this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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Privacy

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Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/62278765

Software changes for compliance with age-verification laws are being pushed a bit everywhere in Linux-development; for example:

It's interesting that it's the same small group of people behind these pull requests, and that discussion threads in them have been locked owing to a great amount of negative criticisms.

They say "we have to comply with the law". Which also means that if "the law" in the future will require proper verification, handling to 3rd-parties, or whatnot, then they will comply.

Well, it's their right to. They don't owe anything to anyone, and are under no obligation to report to users or to the community, nor to pay heed to anybody's wishes.

If things proceed in this direction, we users may at some point have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distributions or legal Linux distributions. People who, like me, are worried, need to start thinking about concrete actions to take before it's too late: where to develop such distros? which channels to download and distribute them from? And so on. (And of course, more generally we need to write and protest to politicians, organize protest marches, go on strike, refuse to comply...)

It's good to remind to those who keep on repeating the words "legal" and "illegal" that for example Nelson Mandela was, technically speaking, a criminal who did and promoted illegal activity. This happens when laws become immoral.

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[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Their site is honestly not organized that well in the first place, tho they do cover the basics.

This list shows which distros are complying, with which laws, and how. Might not be up to date (you'd need to target each relevant project's repos and issue trackers for that). In particular, it's missing the freedesktop org which has already assured and announced compliance with fascism (and is the hook systemd's compliance is serving to). This list details the target laws (and their status, as some of them have been repelled or returned to evaluation), but IIRC it's also not up to date.

By itself, Ageless Linux is ATM a series of patches. Currently for Debian but should in theory serve any distro once people put in the translation work on it. They also propose a (ATM theoretical) Example (Non-)Compliance Device to show in-person and at scale how ridiculous these laws are. It can serve multiple purposes, from mere demonstration (for conferences etc) to supply chain level enforcement of non-compliance.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thank you very much! :⁠-⁠)

So, their thing is, besides listing current non-/complying distros, to protest the law by providing a cheap way around it?

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

As well as a cheap way to demonstrate how to accidentally ("accidentally") non-comply.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Ok, I've written a long over complicated answer, which was basically a rant against those stupid shitheads without any clue how the internet or technology works, to push some laws over us

I still stand by that statement, but I've cut out all the incomprehensible shit I've written o⁠:⁠-⁠)

Seems I'm just getting carried away, when facing bullshit laws...

Still, I'm not understanding what the basic idea of this law is, besides mass surveillance - and then I always thought that California is the one state in the US, that actually makes kinda sane laws, when it comes to regulations

But I'm not even from the US, so maybe I'm misinterpreting things...

Anyway, this shit sucks and we should build up a lobby front fucking now
So in general, sponsor your FSF and similar organisations, or build your own and connect with like-minded ones

We need to kill this shit in its roots
Not even just for the autocratic reasons, but also simply because of its stupidity

I'm just getting fed up fighting against shit like that since 30 years now, and those suckers always come back with another bullshit thing to kill our home world - the internet.
We need to take it back and can't have anyone else have a say in it.

Edit: well, this re-worked answer wasn't any shorter or easier to read... Hope someone still gets what I'm trying to say

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm still trying to make sure I've gotten it correctly tbh. Not getting rid of this post in my inbox too soon. :p

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I feel very honoured, that you value my emotional and probably drunken outburst ;⁠-⁠)

Anyway, we need to act.

There is a saying (at least in German), that a wheel, that doesn't screech, isn't getting oiled.
And if don't act up, it will seem like no resistance and all is good.
We need to scream with all the tools we have.