this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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FUCK THERE IS A WHOLE LOT OF STUPID USING LINUX. Lots of tin foil hat wearing morons making mountains out of molehills.There was no age verification support added. All that happened is a DOB field was put in so people can add their date of birth IF THEY CHOOSE TO so it can appear in their user account. It isn't uploaded to anyone, it's not checked by anyone, it is not mandatory to complete and you can leave the field blank.
"C'mon, guys, they're just ARMING the untrained soldiers. They're not even sending them to your neighborhoods!"
Hard disagree. This represents the pot getting turned up on the frog.
I acknowledge you are factually correct. However, once this field exists, it enables later reference and/or mandatory dependencies.
There is no positive use case , but lots of possibly negative use cases. For that reason, it shouldn't exist.
Do you really draw the line at a date of birth field, when every linux system has fields for full name and address for every user account?
Yeah, this is a devious plan that has been going on for years, when they added the
realNamefield!I get it, but I believe it to be a false equivalence. This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.
The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don't trust the intended use, or ANY use which is later enabled by this, my answer is 'less'.
So, how about we start freaking out when someone starts making these fields required, instead of right away?
because it’s too late at that point, which is the whole point and issue!
if the field is necessary, but the data is useless, then it shouldn’t be there. if the data becomes required then it should not be there. so the result, it should not be there
A PR is when the discussion is supposed to happen. It's an open source project, nothing happens "too late" to discuss. You see that change in the pull request, you can start moaning about it.
Who defines what's "useless"? You? On what authority?
the discussion happens right now, because i said so, because others are talking about it. and the data is useless when anything can be put in, it’s not used for anything, and it can’t be verified. it fails all three tests in determining usefulness
Why hasn't the discussion started when
realNamewas introduced?Someone may find these data points useful, for whatever reason. No point in being angry at a date field, mate.
let’s also talk about that then. we need to remove that immediately
Again: what authority do you have to decide which data fields are useful, and which aren't?
How do you personally differentiate between "useful" and "useless"? Is it: "I have no need for it therefore it needs to be removed", by any chance?
by your claim, the field can have any series of numbers, that there is no way to determine if it is accurate, and the law that this was done to appease is bad, as in not able to obtain its expected result. and so the data is useless.
if some api/program/government wishes to get my information, they can ask me so that i may decline. there is no use case that these fields are a benefit to the user. and as such must be wrenched out with the fervor reserved for denying a fey creature your name.
if the argument is that these entities can get my name by other means anyway, then this data is redundant and useless.
You do know that this is a slippery slope argument, right?
You would have to demonstrate that there is an intention there to require third party services to validate the age of users using Linux... Or that there is an intention to do so by systemd and the broader open source developers.
I don't think it will be easily possible to lock out every Linux system from the internet that doesn't implement some kind of hardware DRM mechanism to make sure that the user cannot just change the date of birth with root permissions.
I do understand that, but I think you are applying a post hoc rationalisation to the change.
For example, examining the change through the lens of intended use -> you can't as there is no such use of the field today - it's tomorrow's use that is potentially problematic.
I don't want to wait until a bad actor applies the field, I want to stop the field from existing.
This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.
The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don't trust ANY use which may be later enabled by this change, my answer is 'less'.
Maybe this is the issue. I have no problems with parents setting the age of the children in their account in order limit their access to certain content.
And there clearly exists a use-case for that.
My main issue is when it comes to third-party age/identity verification services. Age or identity verification in the hands of private for-profit companies is bad.
I'd rather give parents the tools to set individual restrictions locally on their devices, then pushing for a global internet based age filter.
No, they don't.
You , as the party making the accusation of fallacy would be required to prove that the expectation of escalation is unreasonable or that the intention was not there.
edit: asking for an explanation of their thoughts around the issue is fine, but a requirement it is not.
Why do people so often invert the burden of proof?
If someone says "Picking your nose will cause brain-cancer in 40 years." Then they have the burden to proof that. Nobody has the burden to disprove that.
They made the accusation that this is a step to make this age fields mandatory, and controlled by third-party age verification services, so they have the burden to proof that there is way to do that.
I find it highly unlikely, because most people using Linux systems at home have admin privileges. Which makes this whole point moot, since they can fake whatever they like to the software running on top.
I know, right ?
Absolutely, and if you'd asked for proof of their accusation you'd be correct in this instance.
They did and you could ask them to make a case for that, you didn't.
You provided your own accusation:
And proceeded to tell them that they are required to provide proof to dispute your new accusation.
Which is what i was addressing specifically when i said:
It makes the field itself mostly a non issue in the single isolated context of "does this field, on it's own, constitute age verification".
The point most people are trying to make is that it's a part of a larger context.
How do commercial distros prevent getting blocked if not through this?
I think you might be replying to wrong conment
We are more than mere frogs in a pot though. We have made note of this. We outraged. We argued and counter argued. We will not forget so easily, no matter the view point on it.
If nothing comes of it, some of us can say "I've told you..."
If the next step gets implemented and the field becomes mandatory, some of us can say "See!! Froggies"
If it becomes mandatory and a further implementation also adds the framework to submit the data to some idp service, then we can get the pitchforks out.
I'm not really sure you can argue birthdate is the thin edge of the spear when the standard Linux user database already had fields for location, email, phone number, and real name. None of which have been used for anything up to this point, and systemd-homed is not as widely used.
I get it, but I believe it to be a false equivalence. This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.
The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don't trust the intended use, or ANY use which is later enabled by this, my answer is 'less'.
I agree with your second paragraph but I fail to see how the existing unused fields are somehow less dangerous or a "false equivalence" to a new unused DOB field which is significantly harder to use to deanonymize someone than their name, address, and phone number.
we wanted the year of the linux desktop... well the first raft of windows refugees seem to be a bunch of these overzealous privacy types who think they're now a bunch of 1337 h4x0rs because they figured out how to get an nvidia driver working on mint.... they have more paranoia than actual tech knowledge, and their only contribution to the community is sowing dissent, and shouting about something as trivial as an optional data field.
The debian subreddit is downvoting an actual DEBIAN DEVELOPER when they tried to explain the situation
If i put on my tin foil hat, i'd say these people are being deliberately influenced to sow chaos in foss communities