I haven't been following this particular law, but I've always wondered how it would have been implemented for servers.
Even windows has a server edition I believe, if a corporation is using a windows server, would one of their IT employees have to verify it themselves?
What about IOT operating systems, docker/podman containers, router firmware, and so on. Not sure if they address these things in the legal code or not.

This is good news for california, I believe atleast colorado has a similar law being proposed as well. Hope they take notes from cali.

GPL edition of Windows coming when?

Is it even technically possible to enforce it on open-source application, with code readily available for tweaks and modifications?

BTW System76, the company behind their Linux laptops and the Linux desktop COSMIC, was fighting hard against the law to make exemptions for Open Source software. That's important for them, because System76 operates in California. So I think they are big part to thank for here: Colorado and California Exempt Open Source from Age Attestation (May 2026)

This is good news. But why make this distinction? Why is this ok for FOSS but not other platforms?

Also private platforms are more likely to abuse this information.

Microsoft switching to a Linux kernel in…

Why do you assume that Microsoft doesn't want to comply?

Expense of getting and staying compliant.

I don't think that is a problem for Microsoft, especially because they would want your ID and age, tracking you as much as possible already. Also you don't just change the Kernel just like that, there are licenses attached, drivers and other stuff. From technical point of view, in current implementation it is probably impossible. Let alone Microsoft would face issues with compatibility. If we put the technical difficulties aside, I don't even think Microsoft is against this law and pretty much wants it.

The way you currently say it, they tried to stop the exemption. They fought for the law, so OS gets an exemption.

Or do I understand you wrong?

Yeah, that was misunderstood. I said or meant "they was fighting against the law, so they can make an exemption". To make it clear, the linked article from System76 goes into more detail. I just wanted bring attention to this, because the original linked article on tomshardware does not mention them.

Well, politics isn't about finding the one principle to rule them all. The folks/companies that find restricting access to children important, probably don't particularly care about some Linux devices being excluded. And other folks/companies find not restricting their Linux server really important, so that's a compromise that can be made.

I imagine, they landed on specifically open-source being excluded as the more abstract rule, because open-source in particular has a problem here.
Anyone can download open-source software and run it. In most cases, there is no central backend, which could handle age verification.

And even if there is, it's not really financially viable to offer that for anyone who downloads the software for free. Requiring payment to access the binaries or the source code would also effectively kill the open-source ecosystem, which is also not in the interest of most people.

If they didn't want it, they would have lobbied against it.

They could just change the license of their codebase, if that's what they wanted to do. No way in hell they care about users enough though, and probably most windows users still don't care enough even about this to jump ship.

Because FOSS isn't the problem. The problem the law seeks to address is profit-driven big businesses like Meta and Fortnite who don't care to provide any protections for kids or actively target them in their manipulative behaviour, hence targeting the laws at the actual problem (non-FOSS software).

CDDL not mentioned. Have fun illumos!

What expense? Adding one more thing to track about you, especially something they already know and essentially just need to verify, cannot be that expensive.

But I can use Facebook and play Fortnite on Linux right?

Linux locked out of age-gated services because it doesn’t have the necessary verification features and adoption stifles in 3…2…

But seriously do you think it’s really a good thing that the country seems to be moving forward with requiring ID to be online, and suddenly they’re like “oh pff Linux? Yeah don’t worry about that shit, it can be exempt whatever” like that makes it for Special Boys who can Keep Their Freedom and Tendies?

No man, it’ll be DRM’d off the internet. They’ll keep using it for servers since servers don’t need to verify their age to clients. This feels like an attempt to kill Linux on the desktop.

The correct thing would be to not have this law at all.

Has Apple fully open sourced macOS?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accounts-billing/manage/verify-your-age-microsoft-account

«We really dont wanna deal with these nerds, lets just ignore them for now»

Band-aid over an intolerable abuse.

No computer needs personally identifying information just to boot. You are an object, do as you're told. There is no legitimate government interest that justifies this demand.

Can we please include the whole rest of the SPDX license list?

Or even better, restrict it to a few commercial ones?

You may keep you projects for now nerds!

Would it not be someone that would make the modification?

Such a stupid law.

Why is the OS responsible for verifying the age of people using Facebook or whatever?

Imagine if it was Jim Beam's job to verify you were over 21.

Fortnite intentionally blocks Linux users. It will not run without their windows only rootkit.

They already have GDID which tracks you everywhere you go on the Internet and is tied to your $M💩 account

Also: << the nerds aren't going to do any of this shit, so... let's look like the good guys by exempting them so we don't look terrible when the nerds show how obviously this is all security theater >>

The actual language in the law is "under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software". So yeah all the FOSS licenses and even some commercial ones are exempt, only the EULA-ridden shit (i.e. macOS and windows) is gonna be affected. I wonder if Google will start releasing "Chromiumbooks" with license terms that allow them to evade this law.

Nah. The problem the law seeks to address is more money for the rich and more power for the psychopaths. Actual care for children looks nothing close to this

It's fundamentally unenforceable, even if they tried to do what they've done to phones and not allow other OS's to be installed, you could still get development boxes, embedded boxes, etc that by nature of being what they are could not have locked boot loaders.

I was literally going to figure out how to fork and compile it myself if it was forced

Awesome. That's the Geek Way.

Shadowrun shouldn't be a documentary, but here we go.

Translation: there's no way to force open source software to follow the law as it was written.

Because this is temporary. FOSS OS' will be forced to comply in 10-15years max if the law stands.

Welp time to switch to Linux and graphene

This is only IF Gavin Newsom signs it. There's no reason to believe he would. It's not like he's famous for following what the people of California want.

"We don't want to risk Linux getting banned and destroying our complete technical ecosystem"

It would wildly fuck with enterprise systems because you would have to have a way to verify age for the users of EVERY system. The way it is now you would have to verify the age of users of iot and smart devices. You have to have id to turn on your lights or use the refrigerator.

Whilst this would be better than blanket age verification, I feel it's a mediocre outcome for the wrong fight.

Rather than taking a carve out for FOSS, the right fight is to get the online anonymity ban age verification legislation taken out completely.

If we let ourselves be satisfied with a carve out for those of us who are technically literate enough to sidestep early implementations anyway, we let the status quo change, until eventually they will come back for FOSS with the justification:

"well, EVERYONE ELSE submits to age verification, why should FOSS be any different?!"

or more likely:

"${scaryThreat} now uses FOSS to commit ${heinousCrime} against ${peopleWeSuddenlyCareAboutForPoliticalCapital} so we HAVE to protect the kids on FOSS now too!! #thoughtsAndPrayers #wontSomebodyThinkOfTheChildren"

Kids are gonna learn Linux to watch porn and I couldn’t be happier about it.

based

Google doesn't even have a motive to try evading this. Legally mandating that they collect user IDs means that they get to collect more personal data under the guise of compliance, and can also market the increased privacy invasion as a "child safety" feature.

ChromiumOS doesn't need to comply, according to the current bill, but Google has no reason to ship it preinstalled on any consumer devices.

Do the people actually want this? I assumed it was lawmakers serving oligarchs.

To be weighed against the profits from having all that new data on user identities.

California should make Windows as annoying to use as possible so more people switch to Linux

Pretty sure they don't need help with that...

Instead of age verification, it should be improved parental controls. Make it more obvious how to set them up. The initial boot for windows first page could be "are you setting this up for an adult or child?", even require shops selling computers to make sure customers understand that.

Make the parents take the responsibility they are currently somehow managing to avoid.