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I Spoke To The Developer Of The Systemd Birth Date PR - YouTube (www.youtube.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Some of you need to watch this video, and hang your head in shame.

Dylan Taylor has been receiving constant harassment, including threats to his life and safety, for actions done collectively by SystemD. The article by Sam Bent was explictly mentioned as part of the harassment campaign, and rightfully so.

I don't think enough people realize that this is catastrophically bad. It'll discourage people from becoming open source developers, it'll discourage people from using Linux, and it'll discourage legislators from taking the Linux community seriously.

If you ever wished ill upon another human being for complying with a relatively inconsequential law, you are better off never touching a computer again. The Linux community has collectively gone so far beyond what is acceptable here.

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[–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

Oh I know, lets introduce a field that stores an array of your nationalities, so any app developer can request your nationalities and adequately fine you for spreading illegal content online if you are Russian citizen.

In this hypothetical situation, why are you choosing to install software that does this? This software could just as easily store the data in a flat text file in your .config directory, it doesn't need systemd in order to exist. Systemd choosing to not add those fields would not prevent the software from existing.

In any hypothetical situation where you're forced to use some hypothetical privacy invading software, that software would still be able to do everything exactly the same even if it has to store your information outside of systemd.

Not having a field in systemd doesn't mean that the data can't be stored, it just means that the data has to be stored in a text file instead.

Systemd also has fields to store your realName and location. That same hypothetical situation applies to that data too. Your REAL NAME gives much more information about you than your birthDate and the location field is big enough to store your exact GPS coordinates. Like birthDate, these fields are not a problem (they've existed since the 60s) if you don't install software that uses them.

If you don't want software that tracks your location, don't install software that tracks your location. If you don't want software that requires your real name, then don't install software that requires your real name.

If you don't want software that requires your birthDate for age verification, then don't install software that requires your birthDate for age verification.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    In this hypothetical situation, why are you choosing to install software that does this?

    Its not a hypothetical situation, it is happening, although right now to mobile phones and tablets if we stick with Russia example. Il let you envision what direction this is going to. But hey its a law. There are linux tablets out there, should maybe they add this pre-installed app?

    https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/08/russia-orders-pre-installed-app-on-all-domestic-mobile-phones-and-tablets/

    By the way that law is there since 2025. Its pretty obvious that we should pre-emptively comply?

    If you don’t want software that tracks your location, don’t install software that tracks your location. If you don’t want software that requires your real name, then don’t install software that requires your real name.

    That is my plan when we know the position of other distributions, I will be moving to one that does not use systemd. My argument with this is that the reasons for this change are clearly to comply with local laws that don't affect majority of the system users. There is no need in this change to be global. It should not exist.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago

    Its not a hypothetical situation, it is happening, although right now to mobile phones and tablets if we stick with Russia example. Il let you envision what direction this is going to. But hey its a law. There are linux tablets out there, should maybe they add this pre-installed app?

    You haven't shown how this would be prevented if systemd didn't store birthDate.

    You, and I, are no more affected by this field than we have been affected by the realName or location fields which have existed for decades. The field doesn't do anything unless you choose to run software that uses it.

    If you're going to swap init systems because of this change then you understand my point about choice. If you think this field is bad, you can choose to not install systemd. If you use systemd and think the field is bad you can choose to not install software that uses the field.

    I think the age verification laws are pointless and damaging, but systemd isn't the battleground to fight that battle and, most importantly, people who are engaged in a harassment campaign against this developer are completely in the wrong.

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