All:

   Please listen to what the man is saying.  It seems to me he's got it
precisely:

On 12/29/23 17:44, altoid via Dng wrote:
>
> Once Debian is infiltrated/absorbed by MS, the whole Linux ecosystem
> will be doomed, something that, incredibly enough, does *not* seem to
> be in anyone's radar.

    [...]

> While all this is happening "in-and-around" us, within the
> non-systemd Linux communities there is an absolute lack of agency on
> how to solve what is *now* the most important problem at hand:
>
> ---->   Debian dropping sysvinit support. <----
>
> Every/anyone who can say *something* jockeys for their favourite init
> software option without understanding that what Devuan needs *now* is
> not a *choice* but to survive the lack of sysvinit support.

    [...]

> To rid the Devuan collective of said distraction [/usr merge;]
> a decision *has* to be made and a course to follow set.
>
> ASAP.
>
> My take is that Devuan should (once and for all) just accept that the
> /usr merge thing is a fact of life and get on with seeing about the
> most important issue in front of it:
>
> Its survival as a "Debian dependent" Linux distribution.
>
> Please note that I am not against *choice*, by any means.
>
> What I am (ab-so-lute-ly) against is, at *this* moment in time and
> with the bullets whizzing past our collective Devuan heads, having
> discussions about *choice*.
>
> It is like having a discussion about what the orchestra on the deck
> of the Titanic should be playing ...
>
> While it is sinking.
>
> A Happy New Year to you.
>
> Best,
>
> A.

   altoid's points in order of importance, as they appear to me:

1 systemd will be the death of anything labeled    `Linux' which accepts
  it.

2 Debian dropping sysvinit will kill Devuan unless we're prepared to
  handle that loss by maintaining it.

3 Anything that distracts us from being prepared to maintain sysvinit is
  a waste of time, of which we need every day we can get.  These
  distractions include /usr merge, choosing the ``best'' init system,
  and anything else that we can let slide until we're prepared to
  maintain sysvinit.

   Altoid, please correct me if I'm misinterpreting anything you've
said, but your analysis as I understand it hits the bullseye.

            Best wishes,

                    Max Hyre