Systemd adds age indication ahead of schedule: Difference between revisions
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many links; clarify PR; rm suit section, as not applicable |
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|Description=Systemd added age bracket ahead of schedule, the merge was quickly done while the revert attempt was blocked, with possible influence from Microsoft | |Description=Systemd added age bracket ahead of schedule, the merge was quickly done while the revert attempt was blocked, with possible influence from Microsoft | ||
}}systemd is criticized of being monolithic | }}[[wikipedia:Systemd|'''systemd''']] is criticized of being [[wikipedia:Monolithic_system|monolithic]] (non-modular) and deviating from [[wikipedia:Unix_philosophy|Unix philosophy]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Russell |first=Sean E. |date=2025-07-30 |title=systemd really, really sucks |url=https://ser1.net/post/systemd-really,-really-sucks/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260214043401/https://ser1.net/post/systemd-really,-really-sucks/ |archive-date=2026-02-14 |access-date=2026-03-20}}</ref>. | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
systemd is an initialization system, a suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system. It provides a system and service manager that runs as PID 1 and starts the rest of the system<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-22 |title=systemd System and Service Manager |url=https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260106163143/https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ |archive-date=2026-01-06 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=freedesktop.org}}</ref>. | systemd is an initialization system, a suite of basic building blocks for a [[wikipedia:Linux|Linux]] system. It provides a system and service manager that runs as [[wikipedia:Process_identifier|PID]] 1 and starts the rest of the system<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-22 |title=systemd System and Service Manager |url=https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260106163143/https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ |archive-date=2026-01-06 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=freedesktop.org}}</ref>. | ||
==[Incident]== | ==[Incident]== | ||
In Mar 5 2026, Dylan M. Taylor, a developer and tech enthusiast | In Mar 5 2026, Dylan M. Taylor, a developer and tech enthusiast, sent two commits to systemd (as a [[wikipedia:Distributed_version_control#Pull_requests|pull request]]) "userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records", commenting<ref>{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Dylan M. |date=2026-03-19 |title=userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records |url=https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260320055709/https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954 |archive-date=2026-03-20 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=[[GitHub]]}}</ref><blockquote>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.</blockquote>In Mar 19 2026, Luca Boccassi<ref>{{Cite web |title=Luca Boccassi |url=https://github.com/bluca |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260320172404/https://github.com/bluca |archive-date=2026-03-20 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=[[GitHub]]}}</ref>, a member of Systemd and a [[Microsoft]] employee, merged the commits. | ||
Lennart Poettering, the creator of systemd, known for having [[wikipedia:Lennart_Poettering#Controversies|controversial technical and architectural]] positions regarding the Linux ecosystem, has clarified that this change is:<blockquote>An optional field in the userdb JSON object. It's not a policy engine, not an API for apps. We just define the field, so that it's standardized if people want to store the date there, but it's entirely optional<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rudra |first=Sourav |date=2026-03-20 |title=Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux |url=https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260320123152/https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/ |archive-date=2026-03-20 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=It's FOSS}}</ref>.</blockquote> | Lennart Poettering, the creator of systemd, known for having [[wikipedia:Lennart_Poettering#Controversies|controversial technical and architectural]] positions regarding the Linux ecosystem, has clarified that this change is:<blockquote>An optional field in the userdb JSON object. It's not a policy engine, not an API for apps. We just define the field, so that it's standardized if people want to store the date there, but it's entirely optional<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rudra |first=Sourav |date=2026-03-20 |title=Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux |url=https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260320123152/https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/ |archive-date=2026-03-20 |access-date=2026-03-20 |website=It's FOSS}}</ref>.</blockquote> | ||
===[Company]'s response=== | ===[Company]'s response=== | ||
{{Ph-I-ComR}} | {{Ph-I-ComR}} | ||
==Consumer response== | ==Consumer response== | ||