Systemd Adding Its Own Console To Linux Systems

An anonymous reader writes: The next version of systemd is poised to introduce an experimental "systemd-consoled" that serves as a user-space console daemon. The consoled furthers the Linux developers' goal of eventually deprecating the VT subsystem found within the Linux kernel in favor of a user-space driven terminal that supports better localization, increased security, and greater robustness of the kernel's seldom touched and hairy CONFIG_VT'ed code.

Comments

Please stop this madness!

[Anonymous Coward]

Few people want systemd at all. Why it is being forced on us?
Please stop this madness!

Or we learn from others mistakes

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone really want "better localization" in terminals. My experience as a bilingual user from windows is that the less things are localized the better they work.
Making commands localized breaks script compatibility. (And that includes any output if that is parsed too.)
It has gone to the point where I get the English version of Windows rather than one adapted to my native language. The localization of some of the folder names makes things break and the translation of GUI elements obfuscates the function and makes it so that one has to translate everything to English and back to realize what the function is, especially when the original translator used every synonym for "device" he could possibly find.

Unless they have found a new revolutionary way to localize stuff that haven't been done before. Then it might actually work.

Re:it solves some unicode issues

[kthreadd]

A fully functional Systemd has about 69 or so binaries. That's hardly monolithic.

Re:it solves some unicode issues

[Rich0]

A fully functional Systemd has about 69 or so binaries. That's hardly monolithic.

It is when they're all tied together so tightly that you're forced to take all or nothing.

Really? I'm certainly not using every systemd binary on every one of my systems, and the others work just fine. Do you have an example of a case where there is unnecessary inter-dependence?

Re:it solves some unicode issues

[IamTheRealMike]

I haven't used desktop Linux for about a year now, but before that I used it for about a decade and in the early 2000's even did development for it, so I read this post with interest.

I feel the money quote is this one:

People on the email thread have claimed we had an agenda. That's actually certainly true, everybody has one. Ours is to create a good, somewhat unified, integrated operating system. And that's pretty much all that is to our agenda. What is not on our agenda though is "destroying UNIX", "land grabbing", or "lock-in". Note that logind, kdbus or the cgroup stuff is new technology, we didn't break anything by simply writing it. Hence we are not regressing, we are just adding new components that we believe are highly interesting to people (and they apparently are, because people are making use of it now). For us having a simple design and a simple code base is a lot more important than trying to accommodate for distros that want to combine everything with everything else. I understand that that is what matters to many Debian people, but it's admittedly not a priority for us.

For what it's worth, this paragraph makes a ton of sense to me. The biggest problem with Linux, both on the desktop and to a lesser extent on the server, was the fact that you got a basically half-baked set of components that were hardly integrated at all. Basic stuff like being able to set the timezone graphically ended up being distro specific apps / hacks because there was no API to do it, and everything was held together by giant piles of shell scripts and Python which might or might not be something you could actually contribute to or work with, but was certainly never usefully documented.

Basically, the experience of using or developing on Linux gave you the impression of a man in a slightly dishevelled, ill fitting suit. All the parts of a smart suit were there, but none of them quite fitted or lined up, and there were lots of small tears everywhere. And waaaaaay too many people liked this state of affairs because they had made "I am a UNIX user" a part of their identity and had managed to convince themselves that an OS architecture that dated from the 1970's was actually totally elite, and any attempt to reform it was "ignoring the UNIX philosophy" or some shit like that.

Result: MacOS X absolutely ate Linux's lunch on the desktop, despite the fact that Linux was free and Macs .... decidedly not free. Heck Linux didn't even make much headway against Windows, even though under Ballmer the Windows team basically sat on their ass for a decade rewriting the start menu.

From a (now) outsider looking in, this whole systemd fiasco looks a lot like Linux finally being dragged into the 21st century through the sheer willpower of one man, who has an apparently infinite ability to withstand faeces-throwing by the UNIX peanut gallery. Don't like systemd? OK, stick with Debian Stable or FreeBSD and don't get the new features. Stick it to the man and keep your "I Love *Nix" t-shirt on. Me? Between reading about GNOME 3 and systemd I'm starting to wonder if it's time to revisit Linux and give it another shot. If that community can conquer its UNIX fetish and build a modern OS, it has a lot of potential.

Re:IN OTHER WORDS?

[hairyfeet]

Doesn't have a damned thing to do with Windows or binary files, it has to do with the fact that Debian has been made Red hat's bitch by way of ex RH and Ubuntu employees taking over the board. For those that want to know what systemd is REALLY about its about cloud computing, specifically RH is pushing cloud computing like mad and systemd is gonna end up being a "SVCHost" for Linux dedicated to managing cloud computers.

This is one time me and the FOSSies are actually on the same page, as just like windows 8 was forced from on high and gave the users a big fat greasy finger so too is systemd being pushed by corporate with exactly zero fucks given about what the end users want. Ironically despite all this "empower the user" talk Linux has always had this is one case where Windows users had more power thanks to the ability to vote with their dollars, thus getting Win 8 shitcanned in favor of a much saner and nicer Win 10. But this does not mean that all hope is lost in Linux land, it just means you are gonna have to organize and SCREAM BLOODY MURDER and refuse to take this bullshit. You especially have to organize all the volunteer coders and get them to walk away, because losing all that free labor and forcing Red Hat and friends to pay for every single dime's worth of work is the ONLY way most of you can hit 'em in the pocketbook. those of you that run non cloud based servers can of course tell them you will no longer use their products but considering how much time and money you have invested in your servers I really don't see that happening.

Finally you need a rally cry, something simple and catchy and on message to focus the narrative and rally the troops, a "fuck beta" for systemd if you will. And since old Hairy will ALWAYS stand for the users allow me to give you one as a show of solidarity in your plight. Its simple, concise, on message, and sums up in a single simple sentence WTF is wrong with systemd..

SYSTEMD...Its the Metro of Linux!