On Sat, 13 Jan 2018 07:40:42 +0000
KatolaZ <katolaz@???> wrote:

> I don't see how what I said could make you considering getting back to
> Debian, TBH :) It's very good to have backup plans, but choosing
> Devuan is about going *forward*, not backward. YMMV though.

The only reason I could imagine to go back from Devuan to Debian would
be to avail ones self of SystemD.

>
> My personal distro backup plan (i.e., what I would do if Devuan would
> not work fine for me at any given point in the future) consists in
> putting some more effort in making Devuan work better. And then a bit
> more effort, if needed. And then a bit more, if that was not
> enough. And then a bit more, if required. And then a bit more. And so
> on :)

In my opinion, the preceding paragraph expresses a Primary Plan, not a
backup plan. Most grassroots projects: Projects not funded or managed
by some soulless conglomerate handing out developerships as career
perks, consist of developers who use the software so often and so hard
that they can't afford for the software to be anything but the best. I
know that's how everyone in the VimOutliner project felt (and I think
still feels, regardless of the \\ ridiculosity.

I'd list plan B's something like this:

* Void Linux

* OpenBSD now has hardware assisted virtual machines and is a great and
stable "Linux".

* Funtoo is still OpenRC, and is committed to never use System-D. You
can add runit, daemontools-encore or s6 to OpenRC to obtain project
supervision/respawning, if you'd like. At this point in time, Gentoo's
a little too "reach across the isle" to suit my taste, and I have a
feeling Gentoo will soon default to System-D.

* Manjaro is still very tweakable to remove System-D and replace with
sysvinit, after which sysvinit can easily be replaced by runit, s6,
Epoch, Busybox Init (talk to Karl Hammar for tips), or several others.

* I've heard that there are now sans-systemD versions of Arch. Given
that once upon a time Arch prided itself as being very close to the
metal, a sans-systemD Arch would be a wonderful machine.

For the Devuan user, these are definitely *plan Bs*. Only two aren't
rolling releases, and one of those doesn't even use the Linux kernel.
I've tried them all, and I think all of them are "more difficult" than
Devuan. Funtoo is a serious time committment: Source compilation isn't
instant.

But if someday some sort of bad people take over the Devuan project,
there are alternatives.

How could bad people take over Devuan? I don't know, and I hope it
never happens. But history tells us it's possible. At the turn of the
century, Red Hat was absolutely committed to free software and making
the best conceivable operating system. Debian was a no-corporation
champion of free software, with strong ties to FSF, and was trusted
absolutely by the larger GNU/Linux community. Back in 2000, Debian was
EVERYBODY's Plan B, because we all knew Debian would always be alive and
always be completely trustworthy.

> Nothing can stop a determined community from setting itself free.

I agree, and once wrote about that phenomenon:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200110/200110.htm#_linuxlog

SteveT

Steve Litt
January 2018 featured book: Troubleshooting: Why Bother?
http://www.troubleshooters.com/twb