this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
84 points (67.4% liked)

Linux

64059 readers
873 users here now

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Some of you need to watch this video, and hang your head in shame.

Dylan Taylor has been receiving constant harassment, including threats to his life and safety, for actions done collectively by SystemD. The article by Sam Bent was explictly mentioned as part of the harassment campaign, and rightfully so.

I don't think enough people realize that this is catastrophically bad. It'll discourage people from becoming open source developers, it'll discourage people from using Linux, and it'll discourage legislators from taking the Linux community seriously.

If you ever wished ill upon another human being for complying with a relatively inconsequential law, you are better off never touching a computer again. The Linux community has collectively gone so far beyond what is acceptable here.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

actions done collectively by SystemD

Nope. It only needs one maintainer to do the PR

It'll discourage people from becoming open source developers

You know what will discourage Them more? Id verification

relatively inconsequential law

Give me your Id. Seriously, go and give me your ID with nothing blurred.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml -1 points 54 minutes ago

Give me your Id. Seriously, go and give me your ID with nothing blurred.

My age is 26.

[–] pfr@piefed.social 2 points 4 hours ago

Plenty of distros out there that don't use systemd

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 35 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah I'm not going to give this guy his desired victim role. He put a lot of effort into make privacy invading pull requests. Death threats and doxxing is too far but he deserves some insults.

[–] kogasa@programming.dev -2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Adding birthday fields is not privacy invading in itself.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yes, of course. If you ignore current reality, then it's not privacy invading...

[–] kogasa@programming.dev 0 points 26 minutes ago

No, it literally just can't violate your privacy in any way. You have complete control over what, if anything, is placed in that field. No information about you can be gained or disclosed by virtue of the systemd change alone. You can think it's a bad change because it signals intent to follow a trend of supporting privacy-invading age verification, but you can't say this specific change in itself is privacy-invading.

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 29 points 12 hours ago

Don't collaborate with fascists.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 13 hours ago

We're demanding that the government we pay for respect basic human needs. Privacy is not a luxury. It's a need. They went to far with this shit so they can take the next mile. Fuck them all and fuck California's lawmakers for doing it. We should be sending them letters of discontent too.

Lawmakers and politicians in the US ruin everything more and more everyday.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 17 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

When you discover the reason for his bootlicking you will be ashamed of your words and deeds.

[–] incompetent@programming.dev 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I'm out of the loop; what's his reason?

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 2 hours ago

Something about complying with new laws in California and North Korea I think.

[–] SpicyPepper@piefed.social 53 points 18 hours ago

Lost me at “If you ever wished ill upon another human being for complying with a relatively inconsequential law”

How does that boot taste?

Agree death threats are crazy harassment, etc but I definitely wish I’ll will towards fascist collaborators.

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 71 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (16 children)

I’m going to bullet my thoughts on this whole thing because I’m annoyed by the general response, and the implementation as well:

  • I don’t wish harm on the dev and I don’t dislike them. I don’t even know them
  • Death threats are ridiculous; that’s the working class attacking itself again
  • That said, I want to know what compelled this dev to preemptively implement this field not in 1 but in 2 separate PRs
  • Both the field and the law itself do not serve the user at all; it’s a bullshit vague law that is using children as cover—again (I’m old enough to know how this game works)
  • I’ve always viewed Linux as the rebel among all of the corporate slop we have to constantly dodge, so it is super gross when I see changes in Linux that were made to appease laws built and pushed by fascist tech companies and governments
  • Did the dev even open a line of discussion anywhere, or was the PR supposed to be used for that?
  • What’s his motivation? Money? Fame? I’ve been a programmer for 20 years and I’d never jump on a chance to add something that aligns with laws I think are unethical dog shit—especially in the Linux space where the whole goal is to not be Windows
  • I’m a bit frustrated with the casual “what’s the big deal?” mindset that a lot of people I’ve encountered have about this. Are we not living through the same timeline where the US has fallen under the control of a fascist regime that is being eagerly assisted by Meta, Apple, Microsoft and a ton of other massive corporations? How do people not see that this is the beginning of the wedge? And let’s say it peters out and nothing else happens. I’m not going to be ashamed of the fact that I was a squeaky wheel over it because I’ve seen how these things go. You follow the money and suddenly the bigger picture comes into focus. Why on earth a meager single little dev would implement this, unprompted, is just beyond my reasoning.

This reminds me of when Guillermo Rauch from Vercel praised Trump multiple times. Bro, you’re not Tim Cook. You’re not Ellison, Zuck, or Musk. You’re not even on their level. You’re not going to get on their radar. I have PTSD from fellow tech folks being weirdly aligned with fascism and this whole dumb thing is giving me that vibe again. I don’t think this is that 1:1, but this is like the metal scene. You have to dodge the fascists that seem to weirdly permeate corners of the culture. People that refuse and get annoyed by right-wing labels, but still help right-wing grifters, are their own unique brand of pathetic.

[–] jokeyrhyme@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I'll be upset when a cloud-connected Linux component prevents the system from working unless the real name and birth date fields have been verified

until then, this is just as inert as the real name field which has been there for decades, and far less useful for surveillance than the real name field which has been there for decades

[–] StealthLizardDrop@piefed.social 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (10 children)

Except this field has been implemented explicitly for this age verification laws. If this was for some random birthday greeting when you open terminal, i think fewer people would be up in arms. context is everything.

if this moron implements compliance with laws that record a birthday today, what is stopping him adding 3rd party verification of id tomorrow? So far his track record is corporate bootlicker. You cannot trust projects where this guy is a contributer to

[–] kogasa@programming.dev 1 points 2 hours ago

what is stopping him

The pull request approval process? It's quite easy to recognize that one change is harmless and another is not. The slope is not THAT slippery.

I completely understand objecting to the systemd change, I also object, but acting like the fascists have already won is a bit crazy.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] Archr@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

And people down voted me when I called out the Sam Bent blog post for what it is. A hit piece.

[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 20 hours ago

He didn’t comply, he collaborated. It won’t deter anyone but pro fascist programmers from developing for Linux. Your defence of the indefensible says a lot about you, too.

[–] DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Threatening anyone with harm because you disagree with them is horrible. Things have gone too far on the internet. If we just ran after everyone who we disagree with then we wouldn’t have civilization left.

[–] liuther9@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

Damn people like you really think that you can negotiate with traitors

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 9 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

It's not just a simple disagreement. They are allowing invasion of our privacy. If he didn't want people pissed at him he shouldn't have folded. We are dealing with government overreach on every front. Now is not the time to be giving up ground. I don't think he deserves death threats but if he's not with us he's against us.

load more comments
view more: next ›