this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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The latest changes implemented in the Systemd repo, related to or prompted by age-verification laws, have made many people unhappy (I suppose links about this aren't necessary). This has led to a surge in Systemd forks during the last days ("surge" because there have always been plenty of forks). Here are some forks that explicitly mention those changes as their reason for forking (rough time ordering taken from the fork page):

Hopefully the energy of this reaction won't be scattered among too many alternatives, although some amount of scattering is always good.

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[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Pathetic is implementing age verification in the first place.

The laws are just authoritarian nonsense, and the same nonsense thats been fought against for decades. It had nothing to do with protecting children then, it has nothing to do with protecting children now, and merging given that context is a failure on the part of the maintainers.

I am enough of a dick that I will shift systems I'm responsible for over to Devuan, AntiX, MX, Alpine - hell, Gentoo if it came to it.

[–] death_to_carrots@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago

But there is no verification. Just a standardized field in an optional component you can choose to ignore.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Systemd has not implemented age verification

Also, you should absolutely tell your local government rep that you don't support age verification. Don't get mad at Linux distros for following the law.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

systemd is not a distribution.

Its also not under Californian, Coloradan, or Brazilian jurisdiction.

systemd has merged a PR specifically for this use, so yes, they have implemented it.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Systemd is used by a lot of organizations and companies including those who want to operate in jurisdictions with the BS verification laws.

This doesn't impact anyone outside of those places

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The field is added regardless of your country, therefore all users are impacted.

Why the fuck are you defending this shit so much?

You are all over the place pushing a complete fabrication about what has happened.

[–] gtrcoi@programming.dev 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Where was your performative outrage when systemd added the full name data field in the same place? That is far more invasive information. Oh wait, they don't require that data field to contain a value either. It's almost like none of the technical details of the PR have anything to do with your stance on it and you're just big mad about something unrelated to systemd.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Youre making quite a few assumptions here, as well as ignoring context.

[–] gtrcoi@programming.dev 0 points 23 hours ago

YoUrE mAkInG qUiTe A fEw AsSuMpTiOnS hErE, aS wElL aS iGnOrInG cOnTeXt.

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[–] bluGill@fedia.io -3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It won't protect children, but you can't igore the law. You can get lawyers and fight that way. However too many eevelopers live in CA to ignore and every one of them is at risk of the law going against them. Small distros can say they don't have anyone who maintains it in CA so the don't allow their distro to be used in CA. Large ones cannot ignore the law just because it is stupid and won't work.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

but you can't igore the law

I didnt realize systemd was under the jurisdiction of California and Brazil.

Also, yes you can, and bring about a legal challenge against it for the plethora of reasons why its stupid, useless, creates new threat attack vectors, exposes PII unnecessarily, and so on, and so forth.

You want a California patch? Go for it.

It does not belong in the main branch.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

where do the maitainers of the linux distro of your choice live? I mean every single person because if even one lives in CA (Brasil...) you have to either 'fire' that person or follow the law for their sake. I agree systemd shouldn't be the place for this, but systemd wants to take over everything and I'm sure some of their maintainers live in CA thus they feel they must.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

All over the globe, much like systemd.

Also like systemd, their operation is not determined by Colorado, California, and Brazil.

And before anyone gives me the "hurt durr other states have it proposed" - other states have had all kinds of stupid laws that make it absolutely nowhere.

And no, they wouldn't have to "fire" anyone from CA, CO, or Brazil. Because it has fuck all to do with systemd in the first place.

systemd is not an operating system. The laws do not have any application to systemd. Including it in systemd as a field, as specifically stated for these three jurisdictions is idiotic in so many ways.

Edit: Also, just to be clear - this PR did not come from maintainers. It came from one person who submitted multiple PRs for age verification across multiple projects.

It was merged by a maintainer though, which is why they deserve criticism.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Age verification bills are being introduced in a lot of places

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Not this kind that have passed, no.

Edit: whole couple words missing.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If we don't fight back they will become standard everywhere.

Instead of being mad at devs be made at those who passed and are considering passing age verification laws.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

SO WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU DEFENDING IT.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not?

I've been contacting my local reps like any citizen should do. Being mad at devs does nothing. Open source developers gets tons and tons of hate I don't need to contribute the shortage of FOSS maintainers.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 0 points 1 day ago

Your shitty misinformation meme post would certainly disagree.