The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
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The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
@Khrys Your linux bootloader in 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3gFn5s6-iI ... and then you have to press ALT+X to continue.
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@Khrys what do you mean, tried? He succeeded, with the complicity of even bigger idiot Poettering.
@fazalmajid @Khrys You mean the very same Poettering which was responsible for this commit https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/bb19b6104978b5ede792fa3f0cfc74272f20bf9c which was "Found with Claude Code Review" and it broke systemd-boot in one of the release candidates (260 RC3) https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/41098
"Anything LLM-generated will not be committed without a thorough human review" in practice. Yeah.
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The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
So, tl;dr, someone added an age field, and the trolls went crazy?
And now everybody hates everybody, and each side is calling the other one "zealot" with religious fervor?Just another day in toxicland, I guess.

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@fazalmajid @Khrys You mean the very same Poettering which was responsible for this commit https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/bb19b6104978b5ede792fa3f0cfc74272f20bf9c which was "Found with Claude Code Review" and it broke systemd-boot in one of the release candidates (260 RC3) https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/41098
"Anything LLM-generated will not be committed without a thorough human review" in practice. Yeah.
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@aaribaud J'interdis rien du tout. Je dis que je vois pas le rapport entre les deux prémisses.
@CypherSephiroth Si par "les deux prémisses" tu entends l'angle de l'article et celui de mon commentaire, alors je renouvelle ma réponse : je ne vois pas la raison pour laquelle ils devraient avoir un rapport à part le fait de porter sur le même objet.
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The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
@Khrys cyberfascism at play..
Kevin Karhan :verified: (@kkarhan@infosec.space)
@bazkie@beige.party the problem isn't #SystemD but #Cyberfascism and #Bootlickers. - I'll *refuse to comply* with any *"#AgeVerification"* demands in @OS1337 as a matter of principle, just like I'll bever comply with cyberfascist demands by #Roskomnadzor or any other bs. - Be [angry at the right people:](https://mamot.fr/@Khrys/116265905987693759) The #TechIlliterates demanding such #fasist bullshit and those that are deepthroating their boots!
Infosec.Space (infosec.space)
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The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
@Khrys @nblr @doingfedtime What kind of bullshit hit piece is this?
We’re now blaming developers for contributing to FOSS projects?
Great job everyone, you can be really proud of yourselves!
/s -
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
@Khrys is it just me or is the article a bit weird? Weird repetitions, weird (fully animated) graphics and a weird quiz at the end. It smells vaguely like slop, but is it?
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The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
@Khrys @thedarktangent what the actual fuck, you’re reposting and spreading an article that targets an open source maintainer by insulting him and making his picture into a wanted poster? Seriously?
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@Khrys @nblr @doingfedtime What kind of bullshit hit piece is this?
We’re now blaming developers for contributing to FOSS projects?
Great job everyone, you can be really proud of yourselves!
/s@joschi @Khrys @doingfedtime
"Contributing" -
@joschi @Khrys @doingfedtime
"Contributing"@nblr @Khrys @doingfedtime Save the nitpicking. It is a contribution, just one you don’t like.
I’m not saying I’m thrilled about it either, but writing and promoting this hit piece is low. Very low…
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@nblr @Khrys @doingfedtime Save the nitpicking. It is a contribution, just one you don’t like.
I’m not saying I’m thrilled about it either, but writing and promoting this hit piece is low. Very low…
@joschi
The article is as much about the multi-layer organisational failure as it is about the "contribution" - which indeed is not just one "I don't like". Please take your framing and go elsewhere. Thank you. -
@joschi
The article is as much about the multi-layer organisational failure as it is about the "contribution" - which indeed is not just one "I don't like". Please take your framing and go elsewhere. Thank you.@nblr @Khrys @doingfedtime Yes, it's absolutely a well-founded article debating organizational failures in a complete impartial way.
That's why there's a fake image of the developer in which looks like he's getting a mugshot.

