I tested Devuan Daedalus RC2 just recently and it defaults to the traditional layout as in previous releases, i.e. UsrMerge is still optional.

So if you want to preserve the non-merged, traditional layout (i.e. /bin and /sbin are not symlinked to /usr/bin and /usr/sbin), that is still possible.

Very glad to see this and thank you Devuan developers!

Extra update:

This applies to RC4 as well.

Now that Bookworm defaults to UsrMerge, I was wondering what this means for Daedalus?

I recently tested the latest Daedalus preview (20230601) and it still asked whether I wanted /bin and /sbin to be simlinked to /usr/bin and /usr/sbin or not. Am I correct in assuming that Daedalus will not default to UsrMerge and let the user decide?

If so, I'd be very happy indeed.

My other question would be this: do you think it will be technically feasible to maintain the traditional Linux file system layout in the future given that UsrMerge appears to have become almost a standard of sorts across various distros that want to go the "immutable" route?

Full disclaimer: while not dogmatically opposed to improvements to the Linux file system layout, I'll be frank: I'm not a fan of this particular approach to the matter and remain skeptical of the rationales behind it.

Ever since I started using Devuan, I've consistently chosen to keep the traditional file system layout because it makes sense to me to keep the distinction between /usr and what I tend to regard as the "base system".

Thanks.