I've never understood why they wanted event driven init. Events can be handled by other system components rather than init. This adds a huge layer of complexity that's unnecessary.

A good example is ConsoleKit being started by init and/or by xinit. You can script desktops like Xfce and KDE to launch ConsoleKit at loading X with script triggers like --with-ck-launch, or you can run consolekit-daemon at boot time. Both work, but the xinit script trigger is event based, not boot based, if that makes sense. Even things like automounting drives is handled by one of several system daemons like autofs, udisks, or udisks2.

This was one of many complaints about Upstart. It tries to do a lot, but it tries to do too much equally.

Its because we are dealing with open source. Leaders are people who need followers, and leaders attract developers and users by touting innovation. That leads to diversity in open source as well as some duplication of effort. (In closed source it leads to broken kneecaps, because there can only be one innovator in closed source.) The contest between systemD vs ConsoleKit vs upstart comes strictly because the source is open. All of the extra things to learn are also a result of that. I just hope they are all well documented.

While I agree that the Open Source model is better, I do not agree that there can be only one innovator because something is closed source. See: Microsoft, Apple, Intel, AMD, Radeon, Nvidia, WD, Seagate, etc. etc.

You have to have competition period. Even closed source can sometimes be better built than open source, but not always.

However when one solution dominates a market and blatently attempts to destroy and disrupt competition, that's when choices have to be made on "is the good for the long run?" and "should this be allowed?" often end with an answer of "no". Microsoft is a prime example of this. It took many lawsuits and legal actions to break enough of Microsoft's hold on the PC industry.

True, and how many times should we be expected to 'Buy' the same software products that do the exact same things before it is considered racketeering? Schools require us to buy current versions of MS Office. Work requires us. Govt. requires us. So we have to pay 600$ every few years for something we already own. Its a racket, not a business.