Debian Now Voting On Init System Coupling

Written by Michael Larabel in Debian on 23 February 2014 at 11:40 AM EST. 103 Comments
DEBIAN
Debian's technical committee have moved onto voting over the operating system's default init system to now voting whether they should issue any guidance concerning the coupling of packages for specific init systems(s).

This latest technical committee voting comes after they decided to use systemd by default in Debian over using Upstart, SysVinit, or OpenRC as a default. The init system voting was very heated and caused lots of in-fighting. Ultimately, Debian-based Ubuntu also decided to abandon Upstart in favour of systemd.

The options for this latest Debian tech-ctte ballot that began on Friday includes:
L: Software may not depend on a specific init system
N: No TC resolution on this question at this time
A: Advice: sysvinit compatibility in jessie and multiple init support
FD: Further discussion

At the time of writing, the committee member votes include:

Ian Jackson: L, N, A, FD
Russ Allbery: N, A, L, FD
Don Armstrong: A, N, L, FD
Colin Watson: L, N, A, FD
Bdale Garbee: N, A, FD, L
Keith Packard: N, A, FD, L

We're still waiting on two more votes but we will see how the vote concludes shortly. At the moment the voting is leaning in favor of effectively taking no action by the committee on the init system coupling matter.
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