Ive been runing Debian 12 (kde) since bookworm was released and am loving it.
I have recently discovered Devuan which seems to be Debian without systemd - what is the benefit of removing this init system?
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There are some security, privacy and stability advantages of other init systems over systemd. But for most people systemd should be fine.
See here for further info:
https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/guides/linux-hardening.html#choosing-the-right-distro
https://forums.whonix.org/t/fixing-the-desktop-linux-security-model/9172/2
https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/systemd-isnt-safe-to-run-anywhere.html
https://unixsheikh.com/articles/the-real-motivation-behind-systemd.html
https://suckless.org/sucks/systemd/
https://without-systemd.org/wiki/index_php/Arguments_against_systemd/
https://nosystemd.org/
Also getting encrypted dns to work with systemd is pretty tough and unreliable in my experience (with debian and opensuse). See here https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/wiki/Installation-linux
Madaidan writes toilet paper rags. Anyone who cites him has negligible knowledge of Linux or, if they possess Linux knowledge, they are a malicious "security" evangelist troll.
His blog page about Linux is a massive piece of "toilet paper" repeatedly debunked at this point. If you think the phrase "toilet paper" is mine, come, have a look.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210929053611/https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/pwi1l9/thoughts_about_an_article_talking_about_the/
https://web.archive.org/web/20220111035527/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25590079
https://archive.is/zxS72
https://i.imgur.com/FiYhbkk.jpg: madaidan being very 4chan-y in terms of blaming the computer language for problems in particular software code (in this case Linux kernel), while dismissing everything when it comes to Windows.
Systemd is hated by hobbyists mainly because it invalidates a lot of their hacked together wisdom and purges a lot of the life purpose they find in SysV/OpenRC homegrown init scripts. There is also a sentiment they hold to try gatekeep Linux away from normies users "incapable" of not writing their own init scripts.
His stance on desktop security may be very hard. But his views are not far off from that of other known security researchers like Micay (Copperhead/GrapheneOS), Rutkowska (QubesOS), Matthew Garrett (Red Hat, Canonical), Solar Designer (Openwall) and others. They heavily criticize Linux and *BSDs to make us aware of all its shortcomings.
Maybe these people dont hate systemd but want choices for a more minimal/barebones OS. Not to gatekeep Linux but to install a more energy-efficient, lightweight Linux OS for themselves like many Alpine, Debian and Arch users do. They believe in the KISS principle. The concept that less complexity equals better security ("less is more").
His stance is not hard but stupid. Broken clocks can show correct time twice a day. He calls Windows and Mac secure compared to Linux, and evangelises users to avoid using Linux, despite the two closed source OSes being giant security targets with unknown bugs and backdoors. Micay hates AMD's secure CPUs and prefers insecure Intel CPUs in his private chats.
Security is not that simple a concept, the way you think you are explaining. Systemd allows to manage ease of configuring security in exchange for the weaknesses a user may have in manually doing unnecessary init script chores. It is well known that systemd is more polished, standardised and simpler to use than manual init systems. Systemd is not magically using more "energy" than OpenRC or SysV. Most of these people find purpose in all the "hard work" they did in manually creating scripts and refuse to accept the new thing out of the "old good new bad" principle, and not what you claim. I have spent a lot of time with these hobbyists to understand every fiber of their thinking and superstitions.