Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-systems/a-new-california-law-says-all-operating-systems-including-linux-need-to-have-some-form-of-age-verification-at-account-setup/

Apparently this will include Linux...

Sounds like bullshit I will not tolerate.

How about don't implement it and when California realises they need computers then they might change their mind?

They will make exceptions for themselves. Like how none of the laws passed in the UK apply to the military, politicians, and police. Even for their own personal use.

So define Operating System. Are embedded systems Operating Systems? Coz that's going to cast a rather wide net.

Selective enforcement. Basically if they want to do shit to you they will prosecute you, otherwise they won't bother.

Sounds like California needs to try out the ligma OS because they can suck my nuts.

Nailed it.

This is being pushed by social media companies that don't want to be responsible for age verification

Yeah I agree with the article, people will just say "Do not use in California" then....F off. OSes are VERY different all over the place.

I dont see this as enforceable. Linux in itself is multi-user. Everyone is just going to put some bogus year for age and continue on. I also dont see websites caving and adding it all in because that would cost a metric ton and be inconvenient for everyone involved. What about server OSes? OSes that have a machine as the only user. Or embedded devices?

It also does NOT protect Children in any way.

I can't wait for my microwave to ask me to take off my glasses, face the camera, and turn my head slowly from left to right.

Gonna make provisioning servers a lot more interesting....

This will immediately get struck down in court even if it passes, though everyone should make their voices heard in saying this is complete nonsense.

Yet another case of antiquated politicians not understanding technology whatsoever.

And what about all the operating systems that already exist and are no longer maintained? Who is responsible for that. Microslop gotta update Win95 to add age verification?

I use DosBox to play MS-DOS games that I played as a kid, those didn't ask you to enter any credentials whatsoever. I guess they're illegal now.

Easy enough to send threatening cease and desist letters to distro maintainers that may not have a penny in savings. This is a huge gift to Apple and Microsoft that probably had enough of Linux hoarding in on their market share.

Linux distributions should react by asking users to confirm they're not in California. They'll backpedal fast.

I think it's from proprietary OS makers that want to squash open source competition.

Gavin Gruesome at it again

You are right that operating system is not defined. But the definition of operating system provider is this: "(g) “Operating system provider” means a person or entity that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system software on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device." (emphasis mine)

Which should clearly exclude embedded devices.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043

Gavin Newsom is such a fucking tool.

This operating system contains code known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm.

And are they going to require ID to verify birth dates, or is this just going to be a drop down menu? If the latter, I'm pretty sure everyone's birth date is 1/1/1901. I'm so tired of this surveillance shit masquerading as "save the children" nonsense. I hate to say it, but this is a parenting problem and if your kids are more tech-savvy than you are, they WILL find a way around these safegaurds.

hey, Leisure Suit Larry had a really tough 3-part questionaire to seperate adults from minors.

All this age verification crap. Where is the fucking parents? I get that big tech has some responsability in all this. But how about we just make the responsible choice, of not letting a 8 year old near tiktok forinstance?
Oh, it is just another excuse for private survailance you say? I see, I see...

Ye, now I've got a reason for hating him as well.

Tbf every single politician is.

Eveny single website running should do this, and refuse to display for Californians

Assembly Bill No. 1043 was approved by California governor Gavin Newsom in October of last year, and becomes active on January 1, 2027 (via The Lunduke Journal).

Sounds like it already passed

good lord, not even the solar powered four-function calculators are safe!

"Won't anyone think of the cHiLdReN?!"

I'm pretty sure everyone's birth date is 1/1/1970

FTFY

Fucking stupid. What now, everyone adds a script to enter 04/01/1984 for every continuous integration pipeline? Every kubernetes cluster has to include an age automation? Idiot politicians should not draft policies about shit they have no clue about.

It can be both!

I wish one could implement "mental-age verification". That way almost all politicians on Earth would be blocked from important technologies.

I'm a parent and legit think that majority of parents should not have been parents and have no minimum required skill to raise a human being. It's sad because it's really not that hard but most people don't think a day ahead when raising their kids and just follow a "vibe", so spending a weekend on parental controls is an insurmountable task.

How is it unenforceable?

Real question

I’d say it’s probably easy to investigate avenues they’d have to enforce it. Like how would they make Canonical, a British company, enforce age verification on Ubuntu, a product they give to users for free?

There’s no contract, no transaction, no legal entity need be involved in the process.

I'm not a parent and wish there was some kind of minimum requirement.

I see a dipshit lib, I downvote. Fuck this guy.

"Lets fight ICE" also "you need an id to use your laptop and be verifed by big tech to use it"
Worse then clowns. Fucking traitors

Put the square peg in the square hole.

But... but it's for the safety of children. /s

Fucking morons.

Politician: The lowest form of life on earth (lower than slime mold... sorry for insulting slime mold).

They produce nothing of value, never have and never will, true sociopaths, total liars, elitest narsacistc parasites and oxygen wasters and generally evil...

Apple and Microsoft are both rather large Linux customers. On desktop, they sell their operating systems, but both of them use a lot of Linux in the enterprise. Apple more so, but Microsoft is no slouch.

Too bad that reproductive harm doesn't work eliminating the birth of politicians

As usual, the solution is education. Parental education needs to be prioritized imo. That said, I have no idea how we would implement such a thing. Most likely better general education would help at least.

turns on VPN

Oh no, anyways.

If they're ever ignorant enough to ban VPNs we'll be fucked.

Omg... You would have to verify every single VM. Would docker images count or not? Might be enough to push me to properly work out how to use that instead of VMs...

Holy shit west is fallen 🥀