this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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Linux

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Birthdate field under discussion also in Arch Linux (github.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/linux@programming.dev
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Add a required birth date prompt (YYYY-MM-DD) to the user creation flow, stored as a systemd userdb JSON drop-in at /etc/userdb/.user on the target system.

Motivation

Recent age verification laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. require platforms to verify user age. Collecting birth date at install time ensures Arch Linux is compliant with these regulations.

This is just a pull request, no changes yet.

The pull-request discussion thread has been locked, just like it happened for the similar thread in Systemd, owing to the amount of negative comments...

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[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago

I think you've severely underestimated just how critical Linux is to the tech industry, and just how hard it would be for companies to move off of it.

If companies were afraid they'd have to face that kind of work, they would push back on our behalf.

Or they would make their own forks, we'd end up with a painful unmaintainable mess, and then they'd push back on our behalf.

You manage upwards against people unwilling to listen or comprehend by forcing them to experience the pain of their own poor decisions that they were already warned of. You don't accomplish anything by proactively capitulating to bad requests.