[mythtv-users] Recommended Linux Distro post CentOS

[Ryan Novosielski]

On Tue, Dec 15, 2020, at 21:05, James Linder wrote:
> 
> > On 16 Dec 2020, at 7:07 am, Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
> > 
> >> Ben <bkamen at benjammin.net> wrote:
> >>> I'm wondering who is using what for their home servers for MythTV (and Plex) on the same box.
> >> Can't speak for the non-Myth stuff, but my backend and frontends all run Devuan now - what Debian would be if they'd not succumbed to the dark side of systemd.
> > I have tried Devuan and it would indeed, be suitable for myth front and backends.
> > 
> > However...
> > 
> > Despite telling you during installation that "everything is your choice" the default install desktop is effectively forced to be xfce, whereas I prefer LXDE.
> > 
> > The "debootstrap" code was seriously borked when I tried it, and you could not install the same version in, for example, a VM as the version you were running, only the 'next' version. WTF? That killed using it for a KVM server stone dead.
> > 
> > As I also run LTSP here, and debootstrap is used for the clients, that was a no-no too. I understand that the 'new' version of LTSP will work properly, haven't tried that on Devuan lately.
> 
> I am not trolling, or standing in a copper vase full of water on a 
> mountain top during a thunderstorm saying all gods are bastards (Terry 
> Pratchette) but why the angst about systemd?
> I find it to be different
> Not particually hard to learn
> Quite nice in principal, being all-in-one-place and consistant
> (My RockPi 4 does xxx on boot, ah systemd stuff)
> James
> PS well 2 places, /etc/systemd /usr/lib/systemd
> PPS and yup in context of mythtv

Are you sure it's really two places? I was under the impression that you could do everything in /etc, and should, and that the system stuff was shipped in the other places, but it's been awhile since I wrote my own unit file.

I totally agree; systemd is almost entirely superior to the old method. The first time you have to tweak a vendor-supplied init, the reason becomes immediately clear. For example, we have some systems that boot without a /var and need some directories created. We do an overlay that checks for/creates the relevant directories. With an init script, you have to patch the script each time if that's not something the vendor provides. On stateless systems in particular, it's far superior, but the ability to configure complicated dependencies is great on any system (so long as you take the few minutes to figure it out).

-- 
  Ryan Novosielski
  ryan at novosielski.com