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Yes, right next to the fields for your full name and address, all of which are optional. It’s a total nothingburger.
Yeah just because they build cages for kids in the desert near the border doesn't mean anything's going to happen! It's just optional infrastructure in case you want to put your kids in a cage. It's totally voluntary.
There are genuinely useful use cases for it, and unlike what you suggest it is completely harmless.
Could someone explain to me why numerous Linux development groups are jumping on board with this bullshit? This is I think the third such post I've read that a distro or however you call it, is integrating the age check. Since when does the Linux community get on board with Big Brother????
A surprising amount of people in the open source community lean alt-right including the lead dev of systemd, some of FUTO, and others like hyprland, etc. Others like the actual dev that committed the age field code to systemd state they are apolitical but in reality are actually enabling those that want to do harm.
There's a breed of incel who benefits from power tripping in community projects. Think reddit mods.
Because it's a legal requirement in some areas now.
But who is checking? Last I read, these laws were created in a few states as a preventative measure against potential Federal laws that could push these issues even further. I haven't heard of any enforcement plans to date or anything about how it should report, just "add age verification to operating systems."
It's not up to the systemd team to decide for you what your risk tolerance is. They're just providing a means to be compliant should you want/need it.
January 1st, 1970
Twins!
Underrated
It’s sad because at some point, when mainstream browsers will actually rely on systemd for that, website will block you.
Given enough time and ressources, that age control will hit hard like DRM.
It's a field in the users database on your own device. You can change it yourself. If something stupid like that would happen you could bypass it entirely by just setting the field to something else.
It is not early implementations I fear.
Why the fuzz? If the website blocks you, just upload your government issued ID to regain access and protect your privacy and anonymity online
And then people will find another way to do what they want. Similar as they did with the internet as it started. It was not always a commercial cesspool, it started as a very nerdy space and replaced TV as a primary source of information. We can do it again. History does not show a pattern of people submitting, but a history of revolution.
The masses submit; the vast majority submits. When they start to bind it at the hardware level - when eventually a government issued ID becomes required to literally enable hardware to work, then we are all screwed. You can always make your own software but not so much make your own CPU.
Then when they need to deal with the older tech aftermarket so they pass laws prohibiting older tech, it's all fucked.
The masses submit only for a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions
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This is the end. Everyone switch to FreeBSD.
It is the year of FreeBSD on both the desktop and the server
Not until Netcraft confirms it
LMAO, good one!
Is the default value set to "True"?
Why would an optional field have a default value? Shouldn't it just be unset?
For... a date field?
Possibly 0 (zero) which would default to January 1, 1970.
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this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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