Age checks creep into Linux as systemd gets a DOB field
Age checks creep into Linux as systemd gets a DOB field
This is step 1.
Final step: Scan your passport to verify and populate the date of birth field.
It already has fields for personal information, though, and they’re every bit as sensitive as your birthdate. realName, emailAddress, location, and timezone are already in there. The important part is that they’re all optional, and you don’t have to fill them in at all, or can fill them in with fake data. The system still serves you, not some outside party.
But the timing of it does have a lot of people freaking out about it.
I now fear it will one day be required for services on the internet (as it is by a rescent law in Calafornia). I want to make that less uikely, and more difficult to implement.
Having a principle the majority do not have and refusing to participate means being another step further out of society.
Why is it need at all??
NONE
Because it’s going to be a legal requirement, with fines of $7000 per affected underage user, which will instantly bankrupt the US-based non-profit representing Debian, Arch and others, and kill off community-maintained Linux.
Do note: The legal requirement is NOT for age verification. Only for having a field where you as the admin can enter whatever the fuck you want.
If you don’t agree with the law, good. Neither do I. But the devs aren’t the ones to apply pressure to, here.
They’re forced to do this to keep the lights on, and they’ve implemented it in a way that keeps you as the admin in full control.
Literally no one forced them to do that yet. They just decided to get on their knees preemptively and start licking boots
Open source software has maintainers all around the world. Why the fuck would the rest of the world care about this fucked up law coming from ONE state?
Again, no one is forced to do anything. And if I was a maintainer on FOSS where I would be forced to implement something like this, I would just stop contributing to that project.
Fuck everyone going along with this state surveillance bullshit.
It takes a long while for a PR to make it into the distros. The law goes into effect in less than a year.
The organization distributing donations to the various distros (Software In The Public Interest) sits in the US and needs to follow US law in order to not be shut down.
Without them, Debian, Arch, LibreOffice, Systemd and dozens of others have no more funding.
Welcome screen? Systemd doesn’t have a welcome screen. And even if it did, why would it need anything other than username?
Why does it need a field for location and email?
So over 40 years before systemd was initially released?
I’m hearing a whole lot of mental gymnastics from both of y’all to explain away the “okay” fields while demonizing the (optional) “evil” fields.
What are you getting at me for? You asked a question and I answered.
I don’t care about any new gecos fields because they’re optional.
Why does it need a field for location and email?
because whilst systemd-initd is the part that everyone is generally aware of, that’s linked to systemd-logind so that processes can be started as different users… process init, session management, and user management are intertwined
they don’t have to be for sure - sysv init proves that - but in modern linux, they are and that comes with a load of benefits
because theyre being pragmatic… laws are starting to be introduced around the globe for parental controls - whatever that means in each jurisdiction. given that, there needs to be options available to people wanting to, or required to comply with said laws… the best place to do that is in a user record, as an optional field… extensible user records, in modern linux, are stored in systemd
it needs it in a similar manner to how it needs location, email, real name, etc: it doesn’t functionally need it, but it’s a place to store the metadata associated with a user such that other applications can use it
Honestly idk why people are so mad at the wrong people. They are doing this for concern of following the laws that are being passed in many jurisdictions. Some of which required “operating systems” to store date of birth that apps can access. What that means and what even is an OS is heavily up to debate.
Either way people need to call their lawmakers and be mad at those passing these laws.
If they’re pragmatic, they’d wait to confirm the requirement. Currently, they’re more on the proactively bootlicking side than pragmatic.
Location is needed to set timezone. As for real name and email, they’re both tied to history.