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this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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SystemD isnt exactly a program but more of a group of projects, the only "core" SystemD software on most distros is the init system... Which you can run completely without SystemD's UserDB system (the part being talked about in the post).
Basically this means you as a user dont have to do anything but switch away from projects that depend on SystemD's UserDB (like Gnome), not SystemD as a whole
However if you do want to move away from SystemD as a whole you can replace your init system with another one, gentoo's wiki is a good starting point for learning a bit more: wiki. Personally I love using openrc but of you have no need to touch init files... Dont switch
You can also just... not put your PII into UserDB. It can store clear names, mail addresses, postal addresses and now birthdates... but it can also just serve as an interface to
/etc/passwd. Which conveniently also works with LDAP accounts (unlike your hand written/etc/passwdparser) if you're an organisation that uses LDAP.This is the entirety of what UserDB knows about me:
I don't expect that to change with this PR.
Does KDE also use UserDB?
KDE is commited to keeping the desktop itself SystemD agnostic. Their new login manager does depend on SystemD, but you can run KDE Plasma from any login manager
mine doesn't appear to be? it says installed but disabled. unless i'm looking at the wrong service which is entirely possible.
It appears to be active (running)
this is what i was going off of. i'm running cachyos (arch). am i reading wrong?
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/763290/what-is-the-preset-field-in-systemctl-status
Thanks for explaining it a bit more. I moved from Windows 11 to CachyOS (limine bootloader and kde plasma DE) sometime last year and that may be a bit above my paygrade right now. Based on what I'm seeing in the Arch Wiki it would seem that quite a few systemd components are in use for my distro.