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forum.artixlinux.org

Per the very first reply on their thread discussing it in their forums, which I linked directly to for the post title:

We’ll NEVER require any verification or identification from the user.

However, what’s gonna happen should the attempts to age-gate the XDG portal screw over alt-init distros like Artix too? My guess is maybe they start blocking regions which force age gating like Arch Linux 32 is doing.

  • juipeltje@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 months ago

    In this case Artix already is a systemd-free distro, but this is part of why i think it’s a bad idea that systemd is wanting to implement the age verification crap, cause i think the distro should be allowed to decide if they want to comply or not. Feels like distros that use systemd will be forced to comply unless they change init, which is probably a pain in of itself.

    Btw, what does the desktop portal actually do? I’ve installed a lot of programs over the years, including flatpaks, and i never seemed to need it. I hope it stays that way considering they’re implementing this shit too.

    • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 months ago

      Systemd isn’t implementing age verification.

      They added the ability to store the data because the xdg-desktop-portal team added the ability to set an age and that requires a place to store the data. No component ‘verifies’ the age, it’s a data field that you can enter whatever you’d like into.

      From https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954 :

      Stores the user’s birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc.

      The xdg-desktop-portal project is adding an age verification portal (flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal#1922) that needs a data source for the user’s age. userdb already stores personal metadata (emailAddress, realName, location) so birthDate is a natural fit.

      Full date rather than just birth year: birth year alone has up to ~12 months of imprecision at age boundaries, which could misclassify a 17-year-old as 18 or vice versa.

      • juipeltje@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Sure, but they both seem way too eager for my taste to go along with this nonsense, and if you refuse to implement this, you don’t need a place to store it either. I suppose it’s nice for the distros that do want to use it.

        • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 months ago

          they both seem way too eager for my taste to go along with this nonsense

          Based on what? They have specifically addressed the issue and it does not read like they’re eager to have this forced on them by state laws.

          https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification

          We are accustomed to adding operating system features to comply with laws. Accessibility features for ADA, and power efficiency settings for Energy Star regulations are two examples. We are a part of this world and we believe in the rule of law. We still hope these laws will be recognized for the folly they are and removed from the books or found unconstitutional.

          • juipeltje@lemmy.world
            2·
            2 months ago

            That’s system76, not systemd. System76 is atleast trying to see what they can do (or rather can not do) and are in talks with legislators to see what this actually means for them (if it ends up meaning anything at all, apparently open sourse systems could be exempt from it). I’ve also seen discussions on nixos discourse to see what the best course of action is, and they are also not planning on just folding, but instead looking to bypass the issue. Meanwhile systemd already has the commits ready it seems, no questions asked.