this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The field doesn't do anything by itself. There is zero harm inflicted on people using systemd. There are probably lots of features of systemd that you don't want or use and the entire negative effect that you suffer is a few megabytes less free storage space.
The only way the field would be used is if a person decided to use a different piece of software that wants a birthdate. If they don't choose to install such a program then the field is no more a danger than the realName or location fields. They have scary sounding labels but do absolutely nothing unless the user chooses to use them.