For those interested on the question of age verification and GNU/Linux: be aware that Systemd v261-rc1 was recently released. It now implements an optional birth date field in the JSON user database (see second item under “Other changes”).
The implementation of this field was prompted by age-verification or -attestation laws.
Yes, right next to the fields for your full name and address, all of which are optional. It’s a total nothingburger.
Did you ignore the comment in the github where it, and I quote “Stores the user’s birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc.”. Yes it is optional NOW, but this is in preparation of laws that make it legally Mandatory. Don’t down play this.
Miss me with this “slippery slope” BS.
Having a standardized place to store the DOB is a good thing and it should have been there even before these laws.
And if some users want to comply with those laws, then they should have a way to do it.
If anybody actually tries to make this a hard requirement (which isn’t going to happen), then you can bitch about it at that time.California’s AB-1043 already passed, so we get to bitch about it now. Thanks for your support.
Oh so you are now forced to fill in the field?
In California Jan 1st 2027, effectively yes. Please read AB-1043. All of this information is present there. It functionally forces any systemd‑based OS to populate it in order to comply with the law’s mandatory age‑collection requirements. It’s literally in the bill. Next time, just fucking read it, damn. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
How is that gonna work mechanically?
Also, the revision looks like it won’t be forced
This. If someone would force it, people make a fork without that bullshit
Lol who tf are you, the bitching police? The judge of grievances? Oh thank you for permitting me to talk about things i find problematic great king, so generous of you
What you quote is the justification why a new field should be added. You can’t just say e.g. a Wardrobe number should be added without justifying it, otherwise it won’t be accepted. You can say a Wardrobe number should be added because recent scientific developments suggest that some wardrobes open up new worlds, so it became necessary to extend the address field.
This doesn’t mean systemd would enforce anything or go into the politics of certain jurisdictions. It just enables distros to use this field, and it’s up to the distros what they want to do with it.
You don’t have such fields in openrc, runit or S6.
Those options don’t do the same things as SystemD though
I found the clueless rube
It’s sad because at some point, when mainstream browsers will actually rely on systemd for that, website will block you.
Given enough time and ressources, that age control will hit hard like DRM.
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And then people will find another way to do what they want. Similar as they did with the internet as it started. It was not always a commercial cesspool, it started as a very nerdy space and replaced TV as a primary source of information. We can do it again. History does not show a pattern of people submitting, but a history of revolution.
This is the end. Everyone switch to FreeBSD.
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LMAO, good one!
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These aren’t serious. Their mission statements are nothing but childish contrariness.
E.g. Artix has a “no true Scotsman” right in their tagline about “real” init system. Only 14 year old master debaters will attempt to deny that systemd is a “real” init system with a straight face.
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If you criticize something because of perceived bloat, maybe don’t make it the mouse in your metaphor.
And no, it’s a great init system that has all the features one wants. That’s why it ended up taking over: it was the first really good init system that introduced actual dependencies and so on.
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Your conspiracy myth is wrong, and if you actually care about what’s true, you can confirm what I say very easily for yourself:
Just go to the mailing list archives and forums and follow the decision making discussions of the time. E.g. Arch Linux. This will quickly and decisively convince you that “big tech” had nothing to do with it.
But you don’t care about the truth, do you? You just want the comfortable position of being able to look down on all the mainstream fools.
That is so true. For me, who works as a Systemadministrator, systemd is about the best thing that happened to linux in a long time! It makes my work so much easier
That’s what the problem with systemd is. It started out as a “modern” init system but somehow we ended up with some kind of parasitic software heap that tries to replace the userspace.
I mean the latest addition is some kind of OS installer.
To quote James T. Kirk: “why does an init system need an OS installer.”
I fear you missunderstood me: I think systemd with all the integrated features and tools is great, having all the features and tools is such a huge benefit for a professionell sysadmin who has to connect to and administrate lots of customer server every day.
But that is my opinion, I fully accept that people don’t like systemd and that’s the great thing with Linux: If you don’t like a component then you are free to drop it and use something else. So have fun with your systemd free systems!
I’m totally with you on that. I use systemd daily and it has enormous benefits for system administration, but I don’t like the direction it’s headed and how the project is lead. That’s what I wanted to bring across here.
All the other software is not the init system, FFS.
Yeah, they should do an init system instead of reinventing an operating system.
That’s the main problem I have with it.
Of course advocates of systemd will say it’s modular, but there is some kind of capture process going on - you have to relay on the systemd solution, because it fits nicely into the systems ecosystem …
It seems systemd is also enshittifying flatpaks. Those damned Gnome devs man, I can’t.
Is the default value set to “True”?
Possibly 0 (zero) which would default to January 1, 1970.
Why would an optional field have a default value? Shouldn’t it just be unset?
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Finally!
Anyone know the status of Chimera Linux wrt age verification?
It doesn’t use systemd, nor do they seem to have plans to add age attestation.
I hear Artix and FreeBSD are also safe from Nazi enshittification.
