 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1164, 16 March 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 11th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This past week a lot of media attention in the open source community fell on the new age verification laws which have passed (or are being considered) in the United States. Laws which require the operating system to collect and report on a person's age are likely to impact large parts of the open source community and we discuss these laws and the concerns surrounding them in our Questions and Answers column. A few projects have already responded to the laws, either pushing back against them or implementing age declaration services. We share these developments in our News section, as well as report on the TrueNAS project taking its build processes private. There were also rumours this past week that SUSE may be for sale soon and we share more on this development. Before we get into these changes, we take a look at d77void GNU/Linux, a young member of the Void family. While Void does not have many distributions based upon it, a few new projects have been created recently to explore alternative desktops and tools. We share details on what it is like to install and run d77void in our Feature Story. While Void has a smaller family tree than Debian, Fedora, and Arch, its unusual combination of technologies makes it an interesting base and a clean starting point for spins. Which is your favourite parent distribution? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. We wrap up this week with an overview of recent releases and a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: d77void GNU/Linux
- News: SUSE may be for sale, MidnightBSD responds to age verification laws, TrueNAS takes its build system private, System76 pushes back against new age declaration bills, Debian updates Trixie media
- Questions and answers: All about age verification laws and Linux
- Released last week: FreeBSD 14.4, Zentyal Server 8.1, Univention Corporate Server 5.2-5, LinuxHub Prime 2026.03.10, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, GLF OS 25.11, SparkyLinux 2026.03
- Torrent corner: Debian, Debian Edu, EndeavourOS, GLF OS, KDE neon, SparkyLinux
- Opinion poll: Favourite parent distro
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
d77void GNU/Linux
d77void GNU/Linux is a Void-based Linux distribution created to demonstrate the capabilities of Void's tools, such as void-mklive and void-packages. Originally initiated as a Void respin with the Fluxbox window manager, the project has evolved to offer a wide range of window manager, Wayland compositor and desktop environment editions, including Awesome, bspwm, COSMIC, dwm, Fluxbox, herbstluftwm, Hyprland, i3wm, JWM, labwc, LeftWM, LXQt, Niri, Openbox, Qtile, River, Sway, Wayfire and Xfce.
I downloaded the COSMIC edition of d77void since I haven't run this desktop since before its first official stable release. The ISO for the COSMIC edition was 2.5GB in size. Booting from the downloaded medium brought up a boot menu which offered to launch the distribution's live environment or load the distribution into RAM and then launch the live mode. There are other options in the boot menu, but they are not visible because the text is white and it is placed over a white version of the project's logo.
Taking the default option boots the distribution to a graphical login screen. We can sign into the "anon" user account using the password "voidlinux". This launches the COSMIC desktop. The desktop places a dark panel across the top of the display which holds a clock and a system tray. At the bottom of the screen we find a dock which holds a series of icons. These icons open a runner/launcher window, show an overview of virtual workspaces, open the application menu, and launch commonly used applications.
The COSMIC desktop seemed functional and I was able to get on-line so I next turned my attention to getting the distribution installed.
Installing
I found a launcher in the application menu called "Install System", but clicking it had no effect - no window opened and no error message was shown. I opened a terminal and looked for the void-installer program, but didn't find it. I discovered, through the project's website, the installer's name has been changed to d77void-installer, which might be why the launcher fails to work. At any rate, I was able to run the text-based installer in a terminal as the root user.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- Running the system installer
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The d77void/Void installer uses text-based menus. When running d77void the text is pale blue on a bright grey background which makes it difficult to read any text which is not highlighted. I have talked about the Void installer a few times, even recently, so I won't go into details. I will just say that the installer is unusually quick to navigate, guides us through the required steps smoothly, and generally works well. The installer showed detailed progress information while it worked, quickly copied its packages to my local disk, and reported it was finished. The installer then offered to reboot the computer.
Early impressions
The freshly installed d77void distribution boots to a graphical login screen where we can sign into the COSMIC desktop. COSMIC is a Wayland-only environment and there are no alternative window managers or fallback options presented on the login screen.
