Systemd gets a lot of hate but it really solves a lot of problems. People really shouldn't dismiss it. I think it really happened because when systemd started appearing on distros by default people were upset they had to change
Here's some cool stuff:
- containers
- machinectl: used for controlling:
- nspawn: a more powerful chroot. This is often a better solution than docker. Super lightweight. Shares kernel
- vmspawn: when nspawn isn't enough and you need full virtualization
- importctl: download, import, export your machines. Get the download features in {vm,n}spawn like we have with docker. There's a hub, but it's not very active
- homed/homectl: extends user management to make it easier to do things like encryption home directories (different mounts), better control of permissions, and more
- mounts: forget fstab. Make it easy to auto mount and dismount drives or partitions. Can be access based, time, triggered by another unit (eg a spawn), sockets, or whatever
- boot: you can not only control boot but this is really what gives you access to starting and stopping services in the boot sequence.
- timers: forget cron. Cron can't wake your machine. Cron can't tell a service didn't run because your machine was off. Cron won't give you fuzzy timing, do more complicated things like wait for X minutes after boot if it's the third Sunday of the month and only if Y.service is running. Idk why you'd do that, but you can!
- service units: these are your jobs. You can really control them in their capabilities. Lock them down so they can only do what they are meant to do.
- overrides: use `systemctl edit` to edit your configs. Creates an override config and you don't need to destroy the original. No longer that annoying task of finding the original config and for some reason you can't get it back even if reinstalling! Same with when the original config changes in an install, your override doesn't get touched!!