Obarun – Arch Linux based distro with skarnet s6/66 suite

All of these init systems, including systemd, upstart and Windows Service Manager, pretend they can properly deal with failure, but they don't do it well or predictably.

If you have a service other services depend on, and then it goes down - you obviously need to restart the service that went down, but you may or may not need to restart the dependents, they may or may not have intermittent failures that are going to trigger other things -- It's just a huge mess.

Almost all systems work almost all of the times but when they don't, it is incredibly hard to reason what will happen because of the interaction between services and init system. The problem is inherent and I don't think a general service manager can fix it.

Even on systems that use systemd, I install djb's daemontools, and run my services under it; It only tries to do the things that can be reasoned about - services are indepedent; if you want to orchestrate dependencies, you need to do so in a way that makes sense for your own services because there is no general solution. It is incredibly simple, yet as robust as all the shiny systems (and perhaps more so).

s6 (on which Obarun is based, if you go deep enough) started life as a daemontools clone, but it added enough complexity to lose the robustness, predictability and simplicity of djb's design.

Thank you monsieur

Obarun is a real breath of fresh air. By the time the image downloaded I had read some of the documentation about 66, I am a little familiar with s6 and its advantages (I don't think any other system makes better use of the kernel than s6) and I was happy to see a simple way to make s6 work.

This is really what makes s6 hard and less known, it is missing what 66 provides to average user.

I haven't used systemd for more than a few times testing distros, and the difference on machines that are older is HUGE. Anything with systemd on old machinery is like a messed up windows installation dragging its feet to do any little thing. I can't understand how can so many people defend it WHEN THEY HAVEN'T TRIED ANYTHING ELSE. It is obvious they haven't.

I use void and runit and I run a very simple system, so s6/66 is a ton of luxury, and between a minimalist runit system and an s6 system there is little performance difference. But after seeing Obarun I am ready to try 66 on Void.

If I want to make my own Linux-based OS, where do I start learning/practicing?

I already know how to install and use Arch, should I read and build Linux From Scratch or should I concentrate on understanding the kernel and the low level libs first?

Arch Linux developers add systemd dependency to lot of packages, but reality is that for somebody like me who is obaruner, i have to edit PKGBUILD's and remove unneccessary systemd package and i manage to build and run them without without systemd This is why systemd is cancer, it forces arch devs to add unneccessary systemd deps and that makes life pain in the ass for somebody who uses non-systemd arch linux based distro. Others use dummy libsystemd, or dummy systemd but is it real solution, obarun doesnt provide dummies, so pkg codes are 'cleaner' Try to build some package that requiries systemd, remove it from dependencies and do it, you'll see lot of programs run fine without systemd!!! So why the hell arch linuxers add systemd dependency to almost everything they can??

I've been thinking of switching to Artix with s6 and this project seems similar. Could someone give me a rundown of some of the differences?

I can see it layers over s6 with 66 for service management.

More systemd outrage, but nobody cares.