The COSMIC desktop is presented the same once installed as it was in the live session. We are not greeted by any welcome window or first-run configuration utility. The dock at the bottom of the screen holds (along with the runner, application menu, and overview buttons) some application launchers. These launchers open the Brave browser, the COSMIC file manager, the Kitty terminal, the COSMIC text editing program, and the COSMIC settings panel.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- The Kitty virtual terminal
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Once I confirmed I was on-line and the desktop was working fairly well, I noticed there was a red icon in the system tray. Clicking this ghost-shaped icon opens an update manager which lists available updated packages. I fetched the waiting updates and rebooted the computer.
At this point the distribution failed to boot. Something in the update process appeared to have damaged the operating system. It not only failed to boot, but presented no error message, just a blank screen.
I then re-installed the distribution, keeping the default options as much as possible. This time, once I got the distribution installed, I signed into my account, looked around without performing any updates or adjusting any settings, and then rebooted. Once again the distribution failed to launch, showing only a blank screen. This was interesting because it meant that by simply booting the operating system, not making any changes, not using the root account for anything, and not applying any updates, the operating system still self-destructed between the first boot and the second.
While I was able to perform another install to run some tests and get some information on the system and experiment with installing new software, much of the rest of my trial was performed from within the live desktop environment.
Hardware
The distribution runs in VirtualBox without any notable problems. Audio and networking functioned and the desktop integrated nicely with the host environment. Running the distribution on my laptop revealed a few problems. For example, the shortcut keys for adjusting screen brightness worked, but the keys for adjusting the volume mixer did not. In fact, audio did not work at all as the distribution was unable to detect any audio devices on my laptop. Despite audio not working once d77void booted, the boot loader emitted a piercing, full volume beep when booting from the live media.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- The COSMIC text editor and file manager
(full image size: 940kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
When running on my laptop my touchpad worked and detected taps as clicks. Networking functioned without any problems.
When installed, the d77void distribution consumes about 6.5GB of disk space. Logging into the COSMIC desktop used about 1,250MB of RAM - more than Xfce or LXQt, but less than a typical GNOME or Plasma session. While medium in its RAM consumption, COSMIC was unusually hard on my CPU. Whether running in VirtualBox or directly on my laptop's hardware, COSMIC used about 5 to 10 times more CPU resources than other mid-level desktop sessions like Xfce. The CPU gobbling process was identified as the compositor (>cosmic-comp), which would eat up an unusual amount of cycles even when the desktop was effectively idle. This caused my laptop's fan to run constantly and drastically reduced battery life.
Included software
The distribution ships with an unusual collection of software which doesn't appear to follow any guidelines in terms of desktop, toolkit, license, or style. The Brave browser is included alongside the Transmission bittorrent software, the uGet download manager, and the Geary text editor. There are a few COSMIC-specific applications such as the COSMIC file manager, text editor, and media player. But then we are also treated to the MPV media player and the PCManFM file manager as alternatives.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 1013kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I also counted at least four audio mixers on the system, which seemed ironic considering d77void was unable to even detect my sound card. There are also several terminal applications, including UXTerm and Kitty. The xterm terminal application was included too, which surprised me since its is part of the X.Org suite of tools and COSMIC is Wayland-only.
Digging deeper we find manual pages and the GNU command line utilities. The distribution uses the runit init software and, at the time of writing, version 6.12 of the Linux kernel.
Package management
I mentioned earlier that a red ghost icon sits in the system tray. This icon is always visible whether updates are available or not; we can see a list of new package updates by clicking the ghost. This brings up a window which lists the packages the system can update and their size.
To find, install, or remove software we have two options: the XBPS command line tools or the OctoXBPS graphical package manager. OctoXBPS is a simple package manager which lists all software in the distribution's repositories. We can use a search box to narrow down options. Next to each package entry is a box we can click to indicate whether we want to install or remove the selected item.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- An error message while installing new packages
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The first time I tried using OctoXBPS I searched for a package, found the program I wanted, and selected to install it. The package manager returned an error indicating the package couldn't be found: "This package is not available in the database." This seemed an odd error to receive for a package I had just searched for and selected from the results. I tried refreshing the database (pulling in fresh information from the repositories) and again the package failed to install with the same error. I tried another package after refreshing the database again and received the same error.
