My list of recommended systemd-free Linux based operating systems
Not everyone likes systemd. While it’s a great operating system, it lacks a proper init system. ;) Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list with some of the more popular systemd-free alternatives out there.
The list is in alphabetical order to not favour anything in particular, but it’s perhaps no secret that I personally like (and use) Gentoo and Alpine Linux myself.
| Operating system | Init |
|---|---|
| Alpine Linux | OpenRC |
| Artix Linux | OpenRC |
| runit | |
| s6 | |
| Suite66 | |
| Bedrock Linux | Supports any init. |
| Calculate Linux | OpenRC |
| CRUX | BSD-style init |
| Devuan | OpenRC |
| Funtoo | OpenRC |
| runit | |
| s6 + s6-rc | |
| sysvinit | |
| Gentoo | OpenRC |
| runit | |
| s6 | |
| sysvinit | |
| Guix | Shepherd |
| Hyperbola | OpenRC |
| KISS | Supports any init. |
| Linux From Scratch | sysvinit |
| Obarun | s6 |
| Parabola | OpenRC |
| PCLinuxOS | sysvinit |
| Pentoo | sysvinit |
| Slackware | sysvinit |
| Void Linux | runit |
A few notes about the list
I have tried most of them myself, but not all of them. I did not add every alternative that’s available out there. My criteria for this list is that they’re widely known and has been around for a considerable time.
If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly and easy to set up and use alternatives, I can personally recommend Devuan, which is a fork of Debian by multiple people from Debian and the community. Another options are PCLinuxOS, which is intended to be easy to use. I have not tried it myself though.
And feel free to send me any recommendation that you think should be on this list as well.
Feedback
MX Linux
A couple of people have recommended me MX Linux. I have chosen to not include MX Linux. Partly because they include systemd by default—even though they default to sysvinit—and partly because I feel like they’re a bit too political for my liking.
Updates
- 2021-08-24 - Added Guix.