any experience to explain the differences and how they would help day to day. I know there was some controversy with systemd and age verification that the pitchforks came out for (for the record, i’m not saying voicing concern is a bad thing because we should be concerned), but I’m unsure if using a different system would show up in net benefits of performance day in and day out. Would love to know your thoughts.
If you don’t know why you should care, then you most probably shouldn’t.
Linux people fight over everything. There are musl people who hate GNU standard C library. GNOME vs KDE has been going for decades. Even before systemd there was sysvinit vs BSD init debate.
So should you join the cult? — probably not, unless you’re into tilting at windmills.
Thank you all for responding - I feel like this is starting to answer the questions. I have made multiple decisions for philosophical reasons, and I do consider it a completely valid reason to use software. I most recently moved to debian because of those reasons. @xgui4 could you tell me what you like about the logs and how it helps you?
@Rootlexx I’ve dipped in and out of reasons why I use different software so i get what you’re saying lol. I’m really just trying to chase down the tangibles of using other init systems, and if anyone had anecdotes on why they moved to it. Was it worth the trouble? etc. Thanks!
@NexusSfan what distro are you using? did you replace systemd or did it come standard on the distro?
@ifearghal I hate that systemd need its proprietary-like tool for viewing log (jourrnalctl) which is not very practical if your system is broken as log text file are easier to use. It is easier to read text file than having to learn systemd command which could change and that are less flexible. My current distro is Artix BTW. and also since systemd is everwhere, some program or tool sadly need like supergfxctl which mean my current laptop is stuck in nvidia hybrid/optimus mode. My next laptop is a lenovo legion which have more option in the bios than my current rog strix which required asus-linux (which required systemd and wayland for full support or Windows for full support) are better supported in non-systemd system so I should be fine. And I could start xgui4 os soon when i will get the new laptop, since my current i have issue right now.
I completely agree with you. Besides, one doesn’t have to get into it more if the init system’s not causing him any trouble already. I mean, for me I switched from systemd to another init system cuz I wanted it to be more lightweight. I have a 15+ year old laptop so it is something I care about. Plus, the dependencies were kind of troublesome for me. Like, I don’t really care that much when it comes to what kind of init system I’d be using, I just prefer having it all more towards minimalism, but it’s just my personal preference and I don’t see it being a concern to most of the people. So, yeah, I think that if the init system’s not causing any trouble it’s not necessary to learn more about its different types. Maybe at least the knowledge that there are other init systems would be nice, but from what I see most of the time it’s definitely not necessary to learn about each one of them more in depth. I hope my message is comprehensible.
You can use journalctl on any system and just point at logs via -D option.
Then the format is open and stable so anyone can implement a reader.
Finally, string values are stored as strings, so e.g. strings can be used to extract relevant information if you don’t have journalctl around.
Only in the easiest of use cases. When you need to extract logs by specific ranges, and/or only for specific services, journal proves to be just easier than massaging sed, grep and awk.
And thanks to decoupling output format from storage format, and the latter being well structured, journalctl can output logs in many forms, from classic syslog style (which you can then grep and awk all you want) to key-value pairs or even JSON which is a godsend for automation.
Oh, and user journal is S-tier. What we had before (~/.xsession-errors file) was utterly awful, with no timestamps or any indication which app printed that.
Runit is quite simple to use,it’s the first init system i cared to look into how it worked,forced by how void linux manage things.
Runit lacks features systemd has and people rely on/take as granted:systemd boot,timers,systemd-networkd,no quadlets for containers,systemd-zram…
With runit on void linux all these things needs to be handled manually and with other tools if available,they usually don’t have an equivalent,outside of community work like zramen.
Systemd installations of gentoo are another example of how systemd made some things simpler.
Systemd has wider support,it’s fast and easier to use,unless you want to go the shepherd route,Systemd is the way to go.
Runit lacks features systemd has and people rely on/take as granted:systemd boot,timers,systemd-networkd,no quadlets for containers,systemd-zram…
I don’t rely or use any of that lol. For me that bloat lol.
Systemd installations of gentoo are another example of how systemd made some things simpler.
How systemd made thing simpler ???
Systemd has wider support,it’s fast and easier to use,unless you want to go the shepherd route,Systemd is the way to go.
Systemd is not easier. And no it is not the way to go imo. I like OpenRC, I do not need or want Red Hat on my system. Sepherd route can be inteesting but I don’t want to have to relearn thing and is only on 100% libre kernel who do not work sadly on my hardware…
you might like openrc but with systemd has clear advantage in some use cases and it’s much more “featurefull” compared to runit,that’s my experience with it.
Services are written like shell scripts with runit and systemd has clearly a more defined structure for their file ,i talked about shepherd because it’s guile,a programming language for everything is still better than understanding how to configure 10 different things.
If you read the gentoo wiki,the installation part,systemd makes the installation faster with less things to care about,files to change and things to configure,it could be even less if you some other things from the systemd ecosystem.
or Windows for full support) are better supported in non-systemd system so I should be fine. And I could start xgui4 os soon 
when i will get the new laptop, since my current i have issue right now.