My response was a joke to a low-effort comment, but in general - systemd is complex because it solves the complex problem of booting up a system, complete with error handling, logging, etc. Many of the alternatives simply ignore part of the problem space, making the simple case simpler, but the complex case impossible.
Do you have any references for doing similar system hardening under either of those?
[dead]
No, switching to Qubes OS is the real hardening.
also true
An unbootable system is indeed harder to exploit!
/s
Why would OpenRC or runit be any less likely to boot?
My response was a joke to a low-effort comment, but in general - systemd is complex because it solves the complex problem of booting up a system, complete with error handling, logging, etc. Many of the alternatives simply ignore part of the problem space, making the simple case simpler, but the complex case impossible.