this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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source? i mean you went through the effort to post a meme about it at least include the relevant information
The source is the source: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/acb6624fa19ddd68f9433fb0838db119fe18c3ed
That's it. That's all it does.
Whatever was discussed in the PR, the code does precisely nothing to implement any kind of verification. It's just an optional birth date field, like tons of electronics have had forever.
So they’re introducing a system where a users age can be verified?
Hmm, if only there was a name for that.
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954
No. They are not.
It is an optional field that does no semblance of checking its veracity. Again, like basically every bit of electronics has had forever.
ah yeah because all of our digital clocks, smartphones, smart watches, microwaves, washing machines, TVs, and.. what else stores user age in a standardized manner? oh, you say none of these and no other things either?
It is literally for the act of verifying a users age.
Being the verifier instead of the requester doesn’t make it not age verification. It’s part and parcel.
I just don't see how it's any different than my Sony PSP having an optional birthday field. Or oldschool forums having one.
If systemd starts talking about bundling face scanners or whatever they actually need to verify someone's age, and then tons of linux systems start requiring it, then I will be gravely concerned.
it’s optional now but can be mandatory later? It literally takes a baby monkey’s brain to understand that.
Also this is literally in the PR:
(Time to set it to) literally 1984!
You can if you want
You also could just ignoro it entirely as it is optional
I don’t think anyone who read even the first paragraph of the article (at least the one i read) would say they are doing verification. They are simply adding a field for data to be housed if anyone wants to opt in. Instead of putting it in 20 different spots/apps it’s in one place that any third party can reference.
But why would I want that?
Even if you ignore the whole "this doesn't verify anything" discussion, why would I want to give third parties easy access to personal and potentially sensitive information? I personally am not interested in simplifying data collection for corporate entities who definitely do not give a shit about the safety of my personal data, let alone hypothetical children. I do not know why this data collection needs or would be desired to be implemented within systemd, besides being a direct response to age verification laws saying its an OS providers responsibility to collect it. Arbitrary data collection by private entities is not "useful". My personal data has no business being referenced by random asshats that ask for it. There are so few things in the world that "justify" needing my age that I would suggest it would be easier to make my birth date a permanent data point on my PC. Same goes for the other personal details that systemd already supports. Crazy to imagine anyone actually using those on a personal machine.
"While our lawyers are fighting it in court, we decided to whip up the barest minimum viable proof of concept so that if it does come to pass, at least it'll be on our terms, and not a rushed piece of easily-exploitable garbage pushed out at the last second" the systemd team, probably
Edit: source, two weeks ago, the pull request conversation: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954#issuecomment-4032221990
That's the question: would they fight it? From all I've seen so far, they wouldn't.
Yeah, I've read that discussion a few days ago. That specific post seemed reasonable, but that was a comment from outside the core systemd team, wasn't it? As far as I understood all of this, different people took the decision to merge, without coordinating their efforts with those of the corporate linux distros (Pop!, Ubuntu, Red Hat/Fedora, (Open)SUSE).
Its a nullable field, chill. It's exactly the same as a Linux distro installer asking for your first name for account setup and the moral outrage is genuinely embarrassing
Good system design doesn't do things without me asking it to. I'll gladly manually re enter my birth date for an external service if its required, which to be clear, should be as close to 0 times as possible. What, should I keep all my job application info in the initialization system too? Because a website I'm on might ask for it at some point? Don't want to be too redundant.
Literally this field serves no purpose other than to build compliance with the surveillance state. No end user asked for this. Like I said, can't imagine any end user making use of the existing systemd fields either. But those also didn't get any attention because they weren't made as a reaction to threats by a malicious regime.
It is just a optional field
Be mad at lawmakers not developers who are trying to make the best of a shitty situation
It was also an option to not make a useless field. Not like this self reported dob is going to cut it for the existing age verification laws as is exists now. But I can be mad at people in a position of community production for not having a spine, too.
How is this supposed to be making the best of the situation anyway? It accomplished nothing but piss off the community and signify to authoritarians that open source developers are ready to bend over for them. Simply threaten unenforceable fines across the world and suddenly everything is hopeless. Better get ready to comply, its inevitable! Its pathetic. Ageless Linux might be performative bs, but at least its critical of this over reach instead of intentionally signalling compliance in advance.
I speak only for myself, but I’m not mad at any developers for following with this. I wish they wouldn’t, but I can’t blame them for following the law to protect themselves.
I still think this is bullshit and just going down the slippery slope. The next thing is “this value doesn’t do anything. Now we need a law that actually checks an ID!” And it just keeps getting worse and worse.
Don’t give them an inch on any of this bullshit. And by them, I do mean the governments trying these stupid laws that, at best, waste taxpayer money and valuable time spent on other worthwhile things.