Linux from Scratch to drop System V versions

The Linux From
Scratch (LFS) project provides step-by-step instructions on
building a customized Linux system entirely from source. Historically,
the project has provided separate System V and systemd editions,
which gave users a choice of init systems. Bruce Dubbs has announced
the project will no longer produce the System V version:

There are two reasons for this decision. The first reason is
workload. No one working on LFS is paid. We rely completely on
volunteers. In LFS there are 88 packages. In BLFS there are over
1000. The volume of changes from upstream is overwhelming the
editors. In this release cycle that started on the 1st of September
until now, there have been 70 commits to LFS and 1155 commits to BLFS
(and counting). When making package updates, many packages need to be
checked for both System V and systemd. When preparing for release, all
packages need to be checked for each init system.

The second reason for dropping System V is that packages like GNOME
and soon KDE’s Plasma are building in requirements that require
capabilities in systemd that are not in System V. This could
potentially be worked around with another init system like OpenRC, but
beyond the transition process it still does not address the ongoing
workload problem.

[…] As a personal note, I do not like this decision. To me LFS is
about learning how a system works. Understanding the boot process is a
big part of that. systemd is about 1678 “C” files plus many data
files. System V is “22” C files plus about 50 short bash scripts and
data files. Yes, systemd provides a lot of capabilities, but we will
be losing some things I consider important.

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