There is serious thought being given to what workarounds are possible if systemd adopts age verification
At this stage it may only be thoughts, but people are looking for ways forward…
and they do exist.
It only takes one little shred of irritation to completely change peoples linux preferences.
Making a fuss about age verification seems stupid–kids need to be protected. And it’s pretty clear that systemd is just one of several methods.
On one hand, it’s not a huge deal as written – there’s an entirely optional birthdate field in systemd now, but as yet no tools for authenticating/verifying the accuracy of that field and I’ve not heard of any sites setting up to check the field for age verification purposes.
On the other hand, it feels like a slippery slope. If the tool is there, governments may look for ways to 1) require site to consult it and 2) implement tools for verification.
Personally, I switched to a non-systemd distro (MX Linux) from Mint over this, and will obviously have to preference apps that don’t require systemd to run (my preferred VPN is the only one I’ve run into that problem with so far). Do I expect such defections to occur on a large enough scale to either get systemd’s developers to undo the feature or Linux distro developers to switch to e.g. sysvinit? No. But I had my one little vote (one distro or another) and decided to cast it.
I had already switched from Debian to MX before the age issue arose.
I have had zero problems with apps requiring systemd, but I hear secondhand that Gnome may have issues.
I also use other non-systemd distros (Void, Devuan, Artix) and have had no issues there either.
Exactly. It is a gateway to losing the Free part of Foss.
I’m running MX with the Xfce GUI, and for some reason it doesn’t seem to want to handle Proton VPN’ s desktop app. That’s the only thing I’ve run into so far (a friend says he has the same problem with Devuan).
My “radical libertarian” inclination and ideology may make me a little hypersensitive to things like the systemd birthdate field, and I’ve supported FOSS since … well, 1985, when I replied to Richard Stallman’s appeal for people to help with GNU documenation. I didn’t end up doing that (I dropped out of university and didn’t have any non-academic access to BITNet, the pre-public-access-Internet gateway), but I had certainly fallen into the ethos by then. I just see very little that’s good coming of putting hooks into the software that the state might find ways to use for surveillance and control.
Politicians look for easy fixes. If they cant see a simple technical fix they will do something technically stupid that may look like a fix.
There has to be a practical way of doing age verification … we can do it for a driving licence … we do it there so effectively that licences are used for primary ID.
Well, like I said, I’m ideologically and by inclination a radical libertarian.
About 20 years ago, I proposed a system for driver’s licenses and voter registration that, post-issuance, ONLY (but reliably) identified the holder as “someone who passed a driver’s licensing test”/”someone who demonstrated the right to cast a vote,” and did not function as personal ID for other purposes absent a warrant for search of the database involved.
Age verification online can similarly be de-linked from individual personal identification in general. I understand that some of the porn sites are using a “user takes a selfie, AI estimates age” process already.
I suppose I might be rated as an ultra-conservative idealist… do things the traditional Unix way, and do them for a philosophical reason… not for convenience or fast results.
I recently installed MX-26 and installed the Protonmail desktop app with no apparent difficulty. The VPN app lives as an extension of my browser. I don’t know why I would need a desktop app.
Nothing wrong with that.
I happen to be a Linux evangelist within my friend circle, which means EMPHASIZING convenience. That’s become easy over the last few years as most Linux distros are at least as easy to install, configure, maintain, and use as Windows for people who don’t need specific proprietary software.
Yes, I have to admit I moved from BSD to, Linux mainly because of convenience … BSD had lousy printer support.
I still love BSD and I go back occasionally.
Wow … you know, it just didn’t occur to me to install the Proton VPN browser extension. I got used to using a dedicated out-of-browser app … but I really only use the VPN in my browser anyway. Thanks for the tip!
Bravo, I was the same for apple for many years but jumped ship to linux some 20 years ago !
Linux is the answer now what is the question
Only I just do linux mint but still follow the other stories with interest