Without wifi it isn't very compelling vs. the good old /etc/network/interfaces setup, it's hard to get simpler than that. I still use that on my servers as well

Without wifi it isn't very compelling vs. the good old /etc/network/interfaces setup, it's hard to get simpler than that. I still use that on my servers as well. I use Debian myself and know that they don't change tech lightly and will keep supporting Systemd for the foreseeable future. So that part isn't a concern for me. Can't help with the Ubuntu installer, I only ever used it for cloud deployments with cloudinit. Systemd is a mixed bag but overall I've been happy with it. I have been using it since Jesse and have never had any issues with it and definitely prefer it over sysv-init (which I always hated, every other init system is an improvement over it IMO... so low bar I guess).