Switching to a command line interface I tried installing a package using xbps-install and encountered a new error, this one saying that before performing any package actions I would first need to update XBPS by running the command "xbps-install -u xbps". Once this command had been run I could install new software from the repositories. I then went back and checked on the functionality of OctoXBPS and discovered it had started working after the xbps package had been updated. This was a welcome improvement, but it indicated the original error message had been incorrect - the package I wanted was in the database, but the package manager was not up to date.
d77void does not provide any support for Flatpak by default, but we could install Flatpak through the repositories if we wanted it.
COSMIC
I have not used the COSMIC desktop much in the past year as the desktop was still in its beta stage of development until recently. Part of my interest in running d77void was the quick access to COSMIC and it was interesting to see how the desktop had progressed in the past year.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- The COSMIC settings panel
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The COSMIC desktop has, in my opinion, matured and become more capable over the past year. My main concern in the past was stability and COSMIC was certainly reliable during my shortened trial this week. I did not encounter any crashes from COSMIC or its applications.
The young desktop is unusually heavy on resources, particularly the CPU (both in a virtual machine and running directly on my laptop). There is clearly still some optimization to be done in order to prevent the compositor from chewing up laptop batteries like candy.
Another problem I ran into was pop-up windows were sometimes too thin, showing just the title bar and most of a line of text, but not the rest of the text or prompt. This did not happen with all pop-up windows, but I noticed it when running some of the default tools, such as OctoXBPS. On the subject of text, I couldn't find a way to adjust the size of the desktop's font. There is a tool in the settings panel to change the font style, but I didn't find a way to change the size. There is an option to scale the entire interface, but this will only help if everything on the desktop is the wrong size, not if we just want to make text larger or smaller.
d77void GNU/Linux 20260202 -- The desktop overview
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
In short, I think it is fair to say COSMIC has progressed over the past year and it looks nice, in a 1980s cyberpunk fashion, but it is still missing some features and optimization before it is ready for mainstream use.
Conclusions
The experiment with d77void this week was disappointing, unusually disappointing in most aspects. While Void, the parent distribution, usually works well for me, d77void generally gave a poor experience. Some of the problems were large, like the system failing to boot more than once, even if no changes had been introduced by the user. Having the package manager not work and having the graphical front-end give the wrong error message were also nasty problems to encounter.
There were some issues I ran into which were specific to COSMIC and I tried not to hold those against the underlying distribution. The d77void project is trying to provide many desktop editions and not all desktops will have the same amount of polish or features.
There were a number of smaller issues too. Void works with my sound card, but d77void does not. Void displays a clearly readable boot menu, d77void does not, thanks to its white logo underneath white text. Void ships with a fairly conservative, yet consistent, collection of applications; d77void ships with just a few working programs and a lot of duplicates (two file managers, four sound mixers, and at least three terminal applications) with no apparent benefit from the overlap. The only advantage I think d77void offers over its parent is the wide range of desktop editions, but it comes at a price in terms of reduced C library options, fewer CPU support options, less hardware support, and less polish. This project has a long ways to go to catch up with its parent, let alone stand out as a distribution I could recommend on its own merits.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
d77void GNU/Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 6.3/10 from 3 review(s).
Have you used d77void GNU/Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
SUSE may be for sale, MidnightBSD responds to age verification laws, TrueNAS takes its build system private, System76 pushes back against new age declaration bills, Debian updates Trixie media
The SUSE organization may be available for purchase again in the near future. According to Reuters, EQT (the company that controls SUSE) is exploring options to sell the Linux organization. People interesting in buying the venerable enterprise Linux vendor would likely be looking at a price tag of six billion dollars. "EQT, already a majority owner of SUSE and based in Sweden, took the company private in 2023, valuing it at 2.72 billion euros ($2.96 billion). A sale at around $6 billion would roughly double that valuation in about two and a half years. The potential deal comes amid a broader selloff in software stocks, which has disrupted mergers and acquisitions activity. Investors are concerned that new artificial intelligence tools could displace many existing software products, weighing on technology valuations and making deals harder to price." SUSE has been picked up by a number of companies over the years, including Novell, Attachmate, and Micro Focus.
