On Sat, 15 Aug 2015 12:01:35 -0400
Steve Litt <slitt@???> wrote:

Please, Steve, provide us with all you mentionned, as an
> > alternative to mainstream bloated/infected stuff. Since Devuan is
> > all about freedom, this is the place where to deliver to the world.
> > As soon as I can install Devuan on metal, I'll be one of your
> > testers.
> >

> >      Didier

>
> OK. What should come first?
>
> * Automounter?
> * No-dbus replacement for NetworkManager/Wicd?
> * Other?
>
> Please keep in mind, I'm not a good enough programmer to write a
> substitute for Gimp or Gnome. Let's keep the first one simple and easy
> so I can actually do it, in a reasonable timeframe, without adversely
> impacting my real work.
>
I think what can be done has been done as far as Devuan 1.0 and there
is no reason to be overly zealous about the issue of systemd.
Conversely, it is the future that concerns me. I think that in
the interests of user choice and to ease upstream maintenance from
Debian and eventually from projects like Gnome some form of
accommodation for systemd will have to be made.

I used Debian Sid recently, with the apparent ability to boot
using either System 5 or Systemd via Grub. The choice seems clear to me
that Devuan could minimize upsteam maintenance by looking at that. If
it is truly a System 5 boot, a lot of problems could be eased by
simply making System 5 boot the default in Grub, and then leaving the
choice up to the user.

I suspect that the Sid install I was using had systemd-shim installed
in order to handle certain packages. I'm sorry to say that I did not
verify this. My time was limited. I had to move on and install
something else. Even if it was systemd-shim, what if Devuan simply
cloned Debian, used System 5 + systemd-shim as the default? As a
supplement, Devuan could add a set of alternative packages to replace
systemd ones in post-release.

I know that would be distasteful to some, but it would be the easiest
route with a small team, limited resources, and it would give the
Devuan time more breathing room and time to do things. It would
preserve user choice and not force Devuan to drop packages that it does
not have the developers to fork.


T.J.