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Dylan M. Taylor is not a household name in the Linux world. At least, he wasn’t until recently.

The software engineer and longtime open source contributor has quietly built a respectable track record over the years: writing Python code for the Arch Linux installer, maintaining packages for NixOS, and contributing CI/CD pipelines to various FOSS projects.

But a recent change he made to systemd has pushed him into the spotlight, along with a wave of intense debate.

At the center of the controversy is a seemingly simple addition Dylan made: an optional birthDate field in systemd’s user database.

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[-] Senal@programming.dev 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

That's a sound argument, mostly (in the quote, i mean)

If the technical implementation of how they would try and force age verification was the problem people were concerned about, this take would be very useful.

Physical locks on glass doors are easy to bypass, doesn't mean you won't get shafted if someone just so happens to catch you in the act.

If third party age verification is legally mandated the implementation being technically difficult (or easy to bypass) doesn't stop it from being illegal.

Being a condescending prick works better if the position you take is unassailable, you do you though.

this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
122 points (91.2% liked)

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