this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Whatever the old farts will come with their stupid laws, SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, it's Linux. It's always a sudo away from doing (or not) exactly what you (don't) want. I know. This is beyond their comprehension. Adding a field here is ok to me. Because if it ends up being used:
The only thing that will hurt from this are companies in CA, CO and wherever.
The average Linux user will not give a single fuck. I know I don't.
A lot of people born January the first, 1970.
Ahh, another Epoch traveler
Go team Crono
I like the idea of a system add-on that randomizes all user age responses with a different date that equals like 25-99years old (assuming 25 years meets the highest age for the applicable standards).
Not too dissimilar from a random MAC address generating feature.
So why not just remove the field then?
Because they are bootlicking and being complicit in shifting the Overton Window. Let's have guns everywhere, but the Internet is too dangerous.
SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, it's Linux was my band in high school.
I need to ear it now
And really, when was the last time some megacorp tried to access userdb on any machine?
And in a twisted way, this may be good. For instance, Microslop will probably spent millions to please their pedos overlords. They will require PC vendors to add cryptographic chips to ensure you cannot change your age, that has been verified after a background check required to buy Windows... We all know how product managers think (if you don't you're lucky, stay the fuck away)
The probable result: more and more people will switch to Linux, where they can be a 3000y old tree.
All of that is true, at least for now. But if you look at the work the systemd developers have been doing with remote attestation and end to end verification of computers, it starts to paint a grim picture. Web based integrity might not be that far off. But I really hope it doesn't get that bad
Relevant article: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/you-the-problem-tpm2-solves.en.html
And if anybody thought TPM provides security: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/tpm-2-0-is-a-must-they-said-it-will-improve-windows-security-they-said.13222/ https://gist.github.com/osy/45e612345376a65c56d0678834535166 https://www.sophos.com/en-us/blog/serious-security-tpm-2-0-vulns-is-your-super-secure-data-at-risk https://www.covertswarm.com/post/how-secure-are-tpm-chips
Reader, you know what's likely most secure? FOSS code, peer-reviewed and regularly patched.
I don't get why one would trust security theater, aka TPM and secureboot.
its the opposite in the best possible way. FOSS = “we know it’s too complicated to make perfect. that’s why it’s all out in the open where we call eachother out on our shit. We dont sell, we improve.” proprietary = “there is no war in ba sing seigh and to say or demonstrate otherwise is terrorism against shareholders.”
The owner of the machine is the one who decide. You can already make the life of other non root users absolutely miserable. The major difference is that it is YOU who control that. Not the company you bought your laptop from.
Also attestation is a super cool feature when you understand it. Because again, it's free.
In general, systemd hate is a mark of ignorance. Which is fine. Ignorance can be fixed.
I quite like the init and journal parts of systemd. I'm not a hater. But I've been around long enough to see where this attestation road might lead to. Google tried it recently with their WEI initiative.
But now the time is ripe again with child safety being mentioned left and right. This is all speculative but combine secure boot ,and kernel level attestation and suddenly one must use verified applications which among other things can't block ads and whatnot