OpenRC vs systemd

Discussions praising OpenRC and other init systems like runit as simpler, more reliable alternatives to systemd, frequently referencing Gentoo, Devuan, and BSD systems.

📉 Falling 0.4x Open Source
879
Comments
17
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#2042
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2010
2
2011
4
2012
4
2013
20
2014
90
2015
76
2016
84
2017
105
2018
26
2019
73
2020
51
2021
70
2022
66
2023
81
2024
69
2025
57
2026
1

Keywords

rc.conf KDE BSD OSX RHEL SysVinit rc.d devuan.org RAID SMF systemd init gentoo rc debian scripts bsd systems freebsd run

Sample Comments

watersb Jan 11, 2016 View on HN

Gentoo probably avoids systemd, uses OpenRC instead.

hackcasual Jun 27, 2023 View on HN

OpenRC predates systemd I believe

sounds May 11, 2014 View on HN

I've had great success with OpenRC.

stefantalpalaru Feb 10, 2014 View on HN

> systemd has wonNot in the Gentoo ecosystem where we have OpenRC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRC

traverseda Jul 6, 2022 View on HN

OpenRC is pretty good and I think it addressed most of the issues systemd was originally intended to solve. Let's all just use it.

mrlonglong Jun 21, 2020 View on HN

I'll stick my head out and say thanks, but no thanks systemd, I'm quite happy with OpenRC until something better comes along that doesn't attempt to assimilate everything under the sun and and includes the kitchen sjnk.

pmoriarty May 27, 2022 View on HN

runit works for me... on a modern system.Unlike systemd:- it's nice and simple- it's well documented- it's easy to troubleshoot- it doesn't have it's tentacles in everythingThat said, I don't run any desktop environments like Gnome or KDE, but just run i3 as my window manager.OpenRC also worked well for me when I was on Gentoo.

edoceo May 27, 2016 View on HN

Gentoo uses OpenRC. It works awesome. I like not being surprised and I like avoiding conversation around systemd cause I don't see it (till I shell into a Debian)

b9be520d93286 Oct 18, 2021 View on HN

I would prefer OpenRC, runit or something similar.

beeflet Feb 15, 2025 View on HN

I don't know, I have never had to use systemd. openrc works fine for me and it seems less complicated. What's the killer feature for systemd?