* The entire line is more a riff on "It's the Journey That Counts"[1].
* The name systemd is recast as an eponym for all init processes. This is only poetically significant, but essential to interpret the remainder correctly.
* The reference to "real" is obliquely evoking real mode as a proxy term for all boot-time activity (to this day, all x86 CPUs start in real mode, notwithstanding that by the time init is spawned we are most definitely not supposed to be in real mode anymore, Toto)
* Outwith the kernel there remains no more quintessentially Unix process than PID 1. You can take my shell, my text utilities, even make, uucp, and cpio, but you'll pry the general concept of an init from my cold dead fingers
* The traditional language of Unix systems programming is C.
* Rust certainly is one of the few potential successors to C as a systems programming language.
* The ordinal successor to C is D; deliberately playing on the d in systemd as though it stood for something more than the mundane "daemon", because it does: the name is itself a punning reference to a French term, "Système D", meaning, roughly, "one's ability and need to be resourceful in an adverse situation".
* Ergo, both mechanically and allegorically: to truly prove its worth, there must exist a generally usable init written in Rust.
* The hidden reference to real mode now evokes an even loftier goal, viz. writing the entire kernel, bootloader, and BIOS in Rust
* A common form of the meme was/is: "The real treasure is the friends we made along the way". The implication by distinction being most certainly that systemd is a false treasure, and that the systemd project is not a friendly one (a sentiment some may find controversial, but hardly without evidence).
So the statement
The real systemd is the programming language we made along the way
is therefore a meditation on the past and present of Unix boot-time initialisation, but particularly embedding the suggestions that the greatest long-term value of systemd (both as a program and a project) is ultimately as a stepping stone, a collection of teachable moments regarding both implementation and community engagement, and that if Rust wants to be taken seriously as a systems programming language then a viable init process written in Rust certainly seems like a good idea.
Accusations that this is all tantamount to intentional RESF upvote sniping are perfectly cromulent.
* The entire line is more a riff on "It's the Journey That Counts"[1].
* The name systemd is recast as an eponym for all init processes. This is only poetically significant, but essential to interpret the remainder correctly.
* The reference to "real" is obliquely evoking real mode as a proxy term for all boot-time activity (to this day, all x86 CPUs start in real mode, notwithstanding that by the time init is spawned we are most definitely not supposed to be in real mode anymore, Toto)
* Outwith the kernel there remains no more quintessentially Unix process than PID 1. You can take my shell, my text utilities, even make, uucp, and cpio, but you'll pry the general concept of an init from my cold dead fingers
* The traditional language of Unix systems programming is C.
* Rust certainly is one of the few potential successors to C as a systems programming language.
* The ordinal successor to C is D; deliberately playing on the d in systemd as though it stood for something more than the mundane "daemon", because it does: the name is itself a punning reference to a French term, "Système D", meaning, roughly, "one's ability and need to be resourceful in an adverse situation".
* Ergo, both mechanically and allegorically: to truly prove its worth, there must exist a generally usable init written in Rust.
* The hidden reference to real mode now evokes an even loftier goal, viz. writing the entire kernel, bootloader, and BIOS in Rust
* A common form of the meme was/is: "The real treasure is the friends we made along the way". The implication by distinction being most certainly that systemd is a false treasure, and that the systemd project is not a friendly one (a sentiment some may find controversial, but hardly without evidence).
So the statement
The real systemd is the programming language we made along the way
is therefore a meditation on the past and present of Unix boot-time initialisation, but particularly embedding the suggestions that the greatest long-term value of systemd (both as a program and a project) is ultimately as a stepping stone, a collection of teachable moments regarding both implementation and community engagement, and that if Rust wants to be taken seriously as a systems programming language then a viable init process written in Rust certainly seems like a good idea.
Accusations that this is all tantamount to intentional RESF upvote sniping are perfectly cromulent.
[1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItsTheJourneyTha...