Summary
In this first chapter, we've looked at the history of the most common Linux init systems. We've seen the ways in which the legacy init systems are deficient, and we've seen why systemd is a much better replacement. We wrapped things up by looking at the objections against systemd.
One of the challenges of learning systemd is that, until now, there hasn't been any real comprehensive documentation about it. There's basic usage documentation on the Red Hat website, but it doesn't even cover all components of the systemd ecosystem. There are only two systemd-specific books that I could find, which are a few years old. (One book is specific to Fedora, the other is specific to Ubuntu.) Even those books leave some things out. So, the challenge I've set for myself is to create a comprehensive, hands-on guide for all things systemd. In the chapters that follow, I'll do my best to accomplish that goal.
In the next chapter, we'll go on a quick tour of the systemd directories and files. I'll see you there.
