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this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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Has anyone even looked at the PR? Why is there such a big stink about adding an optional birthday field to a JSON schema? It's opt-in and can't be validated in any way.
That's like saying OpenSSL is the thin end of an anti-encryption wedge because they provide FIPS compliant modules. Or complaining that it puts your privacy at risk when you generate an SSH key and it asks for your address.
The problem is the laws getting passed, not with software that gives people a choice about whether to comply.
Is it going to give a choice, though? As more and more of these laws are passed, soon people will have no choice. Open-source software was supposed to be about freedom, and I see this as anything but that.
Yes, the PR specifically calls out the laws as the reason for this change. The problem is BOTH the laws getting passed, and corporate interests complying in advance.
Personally, I just don't like the taste of asslicking in my distributions. Time to change to a non systemd distro.
I feel like this will be a problem for the future.
Edit: another user already pointed out the "problem for the future" here.
It definitely will be a problem, but it will be a legal problem, not a software problem. Even if the systemd devs decided to revert this commit and never collect age data, the law would still be just a shitty as it is now.
If this law said that everyone needed to provide a phone number instead of a birthday, would everyone here be just as angry at the Bell Labs developers who wrote the GECOS standard?
Everyone should be 76 years old, to honor System76 for helping.
~~OK, but the law didn't even get written.~~ That asshole decided to open up and deepthroat the boot before it even entered the room.
https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1043
Ummm… what?
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954#issuecomment-4032221990
IDK, I read about this bullshit like last week, and it was always presented in future tense. I saw this post from Jeremy from System 76 today in the goddamn Git thread, so excuse me for not understanding the current state of the problem.