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The MidnightBSD project is responding to age verification laws by changing its license to (for the moment) revoke authorization for users in areas affected by the operating system level reporting. However, this is not a stance by the project against the laws, but an indication the operating system is not yet compliant. A new daemon has been introduced which will implement age reporting of the system's users. Of the new daemon, the author reports there is still work to do: "This will not comply with Brazil or the proposed law in New York (they require ID checks). This is not hooked up to the user creation flow yet at OS install time or integrated with mport package manager."
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The TrueNAS project attracted some attention this week by migrating the build system's source code for the Debian-based network attached storage platform to an internal platform. This moves the code for building TrueNAS from a public repository to internal project servers, hiding the build process. Kris Moore from the TrueNAS project responded to criticism of this move to effectively close the source for the TrueNAS build system by writing: "Bottom line is, the open source bits of TrueNAS will remain open source. (They are GPLv3 after all). The build system is another matter. It's currently changing fairly radically internally now around for a variety of reasons, some of which are related our signing infrastructure for Secure Boot, etc. Meaning we'd be stuck maintaining two separate builders potentially to assemble an ISO file, one for community builds, one for the official builds. That isn't super tenable for us in the long term."
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While much of the Linux community is discussing the new age verification laws and how distributions will be impacted, System76 (the company behind Pop!_OS) is pushing back against the new legislation. Carl Richell reports there are ongoing talks with representatives to have exceptions for open source operating systems added to the new laws. "Today, I met with Colorado Senator Matt Ball, co-author of Colorado OS Age Attestation Bill SB26-051. Sen. Ball suggested excluding open source software from the bill. This appears to be a real possibility. Amendments are expected for the CA age attestation bill. It's my hope we can move fast enough to influence excluding open source in the CA bill amendments. No illusions, it's an uphill battle, but we have an open door to advocate for the open source community."
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The Debian project has published updated media for Debian 13 "Trixie". The new media is labelled with the 13.4 version number and includes security fixes since the launch of Debian 13. "The Debian project is pleased to announce the fourth update of its stable distribution Debian 13 (codename Trixie). This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 13 but only updates some of the packages included."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
All about age verification laws and Linux
Over the past week or so I've read several articles and forum threads about the new "age verification" laws which are being passed in several parts of the United States of America and in a few other countries. This topic has also resulted in a few messages and e-mails asking for opinions and clarification. This seems like a topic about which a lot of people have concerns, so let's try to address them and offer some answers.
First, let's talk about what the so-called age verification laws are. While these laws are springing up in multiple locations, the State of California was one of the first to enact their version of the law, so people tend to focus on that one. The new law is called California's Digital Age Assurance Act and, in brief, it requires that an operating system stores the age of each user and, upon request from an application (or website via a web browser), the operating system will report the user's age to the application or website.
Here is a summary of the law from the government's website:
This bill, beginning January 1, 2027, would require, among other things related to age verification with respect to software applications, an operating system provider, as defined, to provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder, as defined, to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user's age bracket to applications available in a covered application store and to provide a developer, as defined, who has requested a signal with respect to a particular user with a digital signal via a reasonably consistent real-time application programming interface regarding whether a user is in any of several age brackets, as prescribed. The bill would require a developer to request a signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched.
You might be wondering what happens if the operating system you are using does not, in fact, comply with the law and report the user's age. The bill says this will result in a fine on a per-user basis:
A person that violates this title shall be subject to an injunction and liable for a civil penalty of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per affected child for each negligent violation or not more than seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) per affected child for each intentional violation, which shall be assessed and recovered only in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General.
In a practical sense this means if you are building, selling, or supporting an operating system in the State of California (or any other of the affected states or countries which are passing similar laws) then your operating system needs to store the user's age and report it to any application or website that requests it. Not doing so may result in fines. As a result, commercial operating system vendors are planning to roll out age declaration software and open source projects are discussing their legal requirements and how to respond. Most Linux distributions, at the time of writing, have not made clear statements about how they will react, but we can be fairly certain that, at the very least, any commercial distributions will need to put some form of age reporting software in place.
