(Not sure if this is worldwide or only in some countries)
Updating to iOS 26.4DB2 will put your phone into a parental-restricted mode with adult websites blocked on all browsers, warning prompts every time you try to send or receive an explicit image on a messaging app, and all social media apps blocked on the App Store (in Australia)
The settings to disable this mode are locked off until you verify your age either with a credit card, photo ID, or though information Apple already has (like the age of your account).
I’ve been an apple user my entire adult life but this might finally be the thing that forces me off the platform. Do any other long term apple users have some tips about migrating? I’ve heard Ashai Linux is pretty good on mac hardware these days and I’ve been thinking about GrapheneOS for a while.
After commercial OS have age verification they will remove it from the programs because the age was already verified, right? (Padme asking Anakin)
When I first decided to switch to Linux, I started exclusively using apps that were available on Linux. This way I was able to gradually transition my workflows one app at a time without any rush. When I was ready to install Linux, I did it on a new computer so I still had access to everything on the old computer and there was no risk of going computer-less if the installation went sideways.
Also, keep in mind that Asahi only works on M1 and M2 Macs. (If you have an old Intel Mac, you can just run normal Linux without Asahi)
Oh and Veronica Explains has a great video about her experience with Asahi.
This might be a stupid question but when using ashai can you run any normal linux software or does it have to be specifically built for arm64/apple silicon?
It’s gotta be built for arm64
Can you use the makefile and compile?
Yes, you can. It’s just an ARM64 computer. The only special consideration is that the kernel uses 16K pages instead of 4K pages, but that’s not something I’ve encountered problems with.
I’m pretty sure you can. I never did because I ended up having to go back to macos on the machine I had.
I hope someday any normal Linux software will be usable in Apple hardware. Unfortunately, there are hurdles.
One of the biggest hurdles was getting code accepted into the Linux kernel.
This became very frustrating for the previous Asahi Linux lead developer. He would push upstream code and the Linux developers would not accept it.
Why didn’t they accept it? Because it was written in memory-safe Rust and not in memory-unsafe C. Old Linux developers don’t want to deal with Rust. So they just refuse to include Asahi Linux updates into normal Linux software.
you’re losing a lot of nuances here, just want to add for other readers.
there was and are good reasons for why code wasn’t accepted
Fuuuuck with apple doing this, I wonder how long we have until this BS enters Android and Linux Kernel.
Lmao good fucking luck enforcing this on Linux. There’s no central authority to handle age verification, and even if there was, it’d take less than a week for someone to make a patched version of whatever tool they use that just… Autoreports that you’re an adult no matter what.
Well when we have to comply we can make a build flag everyone shut toggle off…
I suggest simply never complying. Anyone who does is a traitor. This is FOSS, they have no control over us, ZERO power to enforce compliance.
I suggest simply never complying.
While this is the best. it is not feasible. Not many open source projects can just pay millions on fines and not think about it. Idiots making these laws cant enforce it but they will try in the only way they know. Fine and fine and fine untill a project dies.
Forgive my confusion but could they not choose to lock out web traffic without a verification? Lets say your ISP joins and says that you need x bullshit token from the government to us it, then what?
How would they have to pay any fines if they simply say we are no longer for use in xyz place doing age verification?
Second, how would payment be enforced when there is no organization to fine?
Something in gut hub can still be “in development.” Nobody has to comply with every regulation before they are finished. Goddamn these vultures. They’ve been nonstop since SOPA and PIPA back in 2010 or whenever.
There are many distros. And you can build kernels from source.
You can build browsers from source. And import open hardware from China. RISCV is getting close to usable, these days.
You can buy them now, because the US hasn’t banned their import yet, but that’s what these laws will lead to.
When general computing is outlawed, only outlaws will have general computers.
I’ll meet you in the digital underground, netizen.
If the West follows into the footsteps of the propaganda they are spreading against China, I’d rather go live in China because at least there people don’t live paycheck to paycheck despite working multiple jobs. Every accusation against China was a confession.
Wait, send explicit images? I’m not a child, I get that on these platforms my privacy is pretty well gone, but is it explicitly known (confirmed from the source) that these companies scan your images too?
That feels extra fucked up. Like "hold on a sec bucko let me check this photo you’re trying to send real quick to make sure it’s not titties "
They definitely do. That’s how you can search photos by their content on iOS or android.
So now California has a governor pretending to be pro-Palestine to do damage control while signing laws that give Zionist corporations more control over your data and hardware
If you ever thought Gavin was anti-Trump, I have news for you 😄
So what’s actually going on in Cali for them to have such a douchebag governor?
Probably strong influence from corporations, billionaires, other wealthy people, and NIMBYs, along with fearmongering from establishment media to distract from actual problems. And Democrats realizing they can’t win on a pro-genocide platform so now they have to at least pretend to give a shit.
Thank you, Tim Apple, for making 2026 the year of the Linux desktop (but not necessarily the Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint desktop).
(but not necessarily the Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint desktop).
Rut. Thanks for ruining my day, sigh. That shit better be a patch away from removal / spoofing…
I’m hoping the implementation is something like ‘check this box to confirm you’re over 18,’ and nothing more.
I have a Macbook air now. Do you recommend me to buy a Lenovo thinkpad? Qubes os is the top pick, I heard.
I bet people will just accept it and not even think twice about it.
I see you too were born on January 1st 1970.
For sure. Majority of people will happilly take a selfy and send it to whatever company without a second thought.
username checks out
I love how big corp is already ready. It’s almost as if they somehow knew all along that all the govs with bribable legislators would be making laws they all seemed to arbitrarily adopt at once. Can’t wait for the shill AI slop response to this comment making it seem like a good idea.
They should just be done with it and implant an id chip at birth
Data freely available to our capitalistic gods and politicians“Must be outside of California, Colorado, and Brazil to download this Linux ISO”
“Must be outside of California, Colorado, and Brazil to proceed with installation”
I’m in canada!
Eventually: must be in Antarctica to use this distro
prompts every time you try to send or receive an explicit image on a messaging app
Does this mean they caved in to the UK’s client-side scanning stuff after all?
Sadly graphene will have to implement age verification too at some point as these laws spread like the ones in California that require ALL os providers including Linux to implement it albeit a pointless user dob input at account creation or be fined into the afterlife
The California law doesn’t require age verification, just a setting on the account that e.g. a parent can set. It’s still stupid, but it’s not what apple is supposedly doing here.
Yep, I’m not sure how come everyone thinks graphene will somehow be exempt.
They’re open source and their OEM partner, Lenovo is out of US sphere of influence. They can patch the code when it’s put on the phone, just like how manufacturers modify Android source code.
I hope GrapheneOS makes it easy to avoid and still verify integrity.
If they’re forced to have them in USA and EU, so be it. That’s their policy problem for their people. It’s a win for everyone else.
It’s under settings > Apple account (the bubble with your name if you’re signed in) > age range for apps.
The first time you click it you’re asked to go ahead or update your birthday in the account first.
Inside you can pick to always, never or ask first before sharing your age range with some app and it says you can see what apps have asked for your age range.
