Linux Distros (so far) Refusing Age Verification
- Ageless Linux - https://agelesslinux.org/index.html
- Omarchy Linux - https://omarchy.org
- Adenix GNU/Linux - https://www.adenixgnulinux.org
- Artix Linux - https://artixlinux.org
bonn2@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I was wondering when I would see this headline. I wonder if any other big names do similar
TheLastOfHisName@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I think this might be the first and only time I’ll ever see Omarchy getting upvotes on this site.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Linux Distros (so far) Refusing Age Verification
The systemd dude, ever so flexible, is already working on adding this into core components, though.
uhmbah@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The systemd mod is not a gateway. It’s just a date field.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Damn. It’s only being talked about and people have already folded.
It’s only a date field. Then it’ll only be an API for other service integration. Then it’ll only be an optional plug into a remote service. Then it’ll only be an optional, but strongly recommended, dependency in other software. Then it’ll only be a digitally signed third-party value that’s mandatory. Then it’ll only be something most installer won’t proceed without.
We’ve been jumping from slippery slopes to slippery slopes over the past few years. It’s tiring. And the coincidental timing of all this is not helping.
FG_3479@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Systemd is open source so it can be forked to have features removed.
0x0@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
cley_faye@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Good luck building a distro that play nice with your fork, then. Systemd is embedded deep in most distro, replacing it without breaking things is not an easy task.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Genuine question:
is Graphene a “big name”? They talk a big game and are probably one of the biggest alternative phone OSes but all results I can find are putting them at 250k users and less than 2% of the Android market share.
But, more importantly: Do they at all care about US government contracts? Red Had have RHEL. ubuntu have whatever they call their premium OS for enterprise users. Google and Apple are obvious.
XLE@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
GrapheneOS has a deal with a hardware manufacturer, Motorola. I’d consider this refusal to be a big deal on those grounds alone
bonn2@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Frankly I think they are the largest os vendor that is going to take a principled stance on this.
Luci@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Big enough for a headline, not big enough to make a difference.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I would go so far as to say they are only big enough to make an updoot-bait headline at that.
kabe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I also wonder whether or not grapheneos, or open source Linux OSs in general, will face any repercussions for failing to comply to these regulations due to the relatively low user count.
wewbull@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Hate to say it but systemd, the init system of most Linux distros, already has PRs with maintainer backing to implement DoB recording.
Some people can’t kneel fast enough.
portnull@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Which already has a revert commit github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/41179
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The self-important creator of Systemd has personally blocked that PR, if I’m hearing correctly, which would suggest he or his employer Microsoft is all in on it.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That has already been closed
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Maybe this’ll take the shine off that wunderkinder mess and people will finally be free to choose something more reliable. I love how RH pushed this beta software so hard and my reboots are now just shite – unreliable and occasionally ridiculously delayed.
I’ll be glad to see the back of that metastatic shitball.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Localized age checks ARE a good system and are something that should have been in the OS for decades. It is the basis for being able to make “child accounts” and is a genuine requirement for Linux to be a meaningful option for “normal people”. And having a protocol for software/websites to request that is a very good system to build on that.
We talk about how the problem of kids getting exposed to horrendous shit is a problem of “bad parenting”. This is the tool you provide to allow parents some control.
The issue is not the age check. The issue is verification. To my understanding, the California legislature explicitly does NOT require a third party. So it is literally just you saying “Sure, whatever. I was born in 1901. Now load the Maya Woulfe video faster”. And yes, this is a step towards that. But so is having network access or user accounts at all.
corvi@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Even if we say I agree with this, why even ask for a specific year? Separate into child and adult, and let the super user make that change when asked.
In theory I’m not opposed to it existing as an option, but I do not like it being mandatory at all. Websites and applications should never be allowed to know any PII without explicit consent.
SalamenceFury@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Any age check is just a good way for predators to know WHO are the actual children, and with the epstein files revealing the whole billionaire and politician interest in trafficking and raping minors, this is essentially the perfect playground for them.
JGrffn@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, to be completely honest, the one place where you actually could trust this kind of information is on your own local (and ideally libre-oriented) OS, never leaving your device and instead obfuscated through an API that’s exposed to whatever services need to do an age check, with the potential for additional security impositions or other concessions from data requesters due to the leverage of still having your data controlled by you. This is the bonus FOSS part where we get a say on how we want our data to be exposed on our libre systems. Other users aren’t so lucky and don’t get to have any voice on how this implementation happens, so we should probably participate in the discourse for those PRs rather than condemn them point blank.
chunes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
^^^ If you needed proof that lemmy is overrun with bots just like everywhere else.
tburkhol@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s just systemd adding a birthdate field to their userdb. Doesn’t require that it be filled out or accurate, and especially doesn’t require it to be validated against a government database. I don’t see it as fundamentally any different from adding a userdb field for favorite color, phone number, or blood type.
Without 3rd party validation, I really don’t see the privacy issue with an age field. Without verification, it is, at worst, one more byte available to hash into a unique identifier, but you can feed that field from /dev/random at every query and poison even that hypothetical.
timwa@lemmy.snowgoons.ro 2 weeks ago
Why the ever loving fuck does an init system even need a user database?
Honest to God, if FIFA were giving out a World “Understanding UNIX” Prize, Poettering would be the inaugural, and only, winner. Never in the field of operating systems has one man driven so much enshittification through sheer force of cluelessness coupled with supreme arrogance. And in a world that Steve Ballmer still occupies, that’s one hell of an accolade.
Noam_Calhoun@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
You are absolutely right, we are not in fact getting screwed, they are just applying the lube for later. (Shamelessly stolen from elsewhere)
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
You. Don’t. Get. It.
ptu@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Plesse don’t give them any ideas. Here’s a list of what’s currently included
systemd.io/USER_RECORD/
yardratianSoma@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
DoB recording, and ID age verification, are two different things though.
Dojan@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
My OS has never needed to know my DoB before. What’s it gonna do, make me a cake?
tabular@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No they’re the same in this context.
0x0@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I’ll just plug Devuan, Slackware, Gentoo and many others.
tristan@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 2 weeks ago
Runit supremacy. Welcome to the void.
sphericalcube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I imagine people behind this law are pretty interested in this small but powerful user base. I would just boldly assume that a lot of people responsible for independent software and privacy advocates are using Linux etc. So its a interesting user base for sure. But regulating open source software luckily is pretty much impossible and they wont give up their(our) privacy without a fight. Also, we will see how much the user base will grow when these regulations get tighter.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They can simply say on their download pages that residents of Brazil and California are not allowed to use their OS.
BurgerBaron@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Motorolla bending the knee to the mass surveillance corps and international governments comes to mind. We’ll see how their deal with GrapheneOS goes now.
MadameBisaster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I mean they can simply sell that phone with stock androud in californua and if users flash Graphene on it afterwards thats hardly motorolas fault
Lumisal@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sure. Let them be sued on profits made 😂