That stupid Newsom age-gating OS bill is pure political theatre. It won't affect Linux -- too many capitalists would be inconvenienced, and inconveniencing capitalists is the last thing capitalist darling Newsom would do; he couldn't even be bothered to support a modest 5% tax on billionaires.

Linux is here to stay -- it runs the internet. And it will always be customizable, because that's part of what gives it so much value.

How the fuck is Linux a trap compared to the shenanigans of Microsoft?
Microsoft and other proprietary vendors are the trap, and Linux is the way to avoid it.

Here's one way that liberal fascism maintains control:

• Maintain control of everything
• If control is lost, create mass hysteria about "social media", "kids," "addiction", "islam", "immigration", whatever, etc.
• Steamroll everything.
• Regain control.

It's how they got TikTok, etc. It's how they'll try to get Lemmy, Linux, VPNs, etc. The wild part is how many lib "allies" will fully support this.

Yes, it's a trap like everything else. It's another front in the struggle.

Ive been running Linux for close to a decade now and one thing that I've noticed is rarely brought up in Linux circles is that Linux Kernel Development is heavily funded by major big tech corpos. Examples include Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and IBM.

There is a vested corporate interest in keeping Linux well maintained as it is the OS that underpins the vast majority of corporate server architecture and infrastructure.

I'm not saying Linux development wouldn't exist without them, but imho, Linux certainly wouldn't be as ubiquitous as it is today without this corporate backing. Thusly, it is worth noting that in many ways, we Linux users have not escaped corporate influence simply from switching from Windows or MacOS to Linux.

We've maybe lessened it to some degree, but to think we are somehow immune to the misguided mandates from state governments, like the latest recent age verification laws, is misguided.

This is why shaming the idiots who say things like "what's the big deal, it's just a field in a text file" is so important. They need to be made to understand that solidarity is required to resist the tyrants.

Their building a Prison System ™️ regardless, open source (e.g. Linux) just offers SOME protections.

We have to do more regardless, but it's still all part of the good fight in my book

That legislation is pushed by big tech lobbies, mainly Meta. The more people use open source the less power those big companies have to push shit like this.

Also we've had attempts to microslopify Linux before, by the hands of Canonical and Red Hat.

I think if Linux becomes something for the masses it will no longer be for me. So I'm hoping that won't happen.

End users just want their hand to be held by some kind of corporation. Happy to give up their information and privacy. To have no choices in interface etc.

Basically, Linux for the masses will look exactly like ChromeOS. Completely unusable for a power user with a need for privacy and control.

What people don't realize is, that every year is the Year of Linux Desktop. We just beat the previous year. It's like having a new world record every year.

Year of linux?

Dude, please. I'm on my third decade of the thing already.

It's just the buzz-word of FOSS enthusiasts.

How would anyone place a 100% community driven distribution like Debian in such a cage? There's no monetary leverage, the community is truly international, so local laws don't apply .....
Please note that it's also one of the most prolific distributions, and the foundation p.e. for *buntu.

If you're living in an oppressive jurisdiction, your employer might obviously not allow you to use a truly free operating system, but that's hardly Linux's fault.

So if your favorite distribution is starting bullshit, just switch to the next one, there are literally thousands of them. That's why "Year of the Linux desktop" is confusing: it's "year of steamOs" or "year of *buntu", probably even "year of Debian", but most certainly never "year of the nixos desktop".

You have choice. Use it.