On Sat, 13 Jun 2015 18:38:29 +1200, Daniel Reurich wrote:
> I'm currently looking at patching the desktop tasks in taskselect to use
> slim instead of lightdm (atleast until lightdm has been cleaned up to
> not depend on systemd).

Slim should work fine as the default display manager. Although I personally
ever so slightly prefer lightdm (only for the script hooks actually), I
would be content with slim as well. It's KISS, and it works. I can switch
without trouble between the two, noticing only differences in visual
appearance.

> Also I'm planning to replace gnome-network-manager in those tasks with wicd.

As for wicd I guess it too should easily meet the requirements. Plus, (aside
from the systemd aspect) it does not pull in a whole host of packages in its
wake like network-manager[-gnome] does; packages which are not necessarily
desirable on e.g. lean DE installations.

> These changes bring us closer to our goal of not needing to install any
> systemd dependencies. (There still are packages like cups and lxsession
> that need to have the tie-ins to systemd excised.
>
> Also, these changes only effect from scratch installation of Devuan,
> where tasksel is used. Installing the removed packages manually will
> work just fine.

So +1 for both proposals from me. Especially since, as you say, it's only
about the tasksel, and it would presumably shorten the time till stable
release.

Cheers
Urban