On 2018-11-16 4:11 a.m., Daniel Reurich wrote:
> Hi Devuan followers, fans and friends,
>
> Debian as of the upcoming Buster release looks to be implementing a
> merged /usr by default. At this stage there is no plan to make it
> forced... but you never know what happens when their Technical Committee
> suddenly decides it's an issue they need to force a decision on...
>
> So... for Devuan, do we want to default to a merged /usr in our coming
> release of Beowulf or are we going to resist another pointless
> rearranging of the deck chairs...
>
>
Given the current "definition" of Devuan, I see little choice other than
following Debian, it is after all the source of most packages used in
Devuan.
Merged /usr will creep in 100% over time and one day not to far away it
will taint sid/ceres to the point that there is no choice anyway.
The dodging of systemd is already a big enough chunk to gnaw away, it
makes little sense to make the situation many times worse.

Like it or not systemd and its limitations are forcing changes to the
landscape and merged usr for little other reason, the once possible
uniting force of LSB is done for.
Systemd's preferred hierarchy _is_ the new LSB.   Live with it or go it
alone.

Ideally Devuan would be the new Debian and calling the shots, but that
is not happening soon, although at some point Devuan may be the required
lifeboat for Debian passengers.
There is likely a fairly solid Devuan installed base out there, but a
lot of that is based on close Debian compatibility at least for initial
install, IMHO we can't lose that or Devuan will quickly follow various
niche distros into oblivion.

Clarke