[sf-lug] Release of Debian (GNU/Linux) Buster Stable

[Rick Moen]

Quoting aaronco36 (aaronco36 at SDF.ORG):

> Lastly (in this particular posting), Rick M has his useful Debian
> FAQ at [16], including a description of the means of converting
> systemd-init into the "excellent dependency-based init system"
> OpenRC [17] (IMNSHO, hope that this is all still completely valid
> with Debian 10 Buster!)

I'll probably find time to re-do the research that went into that page
for Debian 10 Buster.  My expectation is that it'll work out the same.

As context, that page was my non-rhetoric answer to a bit of rhetoric I
kept hearing from frenetic systemd opponents:[1]  I kept hearing, over a
couple of years, that it was utterly impossible to run Debian 8 'Jessie'
(then the current 'stable' release) without the system package.  Every
time I raised reasons to doubt the assertion, all that resulted was
hearing the same thing back, asserted more firmly.  So, having gotten my
stubborn up, I created a VirtualBox VM, installed Jessie into it,
confirgured it to use WindowMaker (my preference in window manager), and
then followed instructions on the without-systemd wiki to replace the
systemd package with the openrc one including 'pinning' instructions to
prevent systemd's reinstallation via dependencies -- and then checked to
see what packaages or metapackages of interest were then uninstallable
because of dependency chains including systemd.

I simply included the exact results of that testing, including how to
reporduce them, and a few musings about ways to contend with obstacles,
and about other non-systemd init systems equally available in sundry
ways.

When Debian 9 'Stretch' became the new 'stable' branch, I did some
spot-checking and updating the document, finding that its conclusions
remain valid -- but I didn't rewrite it.

Anyhow, it really takes only a few hours' work to check, and do a
write-up.


[1] This included my friend Steve Litt, who is like me a fan of Devuan
Project but not a developer thereof.  Steve and the others kept citing
the alleged total inability to run Jessie without system as a reason 
necessitating the fork.  I saw the fork as an on-balance reasonable step,
but doubted the factual claim cited as justification.  Turns out, I was
correct, and found just documenting my findings much more effective than
arguing with those making what, in the final analysis, were just
advocacy arguments with no factual basis.