No runlevels??!!

There are no runlevels on BSD-style systems. It is also true that when it comes to Unix, runlevels are a relatively new invention whereas init has been around since Thompson and Ritchie noodled around with operating systems at Bell labs in the 60s. (Does anyone know if Multics used init?) I wasn't around when runlevels were introduced in 1983; if I had been I most likely would have asked "why add all this complexity to something that already works?".

(more...)