Linux from Scratch to drop System V versions

The Linux FromScratch (LFS) project provides step-by-step instructions onbuilding a customized Linux system entirely from source. Historically,the project has provided separate SystemV and systemd editions,which gave users a choice of init systems. Bruce Dubbs has announcedthe project will no longer produce the SystemV version:

There are two reasons for this decision. The first reason isworkload. No one working on LFS is paid. We rely completely onvolunteers. In LFS there are 88 packages. In BLFS there are over1000. The volume of changes from upstream is overwhelming theeditors. In this release cycle that started on the 1st of Septemberuntil now, there have been 70 commits to LFS and 1155 commits to BLFS(and counting). When making package updates, many packages need to bechecked for both System V and systemd. When preparing for release, allpackages need to be checked for each init system.

The second reason for dropping System V is that packages like GNOMEand soon KDE's Plasma are building in requirements that requirecapabilities in systemd that are not in System V. This couldpotentially be worked around with another init system like OpenRC, butbeyond the transition process it still does not address the ongoingworkload problem.

[...] As a personal note, I do not like this decision. To me LFS isabout learning how a system works. Understanding the boot process is abig part of that. systemd is about 1678 "C" files plus many datafiles. System V is "22" C files plus about 50 short bash scripts anddata files. Yes, systemd provides a lot of capabilities, but we willbe losing some things I consider important.

The next version, 13.0, is expected in March and will only focus onsystemd.