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The latest changes implemented in the Systemd repo, related to or prompted by age-verification laws, have made many people unhappy (I suppose links about this aren’t necessary). This has led to a surge in Systemd forks during the last days (“surge” because there have always been plenty of forks). Here are some forks that explicitly mention those changes as their reason for forking (rough time ordering taken from the fork page):

Hopefully the energy of this reaction won’t be scattered among too many alternatives, although some amount of scattering is always good.

  • MartianSands@sh.itjust.works
    48·
    3 days ago

    Optional as far as systemd is concerned, perhaps, but it’s designed to support a whole suite of software which will expect it to be used.

    They’re also making dubious decisions about how it will be done, such as how they’ll handle the fact that date of birth is PII and something advertisers will be delighted to know. The laws they’re trying to support require very limited information, but they’re storing far more than that and they’ve actively decided not to protect it properly.

    However optional it may be, they’re effectively defining the standard for what will be stored and how it will be accessed by all of the software which will use it

    • Bobby@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      172·
      2 days ago

      I will simply not store any data there. There is no need to resort to building my own distribution with a systemd fork, just as I don’t use this week´s Firefox fork because the shitty features of Firefox can be disabled with 1 click.

      Using barely maintained forks because of optional features is a security risk.

      • Digit@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        1·
        17 hours ago

        the shitty features of Firefox can be disabled with 1 click

        per shitty feature.

        There are a lot of those features in firefox. Currently takes me over an hour to try to stop Firefox being a dick, if/whenever I install it. May as well just use LibreWolf, or some other browser or fork.

        Same it systemd and any distro that has it as default. May as well just spare yourself a lot of bother, and just use something that has already removed the malicious “features”.

    • The_Decryptor@aussie.zoneEnglish
      44·
      2 days ago

      The laws they’re trying to support require very limited information, but they’re storing far more than that and they’ve actively decided not to protect it properly.

      All systemd is storing is the DOB in YYYY-MM-DD format.

      • MartianSands@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        2 days ago

        Which is more than the law requires. What they’re supposed to report is an age bracket. You don’t need to store someone’s precise date of birth, and you certainly don’t need to make it available to other software, to report a broad age bracket

        • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
          3·
          2 days ago

          In California they require date of birth IIRC but some other state requires an age bracket. From a technical standpoint asking for an age bracket is removed. It requires maintenance and also actions from the user. How will the system know when you become an adult? Should I keep nagging you every year asking if you are now over 18? Give it a date of birth and it’s set and forget.

          That said, I don’t like where we are headed with surveillance of citizens and I think it would be a lot better to handle date of birth on the websites you use rather than your whole operating system. It’s Metas responsibility to make sure their users are not underage. It’s not our responsibility.