The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
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We've long depended on software maintained by fewer people than that.
The point is: anyone can contribute, committers review and approve. If that has always been a reasonable process, why not now? There are lots of open source projects where the creator of the project has more power than that, and we've always accepted it because we trust the maintainers, and when they break that trust, the community forks, which has also happened plenty of times.
But at the end of the day, it seems to me most people here are irrationally panicking about this. Isn't the field optional? Isn't what goes in the field entirely under the user's control?
By all means discuss this honestly, but I don't see anything here that justifies the hype and panic.
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We've long depended on software maintained by fewer people than that.
The point is: anyone can contribute, committers review and approve. If that has always been a reasonable process, why not now? There are lots of open source projects where the creator of the project has more power than that, and we've always accepted it because we trust the maintainers, and when they break that trust, the community forks, which has also happened plenty of times.
But at the end of the day, it seems to me most people here are irrationally panicking about this. Isn't the field optional? Isn't what goes in the field entirely under the user's control?
By all means discuss this honestly, but I don't see anything here that justifies the hype and panic.
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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 I don't get it, there are alread fields for location and real name and I never put any real info their either, this is no different, an arbitrary field people don't need to use... And systemd isn't going to verify it either, 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
'He read the law, took it at face value, and started writing code. The word for what that is sits somewhere past malice, something more insidious: an engineer who treats compliance as engineering, who sees a legal requirement the way he sees a technical specification, and will implement whatever the spec says regardless of who wrote the spec or why.'Zealot. The word is Zealot. His god spoke and he responded.
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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.
