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Comment by jprjr_ | Hacker News Reader

I cannot express how disappointed I am to see open source projects giving in to complying with age attestation laws.

I feel like complying really undermines any first amendment arguments. Software is a first amendment protected form of expression, giving in before getting any actual threats from the state makes your participation seem voluntary.

Systemd's participation puts the entire world into compliance with a California law

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BSDs don’t use SystemD, neither do some distros. After they have been exposed here as collaborators I suspect we will see freedom-respecting distros move away from them. I myself have been neutral to weakly positive on SystemD until now, as they put forward some decent solutions to longstanding problems, but from now on I intend to stop using their software entirely.

As it turns out, the people who warned against “professionalizing” and corporatizing Linux were correct.

Just to be clear and specific, formal engineering processes and corporate selling out are two orthogonal properties that should never be conflated. Stuff millions of people use shouldn't be slapped together as a "hobby" without careful testing and change control processes. It also should get sufficient (crowd)funding so it can get the attention it deserves.

No one actually complained about Linux becoming more "professional" in terms of meeting high engineering standards. Just about corporate control over the process. There was a study that found code with more F-bombs in the comments were actually more professional according to the engineering standard, in response to complaints from suits that swearwords in the code meant that Linux couldn't be taken seriously as professional software.

I disagree, I would much rather see my OS made by hobbyists like myself with the same goals as myself rather than big tech who definitely don't have the same goals and values.

It's one of the reasons I use BSD on my main machine. I think Linux has been infiltrated by big tech way too much.

Given the LP history I am not surprised.

this is not attestation though? it's just parental controls, no?

Techbros gonna techbro... bending the knee to fascists and privacy traitors. The next law will groom something else and eventually it will be tech requiring digital identification and approval to use the internet.

They are the fascist. They are the private companies getting in cahoots with the state for their own gains. It was always about money and thus power for them. Never about freedom.

The rich have gravitated that way throughout history, from Marcus Licinius Crassus to the Business Plot to Citizens United. Greedy people gaining power to advance their greed no matter the consequences and suffering of others has and will always be a problem because it's an incurable flaw of human nature that must be regulated. The separation between church and state and wealth is required for the maintenance of individual freedom.

https://www.historyhit.com/marcus-crassus/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

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