Surge in Systemd forks after the latest changes

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/forks?include=active&page=1&period=1mo&sort_by=last_updated

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/62192988

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.

133 points · 34 comments · view on lemmy.world

34 Comments

Eldritch@piefed.world · 41 pts · 150d (15 replies)

The reaction by definition is unproductive. I think Brodie Robertson did a good job covering this the other day.

It's literally an addition of an optional text field in a collection of already optional and often unfilled text fields. In a small part of the systemD suite. UserD, with no checking or enforcement. Which has value in business and corporate environments. In the form of a pull request from an external, unaffiliated coder.

Regardless of where you stand on metas push for age-gating everything so they don't have to. Which if you aren't against it, you're a fool. This is all way more reactionary and less substantive than the valid sysV vs systemD debate.

ryper@lemmy.ca · 19 pts · 150d (11 replies)

I wonder how many people freaking out over this field have even looked at what other fields are on that user record. The realName field could be used to dox you! ICE and the CIA are interested in your location! Those fields have about the same level of enforcement as the new one, i.e. you can just lie.

org@lemmy.org · 2 pts · 149d (10 replies)

Good examples of things that shouldn’t be there.

pupbiru@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 149d (9 replies)

why not? in multi user environments the user could be in any number of office locations… tracking that information is useful

just because it’s not useful for you doesn’t mean it’s not useful to anyone

org@lemmy.org · 1 pts · 149d (8 replies)

Race, gender, sexual preference, these are all useful to someone and yet should not be data collected. Name, sure. Birth date, no. I’m fine with an Adult Boolean.

pupbiru@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 149d (7 replies)

then perhaps you should have made the PR rather than completely overreacting about someone else’s implementation of an entirely optional, unverified text field

org@lemmy.org · 1 pts · 149d (6 replies)

I don’t see you getting involved.

pupbiru@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 149d

i’m fine with the change. why would i get involved when im involved with other FOSS efforts and much prefer systemd to every other option

xyro@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 150d (2 replies)

While we're at it, we could add a race and sexual orientation field, this could have value for business in some countries!

quick_snail@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 149d

A JewONo field might be useful in some counties too

30p87@feddit.org · 0 pts · 149d

Value for business ≠ Mandated by law

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub · 21 pts · 150d (2 replies)

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

It's traditional:

Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 150d

I’ve seen less complex taxonomic trees!

KryptoSynth@ani.social · 2 pts · 150d
mhzawadi@lemmy.horwood.cloud · 4 pts · 150d (3 replies)

Wait wait wait, your telling me that systems has a user thing to log user data?

Where does systemd start and end? As it looks to be way too invasive

Laser@feddit.org · 2 pts · 149d (2 replies)

Debian systems have optionally collected this kind of data way before systemd existed via adduser.

org@lemmy.org · 1 pts · 149d (1 reply)

Does it automatically expose this information to websites that ask for it?

tribut@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 149d

No. Just like systemd.

Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe · -12 pts · 150d (10 replies)

Womp Womp.

What did they expect would happen?

I can only hope this ends up with the original simply being left to rot.

Hiro8811@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 150d (9 replies)

Did you read the freaking merge https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954

Eldritch@piefed.world · 21 pts · 150d (3 replies)

Nope. No one did. It's all drama farming and ignorant apoplectic panic. I'd absolutely be interested to know more about the person behind the merge request. Apparently they have submitted similar code to several other projects for the same purpose. But it's just fashionable to hate on systemD right now. At least the sysV vs systemD guys have valid issues. Even though as a 30-year Linux user, I wouldn't go back to sysV inits. I do not miss having to use poorly documented or outright undocumented tricks, tips, and arcana to write basic process watchdogs and initialization scripts.

Hiro8811@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 150d (2 replies)

It's hard enough for maintainers and devs to fight ai and governments. If you wanna go against someone go against corpos and government not people doing their hobbies.

Eldritch@piefed.world · 8 pts · 150d

Yes, time and effort would be infinitely better spent yelling at the local and national governments pushing for this to be implemented at the behest of meta. Than outrage of an optional text field.

quick_snail@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 149d

When has Foss been sued by governments? I can think of only a few examples, when the software was used to mix crypto.

I don't see age verification being used to shut down Debian. They would just move to another country

org@lemmy.org · 3 pts · 150d (4 replies)

We should have them add ss# too, since it’s non-privileged. What could go wrong?

yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 150d (1 reply)

That's not a thing in like every single country. Might as well add a "Name of the Chinese primary school you graduated from" field, at least that would have more users.

org@lemmy.org · -2 pts · 150d

Whatever you wanna call it. Let’s add that. Gender, gender between your legs, marriage status, race is also super important.

It’s just a field… so why not?

death_to_carrots@feddit.org · 2 pts · 150d (1 reply)

What could go wrong if in your system there exists a standard place where you could put some magic string?

Remember, no one is forcing you to put the magic string in.

org@lemmy.org · 9 pts · 150d

No one is forcing the magic string YET. But to think some governments won’t enforce that later is contrary to reality. The direction of the world is very clear…