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You might be wondering why these laws are gaining so much attention and why people feel they are a big deal. It basically boils down to three main issues:
- Having the operating system report additional information about the user to any requesting application is one more method by which advertisers and malicious attackers can track and exploit the user. This is yet another avenue for an invasion of privacy on top of things like website cookies and browser fingerprinting which makes it easier for the "bad guys" to follow, customize advertisements, and attack you on-line.
- The laws don't make anyone safer, in fact it does the opposite. The bill is allegedly in place to make sure the operating system reports the user's age to apps and websites so that applications will not show inappropriate content to minors. However, any minor who wants to see the blocked content will likely just lie about their age.
At the same time, anyone who doesn't lie about their age suddenly makes themselves an easier target when they are on-line. If you're a 30 year old, you might not see a problem with every website knowing you age. But do you want every website your 8 year old visits to know how old they are? Do you want every forum knowing when the visitor is your 15 year old? The age declaration from an operating system puts a target on minors by broadcasting their age to anyone who asks. Older people are also likely to be targeted by age verification. Scammers already go after the elderly, hoping they will be forgetful or confused, and the new laws make it possibly for any app or website to track and target them.
- Significantly, these laws do not do anything to help the user. It's one more thing for the user to manage, to disable, to comply with, or be targeted by. It does nothing to improve the user's computing experience. If it did, then governments wouldn't need to pass a law requiring it, operating systems would already be doing it due to customer demand.
In short, these laws do nothing to help users or protect the vulnerable members of our society, but they are a boon for advertisers, scammers, and predators. This makes privacy advocates and civil rights groups upset.
Open source developers are, of course, cautious about how to best handle the situation. No one wants to pay a fine for writing free software. At the same time, open source developers don't want to cause privacy nightmares for their users or install spyware into their distributions. It's going to be a tricky balancing act for a lot of open source coders in the coming year.
As for users, what can people do about age verification on their systems if they want to disable it? This is a tricky question to answer at this point because the laws are still fairly new and it's not clear yet how (or if) developers will implement the new requirements. People who want to avoid age verification software might be able to simply uninstall a package, or they may need to spoof their age with a random number, or they may need to switch to another distribution. Time will tell how age verification is implemented and then we will have a better idea of how to respond to it.
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Next, I'd like to respond to some of the questions and statements I've received or read in our comment section. These messages usually question what people can do about the new laws, where the laws apply, and whether people really need to be concerned.
Where do age verification laws exist? To one extent or another, age verification laws exist in many countries and on most continents, though most of them are handled at the application or website level rather than the operating system level. Laws enforcing age checks at the operating system level are relatively new. California, New York, and Colorado have bills (or laws) in place. It looks like Brazil and France have similar laws in place to work at the operating system level, though my language skills for these regions makes it difficult to confirm the specifics.
What can we do to avoid age verification software? For now, wait and see where and how it is implemented. Once the software starts to roll out, it will likely be possible to either spoof it, disable it, or switch to a distribution which is assembled in a region without the associated laws. For now, the software hasn't rolled out to end users, so it's a little early to be reacting to it. This is a good time to watch, listen, and see how developers in the open source community respond to the new laws.
What is the big deal? Lots of websites and services ask for your age. Doesn't this just centralize the information? Yes, some websites and apps do ask for the user's age. The key difference here, I think, is how invasive the experience is for the user and how much the information is shared.
As an example, Valve's Steam account will ask the user for their age. The key different though is, if I don't want to share my age with Valve, I can simply not use Steam. Facebook asks for the user's age and, if I want, I can simply choose not to use Facebook. It is an order of magnitude harder to function in our society while never using any computer operating system than it is to avoid using one specific service or website or app. This makes the operating system level age verification much more invasive. It also means that any website or app can ask for and get our age directly from the operating system rather than each one prompting us for our age. Something that might have only been requested by a few apps and services when it was a manual process will likely become nearly universal once it is automated.
