No, the original claim was:
"at least the end-user isn't restricted from fixing bugs when they occur."

Paying/getting a different party to fix the bug is a valid application of "not being restricted from fixing the bug". In the case of proprietary software, if the original vendor doesn't fix it, you're stuck with the choice of being vulnerable or making significant changes (switching to a different proprietary software).

Seems a bit silly to store the details you need to access the internet (in the case you router dies) only accessible when you have working internet access. Maybe you should store just those details somewhere you can access without the internet?

You really haven't had to do it that way since 2004.

$ man wpa_supplicant.conf

Mandriva/Mageia have net_applet, which is capable of browsing WiFi networks, configuring wpa_supplicant correctly (including access-point roaming), to the point where the normal 'network service' could (depending on your configuration choices) connect to WiFi during boot (before a user is logged in), and be useable for average users.

This was first a useable solution in about 2005, and only stopped working perfectly with the migration to systemd (it still works better than NetworkManager in some respects, but automatic AP roaming after resume seems to not be reliable, didn't have time to track it down ... have started using NetworkManager for this use case as it seems I should probably invest time in the future rather than the past).

Everything you needed to know about configuring an interface you could find with 'less /usr/share/doc/iniscripts*/sysconfig.txt', better than any network device where the configuration cli's built-in help is only useful if you've completed 3 weeks of expensive training courses.

Since about RHEL4, anaconda would have populated the HWADDR variables so devices don't get renamed, although the new approach in udev is probably better.

NetworkManager (in the stable versions of the distros I run) seems to still be incapable of:
-setting a metric for a device (e.g. METRIC= in ifcfg-$ dev
-pppoe over a wifi interface
-doing static routes in openvpn like you can in an openvpn config file
-sane handling of WiFi (e.g. WPA2-Enterprise where the credentials have other access) passwords like wpa_supplicant+wpa_gui, I don't want to enter it every time I associate to the network, but I don't want it stored on disk ... prompt me once and keep it for this desktop session, because the sceeensaver locks on suspend or idle for 2 minutes,, but the desktop session can run for weeks at a time).

All of these features are either very important to me, or critical for me to my job, so NetworkManager is only used for the cases there is something I can't do the traditional way (mobile connection using the built-in 3g modem on my laptop which doesn't seem to work with ppp over the serial devices created by the qcserial driver like with the usb dongles I used before).

If you are concerned about security, you will have a boot loader password configured, no changing the kernel command line. Of course, you would also have ensured no removable media are bootable, and have set a bios password, and have kept the server physically secured (no removing the BIOS battery, removing any disks etc.).

I needed Flash to file my tax return last night. The bigger problem was viewing the calculated result, that needed Acrobat (all other PDF viewers show the content "this PDF musy be viewed in Adobe Reader 9 or later"), which you can't download anymore and my other laptop that should have a copy is out of action. That's when you need virtualisation of some kind ... (kvm/virt-manager in my case).

No, require them (and all other fixed broadband access network operators) to wholesale their access network at regulated prices.

Many countries which have access network monopolies (e.g. UK where BT is almost the only provider of access lines) follow this approach.

If you allow competition over the existing infrastructure, you won't have to regulate the service providers, the market will.

I thouhht America was the land of the capitalists (where competition can result in better products and services as long as there is some minimal regulatory oversight).

although not yet enabled by default in jessie, it's causing a -lot- of disruption with basics like remote rebooting becoming an economical hazard (petrol costs), remote desktops not cranking up, auto logins not working (previously reliable packages like gdm3 break on upgrade due to forced dependencies to systemd related packages), endless hangs on startup/shutdown, many users complain about slow shutdowns, or machines not shutting down at all, services not starting.

Upgrades of other distributions from pre-systemd to partial systemd (e.g. systemd-sysvinit) to full systemd (units for all services) have worked fine for me. My personal machines (2 desktops, one xbmc box, one home server/NAS/virtualisation host, multiple VMs) that have been running with systemd for more than a year have no issues like this.

Maybe your problems are more due to Debian (testing) and less due to systemd.

That said, there are some problems reported with network filesystems mounted from /etc/fstab, my boxes are running autofs for network mounts which may be why I haven't seen any of those issues.

If you are referring to the feature enhancement tracking bug you link to below, the text of the bug states:

Systemd journal can be configured to forward events to a remote server. Entries are forwarded including full metadata, and are stored in normal journal files, identically to locally generated logs. This can be used as an alternative or in addition to existing log forwarding solutions.

I assume the 'par for the course' is normal log forwarding via syslog, which is noted as already available in the text above.

You can't make this stuff up, please see bug #1098132 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1098132) At the time I'm writing this, that functionality still just *doesn't exist* in systemd/journalctl.

The feature linked to from the bug is a feature that doesn't exist in any logging solution I am aware of. It brings the benefits of the journal (being able to detect if there are missing messages) to remote logging. Yes, there are means to try and prevent an attacker from reaching your logging server, but can you *prove* your remote logging server has not been tampered with? No? With remote journal logging, you would be able to.

No, this will not remove journald from being the owner of /dev/log (as you imply in replies below). If you use this feature, you will have the 'binary logs' feature the rest of the anti-systemd crowd decries on your remote logging server.

The feature you want has been available since journald was availble in any released distribution (and I might add is usually the default in a server-oriented distribution such as RHEL7); the feature tracked by the bug you linked to probably isn't what you want.

Please provide a link to your patch or git repo with this feature.

Yes, I like this feature of systemd. None of the wonderful, stable, featureful init systems (I have maintained init scripts in linux distros with two different init systems before systemd) linux init systems has it.

Until one does, please acknowledge this as a feature systemd has that is nice, and is non-trivial on any other traditional init system (at least without invoking the wrath of the 'I don't want my init system to take over /dev/log' crowd).

While phones (Jolla) running wayland have been on the market for about a year.

I am concerned about more practical side which is to administer the servers at my responsibility *without* using systemd altogether - I do not use graphical interfaces, but it appears that after Jessie, there wont be alternatives.

Have you actually tried using a distribution that has fully migrated to systemd? What exact problems did you run into that would prevent you from administering your servers? Did you notice that it specifically has features for servers? Did you notice any conveniences (e.g. 'systemctl status foo' showing you the last few log entries from foo)? Did you notice your crappy init scripts (as long as they had LSB headers) still worked?

You also seem to imply that systemd requires a graphical interface ... which is quite false. My home server is running a distro with systemd, and there is no X server installed, and systemd doesn't pull in any X libraries. Sure, if requires dbus, but soon dbus will be in-kernel :-p.

By what strange theory does Slackware support systemd? And how is the conversation being "held back"? At least on LQ, I think it's been discussed to death to the point where there's really nothing new to say about it.

I can say one thing for certain: you do not know that anything concerning systemd in Slackware is likely or not. Hell, *I* don't.

Similar logic applies to having the ISP cut off your connection entirely -- if they got statutory authority for one of them, I bet they could get the same kind of permission for the other (if the original language of the law doesn't cover both already).

I am not sure how it works in the U.S., but for example in South Africa, retail internet access products are usually provided subject to Terms of Service, which would allow for remedial action of some kind for abuses such as spamming, port-scanning etc.

Next up: Booting all of your connectivity -- mobile as well as hardline -- through one, integrated, Big Brother-ish app.

You say that as if there isn't a billion-dollar broadband policy (PCRF) and control (PCEF/"DPI") market