Some unreliable predictions for 2015

It's not the distribution maintainers' fault that the traditional setup is so terrible. It isn't even the upstream software authors' fault. They all had an itch and they scratched it. The problem is that the various bits and pieces arose over a period of 20 years or so, and that nobody really talked to anybody else. For quite some time, the traditional setup used to be the best available solution to the problem at hand, and the distribution maintainers did great and mostly thankless work integrating and improving it. That does not detract from the fact that seen as a complete software system the traditional setup leaves a lot to be desired, especially compared to modern approaches like systemd.

Many systemd detractors do not seem to appreciate that one reason why so many distributions fell over themselves to adopt systemd is that systemd actually makes a distribution maintainer's life a lot easier. It basically saves a distribution from having to implement and maintain a lot of (often distro-specific) basic plumbing that is a hassle to design, build, and keep going. People who instead prefer their Linux distribution to be untainted by systemd are free to do that work themselves, or (as the distribution maintainers have mostly done it for them already) at least shoulder the burden of maintaining it going forward once the original distribution maintainers have decided – as is their privilege – that systemd is a more worthwhile use of their time. In that sense something like Devuan is a great idea because it will hopefully soak up all those folks who would otherwise keep hassling the Debian maintainers about sysvinit.