Debian Is Back To Discussing Init Systems, Freedom of Choice

The init system discussion is back on in the Debian camp... A vote will be taking place in two weeks to look at preserving the "freedom of choice of init systems."

Ian Jackson called for a general resolution yesterday similar to what was proposed in March about preserving the freedom of choice of init systems. This isn't about trying to fight again over Upstart vs. systemd as the default init system but is about making sure Debian packages don't depend on a single init system.

This GR seeks to preserve the freedom of our users now to select an init system of their choice, and the project's freedom to select a different init system in the future. It will avoid Debian becoming accidentally locked in to a particular init system (for example, because so much unrelated software has ended up depending on a particular init system that the burden of effort required to change init system becomes too great). A number of init systems exist, and it is clear that there is not yet broad consensus as to what the best init system might look like.

This GR does not make any comment on the relative merits of different init systems; the technical committee has decided upon the default init system for Linux for jessie.

This time around there were enough votes by members of Debian's technical committee so this resolution will be put for a vote in two weeks after the discussion period has ended.