Debian decides on systemd—for now

Posted Feb 13, 2014 21:54 UTC (Thu) by pizza (subscriber, #46)
In reply to: Debian decides on systemd—for now by madscientist
Parent article: Debian decides on systemd—for now

> Second, as I understand it, logind is actually a primary example _supporting_ the people concerned about systemd. Prior to systemd 205 logind was indeed separable from systemd, and Ubuntu uses logind version 204 (because GNOME requires logind). But starting with systemd 205, now logind is no longer usable without systemd, which means that any system must either switch to systemd, stay with version logind 204 and maintain it themselves, replace logind with something equivalent on at least an API level (and maintain THAT), or give up the features in GNOME that require it.

Or, let me rephrase what you're saying. (And just FYI, I'm not referring to "you" specifically)

You're unhappy that the logind authors are not doing the work necessary for you to use new functionality they've written (ie their work), when that new functionality depends on something you don't like, and then complaining that you'll have expend ongoing effort to work around the implications of removing that dependency yet still take advantage of the ongoing work that the logind authors continue to create.

Oh, the reasons for this complaint are because that the logind authors might possibly change something in the future, and that other third parties may independently chose to depend on those changes.

This entitled attitude really irritates me, because it both demands third parties do work on your behalf, while also insulting their integrity.

> The result looks to some, especially those old enough to remember the battles of the 90's :-), like a classic embrace, extend, extinguish play.

Except for one crucial difference -- the EEE play relied on proprietary software (and the BSD licenses that enabled them), and that isn't possible here due to systemd (et al) being released under the GPL.