In short, you might not mind if your bank and tax software know how old you are, but are you really okay with every app and website you ever use knowing how old you, your grandparents, and children are? That's a lot more services knowing more about you (and your family) than they did before and more than they need to know.
Isn't having the OS store age information convenient so we don't need to manually supply our age every time? I suppose it is. However, there is almost always a trade-off between convenience and security. If something is making a small task more convenient for you then it is probably also making you less secure. Put another way, are you really so flooded with prompts about your age that you're willing to give up a degree of privacy and security just to make those prompts go away?
Concerns about this law seem to all be "slippery slope" arguments. It seems fine to me, shouldn't we wait to panic until a really bad law comes along? The "slippery slope" argument applies when something is not a problem at the moment, but if events continue along the same line, they may end up being a problem later. The current age verification laws are already, in and of themselves, a significant problem. Tracking users and sharing age data affects people, particularly the quite young and the elderly. The time to protest and push back against age verification laws was five years ago, not five years from now. This is not the top of a potentially slippery slope, we are already halfway down the mountain.
I'm not a child and don't have children and don't care if anyone knows my age. Why should I be worried about age verification? I have both a technical and a non-technical answer for this.
On the non-technical side of things, this question shows a lack of empathy, which I hope is cause for internal reflection. Just because a law or problem doesn't affect you directly doesn't make it unimportant to the population as a whole. Even if you aren't worried about this and don't have a family, you probably have friends, neighbours, and co-workers who can and will be targeted by the age verification requirements. Assuming for a moment that you're not concerned on their behalf, keep in mind that you will likely get to be old enough one day to be vulnerable to this kind of tracking. Your future self will likely be impacted by this even if your present-day self is not.
On the technical side of things, I'm often dismayed at the number of times I've encountered people who say things like "This doesn't hurt me, why should I be concerned if it is on my computer." With "it" being anything from machine specific identification numbers, to tracking cookies, to browser fingerprints, to telemetry. In my opinion, "Is it actively hurting me now?" is the wrong metric to use when evaluating new features someone else wants to install on your computer.
When it comes to having new features, IDs, or daemons which send network traffic placed in the operating system, the question shouldn't be "Will this actively hurt me now?" We should be asking, "Will this benefit me?" If the answer is "no" then the new feature or file should be rejected. Age verification software does nothing to practically help people. Therefore, whether it is currently hurting you or not, it shouldn't be included in the operating system.
This is a key difference in philosophy between commercial software and user-focused software such as community-built Linux distributions. Most Linux distributions are user-oriented, meaning they are designed to benefit the user, not the company which made the software. People who ask "Does this hurt me?" are coming from a commercial, company-benefiting point of view because they are accustomed to new features being pushed on them whether they want them or not. People who come from an open source background tend to expect their operating systems to work on their behalf and only include features the users will enjoy.
There may be people out there who see their operating system tracking and sharing their age as a convenience (see the above query), and in that case I would have no objection to them being able to install a package which provided that functionality on their computer. A few people finding a feature mildly convenient should not be reason enough to put the population at large in a less secure position, particularly children and the elderly.
The bottom line is: this feature does not benefit users, therefore it should not be included by default in the operating system. And it should raise questions throughout the population as to who is benefiting from the new laws that force the feature to be included, since it is not for the sake of the users.
