It's still a bad, dumb idea
Linux
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
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
Exempted for now...
surely now all of those projects, like systemd, who capitulated in advance will all roll back the changes they made to enable age collection, right? right?
Systemd's change is inconsequential. If you really care then you should also fight to remove full name and address from user db.
Also there are still other jurisdictions that have these sorts of laws.
Well if they don't someone else will
"Don't complain, just fork it" people when complaining works: 😳
I'm afraid this isn't the win you think it is.
One of two things will happen in the near future:
-
Nearly everything you do online from banking to shopping to social media (including online gaming) to paying your electric or internet bill to yes porn will require OS-level attestation to access and use the site. Linux lacking this will become an incredibly private OS that is useless for anything online making this a defeat for Linux having any hopes of real desktop market share and/or forcing it to comply. Microsoft, Apple, Google would love to push Linux as an OS option off the table.
-
Kids will start using liveboot or installing Linux and evading these controls, Christian fascists, tech overlord capitalists, and the government will take notice and write a bill to close this "loophole" and within a few years having already established the idea in the popular conception that age verification is okay will face lesser resistance in quickly ramming it through.
Assuming PCs don't get wiped out as a platform first, which between AluminumOS being a thing and parts being made intentionally scarce and expensive, I wouldn't be shocked if that happens.
Can't control what people do with their PCs? Just kill PCs as a platform in favor of thin clients tied to cloud subscriptions that you can control or glorified Android phones.
It absolutely is the win we think it is. These are separate from mandating open source to include age verification.
it absolutely is not. my first thought to seeing this is that they're trying to reduce the resistance to the bill, then later add linux to it and not face as much backlash. basically, option 2.
dont be blind.
So to not have the win we think it is, the California and Colorado bills would have to mandate age verification for open source operating systems.
Can you explain the wording in the law that contradicts OP’s claims?
Can we please call it what it is: mandatory ID.
Yes please! The sooner we normalize that, the sooner these threads will stop being about people explaining idea nr. 26637372 how to implement parental controls. It's not about protecting children! That's just the marketing slogan!
afaik it's straight up the opposite for the california law. I didn't read it myself, but from what I read online about it, they require a boolean "adult/minor" and forbid any other data collection related to age
Thats great. I do fear that it'll still pretty much be a requirement if they continue to force age verification through websites etc.
Yep, how is it even supposed to work with OSS? Can't use those websites?
Exactly. It's optional... as long as ypu don't plan on using internet.
Websites I use regularly:
- sites I write or maintain myself
- federated social media
- my bank (they have my ID already)
- code forges maintained by others
- a Swiss e-commerce platform, alibaba, local electronics retailers
- YouTube
I suppose such measures might affect retail sites and YouTube, but I can get the stuff I need locally, and being off YouTube, I'll certainly have the time for it.

I still think it should be the other way around. It should be a setting on the device/OS that an adult could tik and lock with a password or something that would mark the user or the device as a minor.
It would be an easy thing for a parent to do and to everyone implement, and I doubt anyone would get angry over that.
The way the iPad has it seems OK, where you can disallow apps, websites and set time limits.
You're right. It's INCREDIBLY simple.
And I'm saying this as a systems engineer. I do this for a living.
I would go a step beyond and just make it a mandatory screen as part of setup:
Will this account mainly be used by an adult, by a teenager, or by a child?
I think the "teenager" would allow a little more granularity in parental control, but the "teenager" would legally be treated as a minor.
And you mandate that browser manufacturers be able to read that as part of the account information, but not forced to provide it to websites.
And you mandate that websites be forced to put in place restrictions that prevent adult websites from being provided to children or to computers that don't identify the user as an adult or as a child.
Restricting on the computer manufacturers' ends is the wrong way to do it. Restrict on the websites' end.
The monkey's paw curls: Someone now has ridiculously huge captured logs of computers "used mainly by minors" mandatorily sending their IP addresses to websites. 😬
This would be simple. This would also not address the fundamental issue which is identification of bots vs. humans which are quietly destroying the online advertising industry (which, yeah, good riddance), which is what motivated Meta to lobby for online age verification to begin with. So it would fulfil the official purpose of age verification, but not it's real purpose
Good. As a European person using Linux in Canada, I refuse to engage with any extra nonsense on my computer just because some American states are being idiotic. Even if it's just one extra click, I'm not doing it just because California says I should. Get fucked
Some euro countries are doing the same shit amigo.
So free software is actually about freedom, huh.
An improvement, but fuck off nonetheless.
Gotta do something to boost computer literacy amongst the youth.
This. This is everything. Youth, adults, elders, everybody. Computers are everywhere and dammit people need to understand at least the basics of the machines that run the entire 21st century.
Dropping computer literacy classes in schools because "BiG tEcH rEpS toLD uS diSpOsAbLe tOuChScReEnS aNd ChRoMe aRe TeH fUtUrE" was such a freaking trap.
We're experiencing a "Whole Language Reading" fiasco of technology education right now, and we need to correct it for everyday people. Linux proliferation to the people can absolutely be that gateway.
Otherwise, we end up with the same stupid class gaps Big-Capital always ends up creating: The hyper-specialized technical-managerial class, and the ignorant, helpless, paying consumer.
When people are educated they can grasp the extent of their freedoms, and they're more willing to fight for their rights.
(And yeah yeah, inb4 doomers be like "We're already there, we're cooked bro, we're done, game over man , we're dogmeat pal!" Heard it all.)
To paraphrase Nick Fury: "Until such a time as the world ends we will act as if it intends to spin on."
I mean how would they not exempt FOSS, short of individually policing the software installed on every individual personal system or instituting new hardware requirements and making the use of non-compliant hardware criminal?
short of individually policing the software installed on every individual personal system or instituting new hardware requirements and making the use of non-compliant hardware criminal?
Quit giving them ideas!