If you can feel a very small tinge of existential horror when you read the words “try to”, congratulations, you’re a true *nix devotee.
If legislators get grumpy about this, just gently thwap them with your handy copy of The Unix Haters Handbook and tell them you’re working as hard as you can under the circumstances.
I’m getting closer and closer to either leaving the US as a tech-refuge or moving to the middle of nowhere and living off grid with my data horde that has more offline media than one could consume in a lifetime.
Not sure which is the best option. My bet is that Trump will start dropping nukes to prevent himself from leaving office and wind up cooking the planet alive before I get to choose.
“Must be outside of California, Colorado, and Brazil to download or use this install ISO”
Or maybe we shouldn’t do age verification
We don’t comply, is what we do. We ignore stupid fuckin’ laws made by idiots who clearly have no idea what consultation is. It’s time open source tech starts to diversify where it keeps its HQ and base of operations.
Not gonna happen. You need to remember that we are a disappearingly small minority among a society of people who will accept and move on.
Unfortunately, you’re right. Maybe someday…
This is another step towards having a digital ID that is required to use computers at all.
By definition of this new law, is Linux an OS? It is technically just the kernel. At what layer of the software stack does the responsibility of age verification lie at?
Sigh… If nobody else is gonna do it, I’ll reply with the copypasta.
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
Linux is the kernel, GNU is the operating system, make demands to them
GNU is only a component of the GNU/Linux system, make demands to distributors
But this is a distribution of Linux, make demands to Linux
But Linux is the kernel…Nobody in the government and few people in tech are smart enough to make this distinction.
Kinda sad how the world is run by idiots.
Age verification is just paving way for things a lot worse: globally unique identification.
They ( politicians ) will weaponize the inefficiencies in this implementation to push for an online verification later on.
And of course Peter Thiel will be somewhere in the middle
we already have that, it’s called ipv6
Nice ragebait
I am actually curious about this. How does privacy get preserved with ipv6?
Ipv6 identifies an exit node, not individuals. Same as ipv4. The ipv6 doesn’t bind to an individual. Your address is different in different places. There can be many individuals per address. You can use vpns as well.
And the address space is big enough you can choose a new random address between every connection to avoid tracking.
Thanks!
groups katykaty : katy sudo adultI wonder about all the little IoT things we have that run Linux but have no interface other than a button or 2. My garage door opener, a picture frame, my lawnmower, my vacuum, my switches, my modem, my cameras…
Those don’t run Linux…
Are you sure? Because I’m sure they do. Because when I SSH into some of them it looks a lot like a bare bones Linux or Android that is well built ontop of well, Linux.
https://notes.jfx.ac/rooting-robot-vacuum/
Edit: Temu shit devices are fun too.
I recently read an article from the creaters of PopOS. In that they raise a vaild point. If a child installs a virtualization software (say with the concent of an adult for educational purposes), then they can but browse internet through the VM, with them being the root user, pretending to be adults. It defeats the whole purpose of such verification methods. So their plan would to stick with ID based ones.
I think this was never about age verification, but to uniquely fingerprint every person using internet and to keep accountability.
Lets face it, the internet you knew is dead.
I’ll just do what I’m always done since I was 10
“How old are you?”
“115 years young of course”
1/1/1900, just celebrated my 126th
I was born on 1/1/1970 trust me bro
Lets face it, the internet you knew is dead.
Friendship ended with IP. Now I2P is friend.
Check out reticulum as well.
Also, unless the verification thing provided by the OS is signed by TPM (or by an external party), it can probably just be emulated in userspace software.
unsigned char age_bracket_low = 0; unsigned char age_bracket_high = 127;Using linux is not proof enough?
No
I am a teen and I use Linux
My first PC ran Ubuntu, I think I was like 7 when I got it; now I use openSUSE
the reason for this is that my dad is a tech guy, for a while he used FreeBSD on desktop (and still uses it on a VPS)
If you’re using Linux you’re already 99% smarter than the people making these stupid laws. At this point your age doesnt matter.
My kids have used Linux from birth. One of them is voting age now. A Chromebook is Linux. They mostly just open steam.
Pass.
Its my computer, I own it, gtfo and let me use it how ever I want.
sure, but if an application “requires” age verification for whatever reason, would you prefer the functional equivalent to clicking “i’m over 18 pinky promise” as a standard, or they use biometric data that they all implement differently and then there’s like 33.7 leaks in the next 6 months?
like the whole thing is bullshit, but a file on disk is a wink wink nudge nudge sure we are compliant bud
the true unix way: if you text editor you own the world
I’ll find a different application
Sorry to break it for you, but this is going to have to be implemented at OS level, thanks to California and other following surveillance States arourd the world. You can’t just use «a different application».
Didn’t Texas and Florida start this? California just has more “tech literate” politicians.
This. And since we are already in the land of geeks, I’ll find a way to write one if none acceptable exists
I’ll help!
So will I
if only it were that simple in a social and professional context
i’ll choose linux + a user age metadata standard that’s technically compliant + shit professional application that i have no choice but to use - over windows + exactly that same application any day of the week
nvim ~/.config/useragegroup
The problem with that whole situation is the way the law is written the developer is the one held responsible if a child circumvents the check to access adult content. Therefore, developers will have to pay hefty fines unless they:
-1: Have a way to positively make sure the person enters their age is telling the truth; and
-2: Lock this value from being changed by the user afterwards.
Or: Region lock the OS.
One can see how incredibly problematic this is for both privacy and true ownership and control over your own machine. There is also a lot that needs to be figured out in the law such as what will happen when someone inevitably finds a way to hack the system to circumvent it, especially the region lock. Ultimately, big tech has deep pockets and can shrug off the fines but small nonprofit open source projects will be killed by them.
This law is specifically designed to kill nonprofit-run and private software like Linux.
All of this seems impossible to enforce in the FOSS ecosystem. People can just fork the software and remove any restriction they don’t like. That’s kind of the whole point of free software. Users are free to use their devices however they like, including in ways that are not intended by the devloper.
This law is specifically designed to kill nonprofit-run and private software like Linux.
I do not know if that is true. Most of the political hacks writing these bills have zero understanding of computers and do not even consider Linux in the equation. They see Windows, iOS, Android and macOS.
This is more aimed at mom and dad with three children who have tablets for all the shits and take no responsibility for what the kids do with the devices.
Linux devs will just step back from releasing code packaged with installers and users will have to compile and set any given program up themselves.
I use MacPorts and Homebrew for what I need.
You are correct that they have zero understanding of computers. But what you are missing is that they are consulting “experts” who are essentially just big tech lobbyists.
I’ve started to believe that in fact, the political hacks do know what is going on with tech. They just do this shit anyway… Because they are sick at heart.
I feel like it is too late. People still do not care and will never care… We’ve lost.
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Is this the year of linux from scratch - desktop?!