Since the software just reports the age we give it without verifying, can't people just lie? Yes, people could lie or make up a random date to provide to the age tracking software. Which just goes to show how pointless the new age verification laws are. They only punish honest people while anyone who wants to work around them can do so trivially.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
FreeBSD 14.4
The FreeBSD project has announced the launch of FreeBSD 14.4, the latest release of the 14.x series. The upgrade mostly updates core system packages, such as OpenSSH and ZFS, while also introducing bug fixes and the ability to share filesystems with Bhyve virtual machines. "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 14.4-RELEASE. This is the fifth release of the stable/14 branch. Some of the highlights: OpenSSH has been upgraded to version 10.0p2 and now uses the hybrid post-quantum algorithm mlkem768x25519-sha256 by default. OpenZFS has been upgraded to version 2.2.9. Significantly improved cloud-init compatibility in nuageinit. Bhyve virtual machines can now share a filesystem with the host via the new p9fs(4). Significant improvements in manual page tooling and content. FreeBSD 14.4-RELEASE is now available for the amd64, i386, aarch64, armv7, powerpc, powerpc64 and riscv64 architectures." Additional information can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Zentyal Server 8.1
The Zentyal development team has announced the release of Zentyal Server 8.1, the latest version of the project's Ubuntu-based server distribution. The new release is a significant update, now based on Ubuntu 24.04: "The Zentyal development team today announced the availability of Zentyal Server Development Edition 8.1. Zentyal Server 8.1 is based on Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS and comes with the latest versions of all integrated software. This release focuses on improving overall performance, security hardening and system stability, and includes a large number of internal improvements and bug fixes across the platform. The most important highlights include: numerous bug fixes and reliability improvements across networking, mail, Samba and core system components; improved system security with expanded AppArmor protection across multiple services; better dashboard and UI, including a new license widget and usability improvements; improved network configuration reliability with better validation and cleanup of VLAN, bridge and bond configurations. Zentyal Server provides an easy-to-use Linux alternative to Windows Server." See the release announcement and the changelog for further information.
Univention Corporate Server 5.2-5
The Debian-based Univention Corporate Server distribution has a new update. Version 5.2-5 introduces a few new features, including a restore option for user accounts which have been deleted. "With the latest updates for the connectors for Samba 4 and Active Directory, we have completed the planned functionality of the Recycle Bin feature of Univention Nubus on UCS. The Recycle Bin makes it possible to keep deleted objects in an intermediate storage location from which they can be restored. If a user or group is accidentally deleted, it can be fully restored from this intermediate storage. All internal technical attributes such as identifiers or password hashes are reset to their original state. The user can continue working immediately, and all connected systems retain the same technical information. With the latest errata updates, the Samba 4 Connector, which is part of the 'Active Directory-compatible Domain Controller' app, as well as the 'Active Directory Connector' for connecting to Microsoft Active Directory, have been extended with a restoration function." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
LinuxHub Prime 2026.03.10
The developers of LinuxHub Prime have announced the availability of an updated version of the project's Arch-based Linux distribution featuring a custom system installer. The user-friendly program offers a one-click option to install several popular desktop environments and window managers and the live image also ships with "Prime Builder", a tool for creating a custom respin of the distribution. The changelog page summarises the recent changes and improvements: "updated error handling for Calamares installer; updated Plymouth; using version 10.9 for Budgie desktop (X11); using version 10.10 for Budgie desktop (Wayland); updated installers; installers set to environment categories; added Conky support; added script to detect virtual machine for picom/xcompmgr; improved live ISO image for ease of use; updated applications menu for all window managers; updated terminal configurations for installer; added option to change screen resolution on live ISO image; added display managers for all window manager monitor settings; updated Welcome and Config apps; updated terminals on all desktops/window managers; updated main installer screen; due to all the changes we are moving to version 3.1.5."
EndeavourOS 2026.03.06
Bryan Poerwo has announced the release of EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, code-name "Titan". EndeavourOS is an Arch-based Linux distribution with a customised KDE Plasma desktop and Calamares system installer. This new major release updates the Linux kernel to version 6.19.6 and makes improvements to the installer. "Earlier this month, the Linux kernel 6.19 was released, and that was a good excuse to refresh our ISO. And as you can read from the title, the changes for this one were big enough to turn it into a major release with a name that really covers this ISO. Named after the second-largest moon in our solar system, Titan. So, we borrowed Saturn's largest moon to orbit around our purple Linux space for now. ... For this release, we cleaned up and streamlined the installation process and added some new big features alongside: improved mirror ranking support, including providing an optimised mirror list when the installer is offline; added hardware detection for all GPUs and VMs; we are now installing additional drivers for all GPUs, including Vulkan drivers and the needed packages for hardware-accelerated video decoding when applicable; GPU drivers are now being loaded early by default; this release also introduces a new tool, eos-hwtool." Continue to the release announcement for more information.
