A small set of people are merging changes to various Linux components to make sure every application knows your birth date.
This is being done rapidly by people with questionable justifications and being merged with no youth and few marginalized people involved.
@k3ym0 could it be done theoretically? Sure. But on systemd, that'd be a huge task to maintain. And the systemd folks say "oh, this PR is just an optional part of the user account system, we're just making a common API for anyone who wants to add it for any reason".
They build the tracks and plead innocence as to what is in the trains.
I found this a good write-up https://www.sambent.com/the-engineer-who-tried-to-put-age-verification-into-linux-5/
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
@DiogoConstantino @zl2tod @yrrsinn @wwahammy @k3ym0 Imho legalism is not a valid standpoint, precisely in free software. What if free software is made illegal in California (and “many other places”). Would you just shrug and stop making it? This is at best cowardice. Also, I find the fait accompli argumentation on the PR (“we already collect personal data 🤷”) so disgusting. As if this was nothing at all.
This is what happens when you hollow out ethics, you’re left with technicalities.
Eric Schultz
k3ym𖺀
Yrrsinn
zl2tod
Tagomago
Diogo Constantino
Sharp Cheddar Goblin