How come no one is talking about OS age verification?

[ka9mnx]

California of course, Colorado, Illinois and New York.

They are even going after Linux. Good luck with that.

How do they expect to enforce it?

 

[Plumb Bob]

No oil changes done today to post?

 

[Junk]

California of course, Colorado, Illinois and New York.

They are even going after Linux. Good luck with that.

How do they expect to enforce it?

There is some chatter, mostly on Linux based Reddit forums that I've noticed. I don't think anybody knows what to do yet, and it sounds like there may be some legal challenges to it in the works already so may be waiting to see how that all plays out. Linux distros seem to be all over the place, some indifferent and some stating they won't implement it. Enforcement attempts should be pretty comical I would think but who knows.

 

[grasscutter]

It's going to be illegal to run an old operating system?

 

[ka9mnx]

I'm a Debian user, based out of Ireland, and they say they will ignore it. Most linux distributions are not backed by a corporation. Distributions from Fedora and Ubuntu, maybe others, may be forced to comply.

 

[Junk]

I'm a Debian user, based out of Ireland, and they say they will ignore it. Most linux distributions are not backed by a corporation. Distributions from Fedora and Ubuntu, maybe others, may be forced to comply.

I'm using Debian as I write this reply, and for the sake of the entire Linux ecosystem I hope Debian sticks to that and ignores it.

 

[CleanSump]

Is the requirement just for the initial install or for everytime someone tries to us a device? Pretty much useless if just for install and too intrusive and irritating if one needs to verify every time they use it. There's already phone lock and every OS on laptops/desktops/tablets comes with the password option.

 

[spackard]

In the US it only really matters if Red Hat implements it or not. As far as I can tell they will implement it. So, nothing to talk about.

 

[ka9mnx]

Is the requirement just for the initial install or for everytime someone tries to us a device? Pretty much useless if just for install and too intrusive and irritating if one needs to verify every time they use it. There's already phone lock and every OS on laptops/desktops/tablets comes with the password option.

That's up for debate and no one has answered it. Originally it was supposed to be at first install and I think the geniuses that came up with the idea decided it could be circumvented. I'll have to look up the California ruling, which has gone into law, to see what it says.

Oh, I left out Texas.

 

[ka9mnx]

In the US it only really matters if Red Hat implements it or not. As far as I can tell they will implement it. So, nothing to talk about.

Why do you say that?

 

[spackard]

Why do you say that?

I have a good idea how many engineering hours have been spent on SW and HW development using RedHat. A lot of it came from jumping off of Solaris. Red Hat is pretty much the only enterprise Linux you'll see in large Federal installations.
Plus, IBM owns it. They'd never push back against that.

 

[scrllock]

Next to impossible to enforce on the open source side.

As for enterprise linux usage, basically irrelevant. Desktop usage at scale is not there, particularly in business settings. On a server, particularly in virtualized environments? Completely nonsensical. Whose age is being verified? Is a virtualized operating system an operating system? These laws weren't written by anyone who understands these questions.


As for windows, just the usual en****tification trend continuing. OSX already has all your info, nothing new there either.

 

[spackard]

I was concerned how Android was going to do it, since there are many automotive diagnostic scanners with old versions on them.
Gemini says Google is implementing it at the Google Play Services level, which apparently is good back to Android 6.0.
(I don't recall minors getting ahold of a scanner and accessing adult content/forums from it.)

The Mechanism: Instead of the OS itself blocking you, the Google Play Store will require age verification for new accounts in regulated regions. Once verified, Google provides an "age signal" to app developers, who are then legally responsible for gating their own content (e.g., social features or mature content).

 

[dogememe]

Next to impossible to enforce on the open source side.

As for enterprise linux usage, basically irrelevant. Desktop usage at scale is not there, particularly in business settings. On a server, particularly in virtualized environments? Completely nonsensical. Whose age is being verified? Is a virtualized operating system an operating system? These laws weren't written by anyone who understands these questions.


As for windows, just the usual en****tification trend continuing. OSX already has all your info, nothing new there either.

I mean I work for one of the biggest auto parts stores in the US and it's ALL Linux in the stores. Corporate obvious is likely Windows and corporate employees have Windows laptops and iPads but every store computer has two Linux servers and every other computer in the store is a thin client that boots Linux over the network... so I don't think you can say that enterprise Linux usage is irrelevant.

However, it IS irrelevant to this age verification thing. After all, if you're at work, you're probably 18...

 

[JimPghPA]

My air-gapped Lenovo ThinkPad thinks if is 2009.

I figure is some hard no work after a certain date is already written into its Windows 10 OS, it just migh think its 2009 and keep on running.

 

[Snagglefoot]

No oil changes done today to post?

Yeah. I posted some some stuff on Napa oil filters today and here is this Red Dog post, but appreciate how the computer folks wrestled it away.

 

[zzyzzx]

California of course, Colorado, Illinois and New York.

How do they expect to enforce it?

The places asking for this typically aren't known for enforcing laws...

 

[uc50ic4more]

The places asking for this typically aren't known for enforcing laws...

It may be much less about enforcing it and more about applications who are depending on that information at boot time from the API. If it isn't there, possibly the application does not run.

systemd, a technology underlying most Linux distributions, already has a framework of this age verification API.

 

[ka9mnx]

Here is the California Bill if anyone is interested.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043

 

[scrllock]

I mean I work for one of the biggest auto parts stores in the US and it's ALL Linux in the stores. Corporate obvious is likely Windows and corporate employees have Windows laptops and iPads but every store computer has two Linux servers and every other computer in the store is a thin client that boots Linux over the network... so I don't think you can say that enterprise Linux usage is irrelevant.

However, it IS irrelevant to this age verification thing. After all, if you're at work, you're probably 18...

and in the case of thin clients, the same question applies. whose age is being checked?

I didn't say that enterprise linux usage was irrelevant, but it is irrelevant in server usage. the model of person sitting in front of the computer on a screen, putting their age in to open the app store or whatever, just doesn't apply.