khánh
nixCraft 🐧Ageless Linux: Software for humans of indeterminate age. We don't know how old you are. We don't want to know. We are legally required to ask. We won't.
miket330
SirWumpus 👾🍁Or if you're a young developer, you download the source, stub out the age tests, and build your own version to install from - you going to sue a teen cause they have skills?
The whole notion of age verification in open source software where the source of the software is available to modify, is so brain damaged and unenforceable.
Maybe add age verification as a loadable kernel module. Then people can opt-out or opt-in at the time of install.
I am amazed that #California of all places, being open to ideas and a hub of technology is parking their brain cells in a handicap zone.
Marta Threadbare@sirwumpus @nixCraft like the proprietary codecs checkbox, add another that says "i'm from California and I certify i'm over 18", not saving that anywhere.
It's because these data collection bills (let's be real, that's what they are) are being funding by mostly Meta to push age verificiation onto OS providers under the guise of "won't someone *please* think of the children?!"
the guise of "won't someone please think of the children?!"
Oddly enough, it was the 1970's and 1980's children that took apart code - Apple II supplied BIOS code, Exidy Sorcerer available monitor code and circuit layout, DR's CP/M the BIOS portion though many disassembler all of CP/M to add more features to name a few,
Its the children driven by curiosity, a desire to understand, and learn that bring about future changes. They won't care about age rules, just a challenge to bypass them and sell that knowledge to their friends.
Guillotine Jones, Flâneur@sirwumpus @nixCraft
As AugrusButler points out below, the big 3 tech companies with a financial stake in age verification -- Apple, Alphabet, and Micro$haft -- pushed very aggressively in California for passage of this ill-advised and unfortunately passed bill.
As AugrusButler points out below, the big 3 tech companies with a financial stake in age verification -- Apple, Alphabet, and Micro$haft -- pushed very aggressively in California for passage of this ill-advised and unfortunately passed bill.
@sirwumpus @nixCraft I think it's more serious than that. Open source cannot escape cryptographic signature verification that can be required for remote services.
DrScriptt@sirwumpus @nixCraft it’s a picket fence with a latched gate.
Visible boundary that will be used for other things in court.
The Doctor@sirwumpus @nixCraft > you going to sue a teen cause they have skills?
Yes, absolutely. Time honored tradition dating back to the late 90's of folks who reported a problem they stumbled across. I worked for a few companies that did that.
Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.
ʞuᴉԀ ✅@sirwumpus @nixCraft As source code has been dragged through the courts and defined as Free Speech in the US any open source based distribution would seem to have the ability to use the constitution against any state based law.
IANAL
Jessie Nabein 
@nixCraft this RISC-V system looks incredibly cool.
A.B. Murrow@nixCraft This website is such an excellent rebuttal to the nonsensical parameters of the Californian law. Funny read!
@abmurrow yup, the bottom of the page is like big fuck off. Lmao.
Kestral@nixCraft love this, but the website is very US-centric. This age verification madness is sweeping the whole world.
jack
viq
the initra mfHeh... That would coincide with the birthday of nigh everyone on Steam :D
See: https://web.archive.org/web/20130715011254/http://www.thenobleeskimo.com/steamusers.html
See: https://web.archive.org/web/20130715011254/http://www.thenobleeskimo.com/steamusers.html
Boud@nixCraft Here's the #Debian #SystemDCensorD proposal, using D-Bus - "On installation, the user will be required to enter their location. ... This location and user data will be managed by a new daemon, systemd-censord, ... For example, ... a unit for China will implement keyword scans ... debian will need to switch to being a binary-only distribution ... with ... controls to prevent any non-signed software from being installed , written, or compiled, ..."
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2026/03/msg00018.html
C++ Wage SlaveWhat I quoted from is a satirical response (not by me - I can't claim the credit) to what was originally a serious proposal to handle a real-world dystopian problem. The satirical proposal doesn't have a [[WP:SNOW]]ball's chance in hell of being accepted. You'll have to follow the thread to see if *some* sort of opt-in proposal gets accepted, or is seen as too dangerous. Maybe adding "ageless-linux" as an opt-in Debian package could be doable.
�@nixCraft is this a joke? or i don't get it. when it requires first the download or e.g. debian, but debian itself requires the age check on install, how can ageless linux work, when you have to run the conversion script after the debian installation?
gunstick@utf_7 @nixCraft from this post I deduce that Debian will never ask for age.
But move the responsibility to distros with a faster turnaround. Their LTS goes until 2033.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/03/msg00016.html
But move the responsibility to distros with a faster turnaround. Their LTS goes until 2033.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/03/msg00016.html
𝔅icyclet𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰@nixCraft ok that finished to change my mind. Thanks.
Ryan Johnson@nixCraft I love this solution, but what are the plans for hardware providers? I feel like companies that offer Linux pre-installed will be the ones on the hook for ensuring the age verification is there. Will there be California editions that come with no OS?
Justin Crozer@nixCraft linux can’t fundamentally do age verification because how it’s built into the system to be local by default and even if something was made you could literally strip it out of the source code so even if a company like Ubuntu added it into something a dev team like Linux Mint would remove that crap anyway.
The law makers really are showing their age being out of touch with technology like my mother and grandmother.
Dźwiedziu
hallunke23 🇺🇦
Interesting to see how many people are born on 1970-01-01.
Kierkethumbs up convincingly@nixCraft embedded malware news in 5…4…
Caden
Em 
Gemini0 
Yet another Josh 
Or comply in the worst way.
aged. Age daemon.
Reads ~/config/age.conf for self-set date of birth.
Thats it.
BussphometPeople here acting like these laws won't just be stillborn, impossible to actually enforce, or challenged in court immediately after they take effect. At least in the US since code is free speech and enacting this on people (especially hobbyist distros) is not only unconstitutional but an anti-trust situation, since clearly this seems to be primarily targeting Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Also there is already a precedent from years ago saying you can't force people to use an operating system they don't want on their own computer and you can't lock a computer to disallow switching it.
Also its linux, even if its put in its a simple sudo away from active destruction, the old fucks in charge should be wheeled back into the nursing home or shot behind the shed.
The Polish Dispatch@nixCraft One can assemble your own linux-based operating system from scratch... how's blocking that gonna work?
Jessie Kirk • 🏳️⚧️ 🇬🇱 🇵🇸 🇺🇦@nixCraft Aye, going to drop Ubuntu and switch to Ageless Debian. I don't mind if I build up fines in California.
