Gentoo setup involves completely different downloads depending on whether you want OpenRC or systemd. It's not like there's a single installer that you run which lets you choose between the two and has OpenRC as the default choice. They're both equivalent and the installation handbook doesn't suggest either one over the other.

Of course I have no doubt that there are more Gentoo users that use OpenRC than systemd, and I wouldn't be surprised if outing yourself as a systemd user will get you flamed in tech support channels :)

I lurk the Gentoo IRC & mail (15+ years). I've never seen any systemd flames (not that they never happened). Gentoo IRC has always been helpful - even when I want to do stupid things.

I tried to setup a Gentoo system for fun last weekend. (Crazy idea of a "fun weekend," I know.) I got to selecting a profile and wondered why there was no `systemd-hardened` profile. I was googling to try and understand what the hardened profiles do and found this thread[1] which said: "My personal opinion, having read many of the threads I've referred you to is that systemd and security go together like windows and security. That is, its an oxymoron."

Maybe we have different ideas of what constitutes flaming, but to me comparing somebody's choice of operating software to the "W-word", in a linux distro support forum, is about as inflammatory as it gets. Saying that systemd is insecure-by0definition is also quite rude. This is several years old, and I'm sure things have changed in the intervening years, but as a perfectly happy systemd user I can say that thread definitely left a sour taste in my mouth, at least initially.

[1]: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1029642-start-0.html

Personally, this seems extremely tame.

I don't think there is anything really stopping you from standing up a Gentoo system with OpenRC from the systemd installer or vice versa though. It seems really more like a convenience than a requirement to have both installers.

To be precise, there is a single installer image that you boot and use to create the partition layout. Then you pick a stage 3 tarball and unpack it into the root partition, and this tarball is either OpenRC-specific or systemd-specific.

Yes it is possible to change your mind and switch from one to the other after installation, but it's not straightforward.

IIRC the Kernel needs to know which one you use too.

The kernel usually just needs to know which binary to execute as init, which is often provided as kernel command line argument by the bootloader.

I use syslinux, which is manually updated, no init is passed in.

In the Gentoo kernel make menuconfig there are options for Systemd vs OpenRC - not entirely sure what they do.

Apparently it's been a while since I've had to go through that section of the manual.