Greetings Didier, greetings.

Didier Kryn - 25.02.26, 16:02:36 CET:
> Le 25/02/2026 à 15:00, Adrian Zaugg a écrit :
>
> > KaOS Linux wants to move away from systemd, as the announced recently
> > and clarified in a separate post:
> > https://kaosx.us/news/2026/systemd_kaos/>
[…]

>      Their choices are very far of Devuan's. Their OS is KDE. It is 
> based on Systemd-Linux because they haven't an alternative.

>

>      Their choices are:

>

>      1) only one DE: Plasma. Plasma forces Systemd, but they didn't care
> up to now.

This is false. Plasma does *NOT* force and does *NOT* require Systemd.

I still have Plasma running under Devuan and am currently writing this
mail with KMail running in a complete Plasma desktop environment with
Wayland on Ceres. Plasma also still runs under FreeBSD.

What is true however is that some non Systemd code-paths in Plasma are not
that well supported and developed. Session management being an example of
that. The blog post by the KaOS developers has some (limited) details on
that.

Also some functionality of parts of Plasma require Systemd, but Plasma as
a whole desktop environment does not. Parts that require Systemd as to my
knowledge are:

- group / application based process view in the process monitor (relying
on Control Group setup of Systemd)
- the new Plasma Login manager
- maybe some other functionality I do not remember

So far I am not missing those. Plasma Login manager would be nice for HDR
support, but not really crucial to have that in a display manager. I am
using a desktop most of the time, not a login screen.

Do not get me wrong: I am concerned about Plasma. Some developers do not
seem to care about other-than-Systemd environments. So for that I applaud
the bold move of KaOS developers: It sends a signal to upstream. I hope
upstream developers will listen to it.

But as of now, Plasma does not force Systemd. On my system I currently do
not even have libsystemd0 installed. Which may be forced by the outcome of
what dracut-install upgrade triggers (see other thread).

I took quite a while to write this, cause it is important to be accurate.
It does not help to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt.

>      2) no usrmerge, not for ethical reasons but by some necessity. 
> Except that now Systemd forces the usrmerge.

Devuan will also force usr-merge and does so already in Testing/Excalibur
and Unstable/Ceres:

UsrMerge Status: Testing/Excalibur and more

https://www.devuan.org/os/announce/excalibur-usrmerge-announce-2024-02-20.html

As will Alpine Linux as far as I am aware:

Implementing /usr merge in Alpine

https://alpinelinux.org/posts/2025-10-01-usr-merge.html

Unfortunately that battle seems lost.

But it is not the most important one to be had either.

>      They plan to survive with another KDE-based DE instead of Plasma, 
> and get rid of Systemd in favor of some obscure init system while there
> are several known good ones -- looks strange. Anyway who knows how long
> KDE is going to work without Systemd? Good luck.

I share that concern. But there are communities of KDE users on platforms
without Systemd: FreeBSD, Devuan, Alpine Linux, Void Linux and likely
others.

Still… I hope that KDE community will stick true to allowing other than
Systemd platforms. I see a risk for a similar line of conflict like what
we have seen in Debian: Some developers trying to force through Systemd,
while others want to keep flexibility.

Forcing through Systemd would alienate people. That has been the outcome
of forcing through Systemd quite some times. I hope some day people will
learn.

>       In reality, they don't drop Systemd: it is Systemd which drops
> them.

I am still of the opinion that Systemd is a perfect example of Microsoft's
strategy: embrace, extent and extinguish.

Even though Lennart Poettering has been calling me names for that.

Best,
--
Martin