California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law • Hacker News Board

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#361

Post by wredcoll » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:12 AM UTC

irishcoffee wrote: post #360

wredcoll wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The true version of the trolley problem requires perfect knowledge of the future. This can't exist in the real world.

So you’re being pedantic? Future forecasts and estimates can’t mesh with the trolly problem? If that’s your stance sure, you are correct. I do feel like you missed the whole point of the exercise though, and are hiding behind an absolute that is never achievable.

Look, nobody brings up the trolley problem because they're concerned about what they're going to do when a train car goes out of control.

They use it as a metaphor to attempt to make an argument about a different, actually real, situation. My argument is this is pointless because no real world situation will ever meaningfully resemble the trolley problem.

The correct answer to the trolley problem is STOP THE TROLLEY. "You can't do that!" "Why not?" "because magic" "well how do I know this magic is there?" "more magic!" etc etc.

What do you do if the dragon demands a sacrifice or it attacks the town? You fight the dragon.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#362

Post by shepherdjerred » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:17 AM UTC

ludicrousdispla wrote: post #120

cm2187 wrote: post #17

Excellent. From now on all kids will become linux natives. The decade of the linux desktop is coming!

I credit Minecraft with getting an entire generation comfortable using command line statements.

Yup. Taught me sysadmin and programming. No way I would be where I am today w/o Minecraft

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#363

Post by Elucalidavah » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:44 AM UTC

foresto wrote: post #319

vdfs wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a big win for linux users

Until adoption expands beyond Facebook to services that we want. Or to things that we need, like medical care, government interactions, and financial services. People shouldn't have to choose between safety features like those in Graphene OS and participation in society.

That will help teach people some compartmentalization. Need to access government service, or use facebook for work? Use a separate cheapo smartphone.

I wonder how feasible is it to use a separate phone and access it remotely from the main phone.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#364

Post by laughing_man » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:47 AM UTC

That's great and all, but what they should have done was just scrapped the age-verification stuff entirely. You can't really justify having that kind of restriction on Windows and MacOS but not on Linux.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#365

Post by jogu » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:43 AM UTC

huimang wrote: post #62

So is anyone going to revert the commits that jumped the gun on this? E.g. systemd's birthdate field https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954

Perhaps the controversy created by these pull requests is partially responsible for bringing attention to the issue and resulting in change to the legislation.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#366

Post by insane_dreamer » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:50 AM UTC

red_admiral wrote: post #73

We got into this mess because people wanted Facebook to have age verification, and MZ decided to push the responsibility on to OSes. The result looks to me like Facebook will ban access from non-approved OSes like Linux. Android will still be allowed, GrapheneOS probably not.

> Facebook will ban access from non-approved OSes like Linux.

excellent! won't have to worry about my kids wanting a FB account -- it just won't be accessible

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#367

Post by tomkarho » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

Call it cynicism or paranoia but whenever something gets passed unanimously especially when it's tech related (lawmakers are notoriously aloof when it comes to tech in general let alone knowing anything about Linux or licenses) there's bound to be a shoe about to drop. Either somewhere else this exemption is rendered moot (which is why it passed so easily) or something else is going on.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#368

Post by gspr » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 6:42 AM UTC

13415 wrote: post #339

gspr wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the underlying law is idiotic. What I meant is that if we take the law as a given, then the exemption we are discussing here are very good and sensible . I wish they weren't needed, but given that they are, the language seems sensible.

This issue should be independent of whether or not you think the law is idiotic. The exemption is unwarranted and likely illegal no matter what you think about the law because it's unjust to exempt some operating systems and include others.

Have you ever visited the real world? You have to live with plenty of idiotic laws all the time. This does not mean you have to like them. Nor does it mean you can't welcome laws that remedy some of the downsides of the idiotic laws.

I really struggle to understand what you're trying to say. Is it that since the original law is dumb, we should accept no remedy short of getting rid of that original law? I think you'll find making progress in the real world very hard with that attitude.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#369

Post by rrgok » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 6:48 AM UTC

brookst wrote: post #203

yonatan8070 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't 2020 the year of the Linux desktop?

Next year has been the year of the Linux desktop for as long as I remember.

It is always the next year

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#370

Post by me-vs-cat » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 6:50 AM UTC

Elucalidavah wrote: post #363

foresto wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until adoption expands beyond Facebook to services that we want. Or to things that we need, like medical care, government interactions, and financial services. People shouldn't have to choose between safety features like those in Graphene OS and participation in society.

That will help teach people some compartmentalization. Need to access government service, or use facebook for work? Use a separate cheapo smartphone. I wonder how feasible is it to use a separate phone and access it remotely from the main phone.

I wonder how much more surveillance they can feasibly justify to prevent remote access to new secure phones from old, insecure, non-compliant devices used by Elucalidavah and other un-American activists.

Think of the children!