[mdlug] Systemd Should Be A Fork -- Why Is It Not?

[A. Zimmer]

Whenever a person or persons desire to fundamentally shift the direction
of an open source software project, it is usually accomplished by forking
the source code.  Forking is the most desirable option in that it
does not disrupt the main user base with sudden and often complicated
or conflicting changes.  A case in point is the recent NeXTBSD project
announcement: https://github.com/NextBSD/NextBSD.  These NeXTBSD developers
have been conscientious enough to not disturb the parent project
with their excursions.  Forking provides potential innovation and change
without needlessly unsettling or burying established methods.  

However, this has not happened with Linux and systemd.  Rather than
creating a fork, as would be the most sensible option, the RedHat
conglomerate and its lackey developers have attempted, and almost completely
succeeded, in dragging the entire Linux community in its preferred direction.
The whims of a tiny clique of programmers, with the financial backing
of selfish corporate interests, have been forcibly ensconced into an otherwise
free and open software environment.

Why has there been no outcry?  Why has there been no resistance to this
odious imposition?

Let there be no mistake.  Systemd is yet a work in progress and its goals 
are fundamental and far reaching.  Systemd endeavors to be the exclusive
layer between ALL applications and the kernel.  Everything within the
Linux ecosystem will need to crucially depend on its monstrous and bloated
service infrastructure.  RedHat aims to create a newfangled and highly
circumscribed "Windows-like" operating system by expropriating the established
freedoms of open source.

Systemd should be a fork.  Let RedHat, and its lackey dog Poettering, forge
their their own little software universe far away in their own little corner.
I would wish them much success.

I do not oppose systemd on either technical or philosophical grounds.
I disfavor systemd mainly because it diminishes the freedom of choice.
My current Linux systems do not use systemd and it is my intention to
keep things that way forever.

Linux user groups, such as MDLUG, should endlessly harangue all distributions
that support systemd in an effort to restore freedom to open source software.