Subject: [bug#48924] Add systemd

From: Leo Famulari <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2021 14:14:40 -0400

On Sun, Jun 13, 2021 at 11:36:14AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Efraim Flashner <[email-masked]> skribis:
> > I'd also argue that some of the bioinformatics packages are high
> > maintenance and no one likes having to update them.
> 
> I agree with the two of you.  What I’m saying is that if in addition of
> having a high maintenance cost, it’s pretty much unusable, then that’s
> not good.

I share Efraim's point — maintenance burden has never been a primary
reason to exclude things from Guix. I think it's important to handle
this patch in a manner that is consistent with the precedent set by
years of Guix code review.

I'm sorry, I haven't read this entire discussion closely. Tony, does
this package seem useful for you?

There is a weird gamergate-esque faction in the free software community
who hate systemd for reasons that are basically inexplicable. It seems
to be one of several proxy battles fought by a far-right [0] political
camp in a struggle over the direction of free software (I'm not sure
*who* they are fighting... most distros just ignore them). We should
recognize their longwinded sophistry for what it is. Systemd works and
it works very well.

Maybe we *should* start rejecting very high-maintenance contributions if
we do not think they will be maintained adequately. But, I do not think
that systemd should be the package that spurs that decision, because of
the special importance that some people have placed on systemd, which
has nothing to do with software, either technically or in terms of
software freedom.

> Oh you’re saying that someone on a foreign distro might be interested in
> running ‘systemctl’ from Guix’ ‘systemd’ package?  That sounds like a
> bit far-fetched to me, dunno.

I use systemd extensively with Guix-on-Debian, and it's one component
that I will probably not replace with a Guix package. It's too deeply
integrated within Debian for me to feel confident replacing it, although
perhaps systemctl will work fine when provided by a 3rd party. I really
don't know.

The benefits of Guix on other distros — the strong control over the
dependency graph and ability to modify it and roll it back — do not hold
for systemd, in my opinion. Debian's operating system integration and QA
process is good, at this level of the system.

[0] I know that's a gross generalization, but it just seems that way to
me