Unlike ESR I am a relative noob. I haven't used anything but Ubuntu for more than a few hours, and I haven't even tried to install Devuan yet. I have just been watching from the sidelines as ESR and others poke at Devuan and other systemd removal methods. I don't have the experience to say systemd is bad on my own knowledge, but I do want something to replace Ubuntu that has less hidden magic and yet works with things such as the latest Mesa drivers. I am part of the market that would adopt Devuan shortly before mass appeal, and help to push it over the hump.

Better: include a "What does this mean?" button. And then actually put a useful explanation there.

To the people asking variants of "Why should we care about dethroning Ubuntu?" here is why: you are the back-pressure in the ecosystem. If systemd is as bad as people say - and if not why does Devuan exist? - then we can define a failure condition for linux as systemd being an absolute requirement for anything to work. Conversely we can define a success condition as systemd being unneeded, fundamentally changing its nature, or everything that wants to use systemd being happy to use some other system.

If everyone is happy to include and run systemd then the back-pressure against it will consist of people writing angry comments on the internet. There are few activities that are less effective. This will result in reaching the systemd failure condition.

If some people try to avoid systemd but have a culture and systems that don't care about or actively oppose wide adoption then the rest of linux will ignore them as "those weirdos over there", and their back-pressure will only be marginally more effective then the angry comments. This will result in reaching the systemd failure condition.

If Devuan out-competes Ubuntu then it acquires a large user base, and by extension a large developer base. With a large base it cannot be dismissed as "those weirdos", and developers risk their code being unusable across a sizable chunk of the linux world if they insist on having a required systemd dependency. Bonus if you get the corporate users on the train. Supporters of systemd simultaneously lose one of their largest sources of being the "inevitable path" that linux must travel. This can result in the non-systemd win condition.

If you want to actually fight systemd you cannot stay in the ghetto. If you want to stay in the ghetto then you will be reduced to fighting a Glorious Last Stand followed by slipping into oblivion. Yes, a Glorious Last Stand can be awe inspiring and the best way to fail; but it is still failure.

Perhaps Devuan is not the mass market anti-systemd distro. But if it isn't then we need one fast.

EDIT: spelling