The Cube

Systemd is perhaps one of the WORST things that ever happened to Linux. It took a simple, easy to understand startup process (whether BSD or SystemV) that could be completely described in a page or two that I could explain to students and have them grasp it in a single lecture to this hydra of a monstrosity that improves startup times when it works, but left one of my Ubuntu Linux systems unable to complete startups consistently after an Ubuntu upgrade. I really which it had never been foisted on ordinary desktop users who generally simply do not need all of its complexity and who are left hanging if they have a problem. On that Ubuntu system, when I went onto forums to see if anybody had any ideas what might be going wrong, the universal answer was, unacceptably, to reinstall the system. That was the end of my use of Linux desktops, though I do still have a Linux firewall and a Linux system to support my weather station and network services.

I have two machines running Linux 24/7 right now, on old hardware, both Ubuntu, but both upgraded to use SSDs. Unfortunately, one of the two started out as a 32 bit install, though the processor is a Pentium D and should be 64 bit capable - so a re-install is in its future (fortunately, being a firewall, there isn't much I will have to do for the reinstall.). Or, it might simply get replaced by the latest Raspberry Pi when the time comes - not very expensive, and consumes less power, and donate its innards to other projects.