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@Khrys @thedarktangent what the actual fuck, you’re reposting and spreading an article that targets an open source maintainer by insulting him and making his picture into a wanted poster? Seriously?
@filippo @Khrys @thedarktangent know what would prevent this shit in the first place? If actively supporting fascism had consequences.
Meet consequences.
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@nblr @Khrys @doingfedtime Yes, it's absolutely a well-founded article debating organizational failures in a complete impartial way.
That's why there's a fake image of the developer in which looks like he's getting a mugshot.

@joschi The style is debatable and it tastes a bit like someone drank a bit much of the generative kool-aid, but content-wise it does a good job in condensing the "why this is bad", how the chain is forged, from good intentions, in very understandable words.
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@Khrys we like to think of FOSS as some sort of anarchist collective°. it never has been.
it's run by a series of people with absolute power, for the most part. the benefit is that it's a lot of tiny dictators rather than a few big ones; that in theory anyone can become one, you don't need to be rich; and that these dictators tend to have technical knowledge.
but they can still be arseholes.
° i mean, we might not CALL it that.
@Khrys @fishidwardrobe I've long been saying that, instead of debating the relative merits of open source software and free software, we should have been demanding noncommercial software. Now it may be too late. FOSS is no anarchist collective, but arguably hacking is. Unfortunately too many of the hacker era hackers were ancaps and could be hired to do the dirty work of the powerful. But now that computing freedom is by definition illegal, maybe a new generation of hackers will arise. One can only hope. -
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
Dylan, useful idiot with commit access, pushed age verification PRs to systemd, Ubuntu & Arch, got 2 Microslop employees to merge it, called it 'hilariously pointless' in the PR itself, then watched Lennart personally block the revert. Unpaid compliance simp.
Sam Bent (www.sambent.com)
The lasting damage was knowing it could happen at all: that a single contributor with no stated organizational backing could submit compliance infrastructure for surveillance law directly into the software that boots your computer, get it merged by two Microsoft employees, and have the creator of systemd personally block the removal.
@Khrys Please tell me the age of the "root" user?
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I don't understand what the fuss is about. This is exactly the right way to comply with that law: an optional birth date field. You don't want to have to submit an idea to your OS or implement facial recognition, and you certainly don't want to tie account creation to external services for those things, but now parents can fill in the birth date for their kids, and everybody else can ignore it. This kind of thing needs to be in the hands of parents, not external companies.
So I don't really see the problem here.
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@sebsauvage @Khrys Comme je le commentais sur SeenThis dans la semaine, c'est la première vraie démonstration qu'il y a un problème avec systemd et que ce n'est donc finalement pas qu'un problème technique, et qu'il y a aussi un problème politique.
@biggrizzly @sebsauvage @Khrys Si on regarde la thèse de Gabriel Alcaras (https://theses.fr/2022EHES0120.pdf), le fait que de plus en plus de développeurs Open Source intègre le monde du libre et son développement (dans le kernel, et partout ailleurs), ce type de cas risque de se multiplier, les entreprises poussant linux à être le plus "Compliant" possible malheureusement ... Cela ne m'étonnerait pas que cela créé de plus en plus de remous, de plus en plus de FOSS se dotant de chartes heureusement
poke @khinsen -
@Khrys @fishidwardrobe I've long been saying that, instead of debating the relative merits of open source software and free software, we should have been demanding noncommercial software. Now it may be too late. FOSS is no anarchist collective, but arguably hacking is. Unfortunately too many of the hacker era hackers were ancaps and could be hired to do the dirty work of the powerful. But now that computing freedom is by definition illegal, maybe a new generation of hackers will arise. One can only hope.
@lori @Khrys i've recently been thinking about — and this is beyond my skills, so i should really say "fantasising about" — some sort of common retrocomputing platform, maybe based on an esp32 or something, which is completely incompatible with commercial computers and so can't be used commercially.
but it would also be missing all the spy-firmware (minix in the cpu, tiny computers in usb plugs etc). maybe we could start our own replacement for the internet!
… yeah, right. sorry.