Apart from philosophical and security concerns, I have over time amassed quite a collection of startup and shutdown scripts on my Slackware boxen. I prefer to be able to have full control over what my machines do and hand crafted and edited scripts have never let me down so far. If it's written correctly, it works and does exactly as it says on the tin. That's the beauty of an old-fashioned operating system like Slackware. You may be running a VPN server, offer VNC or ssh login and whatnot. The most reliable way to control them is via your own scripts - and you will know where you put them, thereby learning more about the system you're using. I'm afraid systemd is more of an abstraction layer that will separate users from understanding what us actually being called, what is actually going on under the hood. It may be fine for professional admins who, once they have learned the new commands, will know what they're doing as they know their Linux, but for a lot of private users this will just be a step towards another 'walled garden' operating system that they don't understand. Of course, many don't want to and only want to use an appliance that does the job, and that is fine. It is dumbing down nevertheless and potentially dangerous, in a time when everyone needs to understand the implications of the technology they're using, not the least to safeguard themselves and their families.