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submitted 1 day ago by Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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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[-] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 15 points 9 hours ago

actions done collectively by SystemD

Nope. It only needs one maintainer to do the PR

It'll discourage people from becoming open source developers

You know what will discourage Them more? Id verification

relatively inconsequential law

Give me your Id. Seriously, go and give me your ID with nothing blurred.

[-] pfr@piefed.social 4 points 11 hours ago

Plenty of distros out there that don't use systemd

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 40 points 19 hours ago

Yeah I'm not going to give this guy his desired victim role. He put a lot of effort into make privacy invading pull requests. Death threats and doxxing is too far but he deserves some insults.

[-] robsteranium@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

No he doesn't. We need to focus our anger on the legislators/ lobbiers (Meta in this case).

[-] kogasa@programming.dev -5 points 10 hours ago

Adding birthday fields is not privacy invading in itself.

[-] gian@lemmy.grys.it 2 points 7 hours ago

Well, It depends on where.

[-] fodor@lemmy.zip 3 points 9 hours ago

Yes, of course. If you ignore current reality, then it's not privacy invading...

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 0 points 8 hours ago

No, it literally just can't violate your privacy in any way. You have complete control over what, if anything, is placed in that field. No information about you can be gained or disclosed by virtue of the systemd change alone. You can think it's a bad change because it signals intent to follow a trend of supporting privacy-invading age verification, but you can't say this specific change in itself is privacy-invading.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

You'd have complete control for now.

Don't give them an inch.

[-] eleijeep@piefed.social 33 points 20 hours ago

Don't collaborate with fascists.

[-] robsteranium@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago

I imagine it feels quite righteous to drop maxims like this. I too am reminded everyday how glad I am not to have to live in a fascist state.

That said I think this sort of superficial dismissal is really unhelpful.

I think the vast majority of Linux users will agree we don't want to have to work with these laws but the reality is that we do. Far better we focus our efforts on minimising harm and promoting alternative mechanisms (e.g. zero-knowledge proofs).

Further I fear this righteousness actually serves to foster a toxic culture in the free software movement. And do you know what we call belligerent people who want to stifle dissent? Fascists!

[-] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 21 hours ago

We're demanding that the government we pay for respect basic human needs. Privacy is not a luxury. It's a need. They went to far with this shit so they can take the next mile. Fuck them all and fuck California's lawmakers for doing it. We should be sending them letters of discontent too.

Lawmakers and politicians in the US ruin everything more and more everyday.

[-] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 78 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I’m going to bullet my thoughts on this whole thing because I’m annoyed by the general response, and the implementation as well:

  • I don’t wish harm on the dev and I don’t dislike them. I don’t even know them
  • Death threats are ridiculous; that’s the working class attacking itself again
  • That said, I want to know what compelled this dev to preemptively implement this field not in 1 but in 2 separate PRs
  • Both the field and the law itself do not serve the user at all; it’s a bullshit vague law that is using children as cover—again (I’m old enough to know how this game works)
  • I’ve always viewed Linux as the rebel among all of the corporate slop we have to constantly dodge, so it is super gross when I see changes in Linux that were made to appease laws built and pushed by fascist tech companies and governments
  • Did the dev even open a line of discussion anywhere, or was the PR supposed to be used for that?
  • What’s his motivation? Money? Fame? I’ve been a programmer for 20 years and I’d never jump on a chance to add something that aligns with laws I think are unethical dog shit—especially in the Linux space where the whole goal is to not be Windows
  • I’m a bit frustrated with the casual “what’s the big deal?” mindset that a lot of people I’ve encountered have about this. Are we not living through the same timeline where the US has fallen under the control of a fascist regime that is being eagerly assisted by Meta, Apple, Microsoft and a ton of other massive corporations? How do people not see that this is the beginning of the wedge? And let’s say it peters out and nothing else happens. I’m not going to be ashamed of the fact that I was a squeaky wheel over it because I’ve seen how these things go. You follow the money and suddenly the bigger picture comes into focus. Why on earth a meager single little dev would implement this, unprompted, is just beyond my reasoning.

This reminds me of when Guillermo Rauch from Vercel praised Trump multiple times. Bro, you’re not Tim Cook. You’re not Ellison, Zuck, or Musk. You’re not even on their level. You’re not going to get on their radar. I have PTSD from fellow tech folks being weirdly aligned with fascism and this whole dumb thing is giving me that vibe again. I don’t think this is that 1:1, but this is like the metal scene. You have to dodge the fascists that seem to weirdly permeate corners of the culture. People that refuse and get annoyed by right-wing labels, but still help right-wing grifters, are their own unique brand of pathetic.

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[-] SpicyPepper@piefed.social 56 points 1 day ago

Lost me at “If you ever wished ill upon another human being for complying with a relatively inconsequential law”

How does that boot taste?

Agree death threats are crazy harassment, etc but I definitely wish I’ll will towards fascist collaborators.

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 17 points 22 hours ago

When you discover the reason for his bootlicking you will be ashamed of your words and deeds.

[-] incompetent@programming.dev 4 points 11 hours ago

I'm out of the loop; what's his reason?

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 9 hours ago

Something about complying with new laws in California and North Korea I think.

[-] Doorknob@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Something? You think? You were talking like you knew

[-] sunbeam60@feddit.uk 1 points 7 hours ago

Are you suggesting that Linux doesn’t attempt to comply to local laws?

That’s a serious question, by the way, not trying to ragebait you.

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this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
90 points (66.7% liked)

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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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