this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026

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344

Surge in Systemd forks after the latest changes (github.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/linux@programming.dev

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The latest changes implemented in the Systemd repo, related to or prompted by age-verification laws, have made many people unhappy (I suppose links about this aren't necessary). This has led to a surge in Systemd forks during the last days ("surge" because there have always been plenty of forks). Here are some forks that explicitly mention those changes as their reason for forking (rough time ordering taken from the fork page):

paramazo/systemd "The systemd System and Service Manager without age verification"
ganitam/systemd "Systemd fork just before the Age Verification addition. Hoping more capable developers and maintainers do same.."
GSYT-Productions/systemd-fork "The systemd System and Service Manager, without the stupid Age Verification"
speedythesnail/unret arded-systemd "The systemd System and Service Manager, without the ret arded age-verification commits"
ta13579/systemd "The systemd System and Service Manager WITHOUT THE FUCKING AGE CHECKS"
r4shsec/systemd-no-age-verification "This is systemd but without the age verification made via pull request https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40978"
Pingasmaster/fightthesystemd "Systemd without the nonsense: no age verification, no lighthouse built-in."
Jeffrey-Sardina/system "Liberated systemd -- no surveillance. Ever."
HaplessIdiot/systemd-saneagecheck "The systemd System and Service Manager with age verification bypass and polling rate options for said feature"
Queer-Coded-LGBTQ/systemd-fuck-california "The systemd System and Service Manager, but without age bs added in."
Codiak540/unshitted-systemd "A fork of systemd aiming to strip the Age verification. Sue me california."

Hopefully the energy of this reaction won't be scattered among too many alternatives, although some amount of scattering is always good.

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[–] mrbigmouth502@piefed.zip 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is one of the beautiful things about open source. If the original devs do something stupid, the community can fork.

[–] pglpm@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago

Amen!

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Out of the loop:

The systemd project merged a pull request adding a new birthDate field to the JSON user records managed by userdb, in response to age verification laws in California, Colorado, and Brazil.

Lennart Poettering clarified that this is an optional field in the userdb JSON object — not a policy engine, not an API for apps. It just defines the field so it's standardized if people want to store the date there, but it's entirely optional. Systemd itself does nothing with the data.

What a nothing burger

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 23 points 6 days ago (17 children)

It's not nothing, freedom is often taken by inches.

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[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

In response to German purity laws, IBM has added an optional field to their citizen database. It just defines a field "Is Jewish" so it's standardized, but entirely optional. IBM does nothing with the data.

What a nothing burger.

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[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Rewrite in Rust when?

[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf 3 points 5 days ago

Yes. Because Rust solves all things, just like that.

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[–] Mikina@programming.dev 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm mostly interested in how will they handle giving the info to apps. If it'd let me to block or fake the request depending on what I currently need (just prompt me every time an app asks, and let me choose the bracket), I'm good.

Tbh, most sites that are slowly getting targeted by age verification laws are things I'm kind of addicted to and have been trying to drop for a long time. A "scan your face or id" dialog would be a good reminder to finally cold turkey it. It's one of the things I hate more than however much I need their platforms.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If you have root access to the system, then you can enter any date you wish. That's not exactly a per-app or per-request prompt, but there is nothing preventing you from using whatever date you want. The only situation where this is going to matter is when an adult manages a computer for a minor and wants them to be age restricted.

I get the "boiling a frog" arguments against this. It does feel like a first step towards gating the Internet behind government ID. However, if this were to forever be the way things work, I don't see a problem.

I'm also not sure how resistance from the Linux community on this law will do anything to prevent future authoritarian overreach. It could do more to keep us marginalized, which will make us even less capable of standing up to the next phase.

[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

And it appeared to me at a glance that many pre-existing systemd forks came out of dormancy and updated after that merger too, to apply the regression. Far more than just 11.

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