I moved away from Linux as soon as systemd was everywhere. I first migrated to Slackware, and then to FreeBSD. I wouldn't call this kind of move overreaction.

Some people just want to know exactly what is running on their system, and how it works. That's one of the reasons I don't use Windows.

(I do confess that I never took the time to learn systemd properly, but I highly appreciate it for introducing me to the BSD world).

I don't particularly think so. The amount of my time that systemd has wasted is insane. Buying a mac would have saved me all that time... if only I liked their hardware more.

systemd has wasted a ton of time for me as well.

Then again I just bought a new MacBook air and they keyboard gave out after two weeks and it gave me a rash.

Can't win at all.

I don't think so. If the distribution you're using insists on integrating software that you don't want, it's reasonable to leave.

He tried other open source operating systems and didn't find them acceptable. Sure, there are Linux distributions that have formed to avoid systemd, but it's not clear how long any of them will last.

Mac os isn't exactly unicorns and rainbows either, but there are some benefits of being part of a larger user base, too.

Don't tell him about launchd

Did apple reinvent every Unix daemon under the sun as part of launchd? And did they also reinvent all the security problems while they were doing it?

The problem with systemd isn't necessarily how it handles system startup and daemon supervision (although I don't care for that), it's that it subsumes so many other things, and with no technical excellence.

I prefer to use my computer to do productive things, instead of fighting against the OS. MacOS is a certified Unix underneath. Works great.