Who modded this up?
SystemD has put in jeopardy the entire presence of Linux in the server room:
1: AFIAK, as there have been zero mention of this, SystemD appears to have had -zero- formal code testing, auditing, or other assurance that it is stable. It was foisted on people in RHEL 7 and downstreams with no ability to transition to it.
Formal code testing is pretty much what Redhat brings to the table.
2: It breaks applications that use the init.d mechanism to start with. This is very bad, since some legacy applications can not be upgraded. Contrast that to AIX where in some cases, programs written back in 1991 will run without issue on AIX 7.1. Similar with Solaris.
At worst it breaks their startup scripts, and since they are shell scripts they are easy to fix.
3: SystemD is one large code blob with zero internal separation... and it listens on the network with root permissions. It does not even drop perms which virtually every other utility does. Combine this with the fact that this has seen no testing... and this puts every production system on the Internet at risk of a remote root hole. It will be -decades- before SystemD becomes a solid program. Even programs like sendmail went through many bug fixes where security was a big problem... and sendmail has multiple daemons to separate privs, unlike SystemD.
Do you really understand the architecture of either SystemD or sendmail? Sendmail was a single binary written in a time before anyone cared about security. I don't recall sendmail being a bundle programs but then it's been a decade since I stopped using it precisely because of it's poor security track record. Contrary to your FUD, Systemd runs things as separate daemons with each component using the least amount of privileges needed to do it's job and on top of that many of the network services (ntp, dhcpd) that people complain about are completely optional addons and quite frankly, since they seem designed around the single purpose of Linux containers, I have not installed them. This is a basic FAQ entry on the systemd web site so I really don't get how you didn't know this.
4: SystemD cannot be worked around. The bash hole, I used busybox to fix. If SystemD breaks, since it encompasses everything including the bootloader, it can't be replaced. At best, the system would need major butchery to work. In the enterprise, this isn't going to happen, and the Linux box will be "upgraded" to a Windows or Solaris box.
Unlikely, it is a minority of malcontents who are upset about SystemD who have created an echo chamber of half truths and outright lies. Anyone who needs to get work done will not even notice the transition.
5: SystemD replaces many utilities that have stood 20+ years of testing, and takes a step back in security by the monolithic userland and untested code. Even AIX with its ODM has at least seen certification under FIPS, Common Criteria, and other items.
Again you use the word "monolitic without having a shred of knowledge about how SystemD works.The previous init system despite all of it's testing was a huge mess. There is a reason there were multiple projects that came before SystemD that tried to clean up the horrific mess that was the previous init.
6: SystemD has no real purpose, other than ego. The collective response justifying its existence is, "because we say so. Fuck you and use it." Well, this is no way to treat enterprise customers. Enterprise customers can easily move to Solaris if push comes to shove, and Solaris has a very good record of security, without major code added without actual testing being done, and a way to be compatible. I can turn Solaris 11's root role into a user, for example.
Solaris has already transitioned to it's own equivalent daemon that does roughly what SystemD does.
As for SystemD: It allows booting on more complicated hardware. Debian switched because they were losing market share on larger systems that the current init system only handles under extreme protest. As a side affect of the primary problem it was meant to solve, it happens to be faster which is great for desktops and uses a lot less memory which is good for embedded systems.
So, all and all, SystemD is the worst thing that has happened with Linux, its reputation, and potentially, its future in 10 years, since the ACTA treaty was put to rest. SystemD is not production ready, and potentially can put every single box in jeopardy of a remote root hole.
Riight.. Meanwhile in the real world, none of my desktops or servers have any SystemD related network services running so no root hole here.