EndeavourOS 2026.03.06 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.7MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
GLF OS 25.11
Gaming Linux FR has announced the release of GLF OS 25.11, code-named "Phoenix Pulsar", the latest update of the project's NixOS-based Linux distribution designed primarily for gaming. This release updates the Linux kernel to the long-term supported 6.18 version and the NVIDIA driver to version 590.48: "What's new in GLF OS Phoenix Pulsar? The 6.18 LTS kernel optimizes gaming (latency, HDR, VRR), improves hardware compatibility (AMD/Intel/Apple), and strengthens security (TCP encryption, signed BPF), providing a stable foundation for years to come - perfect for GLF OS and its demanding users. The NVIDIA 590.48 drivers for Linux bring major optimizations for RTX 50/40/30 GPUs, with enhanced ray tracing, DLSS 3.5 support, and improved latency management. Improvements in GLF OS: for streamers - ultra-lightweight setup with preconfigured OBS and Stream Deck ready to go; new built-in apps - Thunderbird, Shotwell, digiKam, KCalc, Piper, Reaper + Calf (studio); input remapper - reconfigure keys for your keyboard, mouse, or controller; Faugus replaces Lutris; GOverlay - easily configure Mangohud with just a few clicks; Nix-Firewall-Management (developed by the GLF OS team) - manage your firewall with a dedicated GUI...." Here is the full release announcement in French and English.
SparkyLinux 2026.03
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 2026.03, a new update of the project's set of semi-rolling distributions based on Debian's "Testing" branch: "New SparkyLinux 2026.03 'Tiamat' ISO images are available. This release is based on the Debian 'Forky'. Main changes: packages updated from Debian and SparkyLinux testing repositories as of March 14, 2026, Linux kernel 6.19.6 (7.0-rc3, 6.19.8, 6.18.18-LTS, 6.12.77-LTS in SparkyLinux repositories); Firefox 140.8.0esr (148.0.2-latest in Sparky repositories); Thunderbird 140.8.0esr, Calamares 3.4.2, GCC 15 + GCC 16-base installed; the CLI system installer 'sparky-installer' now has an option to install the 32-bit variant (ia32) of GRUB UEFI on 64-bit machines; the Calamares graphical installer now allows you to use a single-character password during installation (a strong password, minimum 8-12 characters, is recommended)." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Favourite parent distro
This week we began with a look at d77void, a distribution based on the Void distribution. Void does not have a large collection of distributions in its family tree, but the number of child distributions and spins is growing. Still, Void has a ways to go before it catches up with popular parent distributions, such as Debian, Fedora, Arch, and Gentoo. We'd like to hear from our readers: which is your favourite parent distribution?
You can see the results of our previous poll on running open source kernels other than Linux in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 23 March 2026. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Poll: Favorite Parent Distro (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-03-16 01:05:39 GMT from United States)
The one I'm using at the time that's working, I guess. I've had everything on my machines over the years and honestly as soon as I feel like Debian or Arch is "THE" best I forget about it when another one is making me happy.
I'm running Nobara on this machine, so yeah, Fedora is my favorite parent distro at the moment.
They're all doing an amazing job. Every one of the Big Parent Distros.
2 • Favorite parent (by Brad on 2026-03-16 01:53:14 GMT from United States)
Dad.
: - )
In all seriousness I picked "Other" because I have two favorites at the moment, and like any judicious parent, I can't choose one over the other (MXLinux and EasyOS). Each has it's own charms and foibles.
3 • @2 (by Brad on 2026-03-16 02:02:46 GMT from United States)
I pressed "submit" too soon, and I meant to say "Debian", instead of MXLinux...but I also feel that listing "Debian/Ubuntu" as a "parent" is not technically correct, since Shuttleworth/Canonical based Ubuntu on Debian in 2004.
4 • Mandatory 2c about law verification (by Fkasi on 2026-03-16 02:40:38 GMT from France)
I always refuse websites to know my location. If a website blocks me because of it, I'm okay not using it (if it makes sense to ask my location in the first place).
It should (at least) be the same with asking your age. An authorization popup should dis/allow specifying your age or range to this app/browser/website (as Apple does on iOS, and I guess Android too), and if refused, the app/browser/website shows you an error (it would be weird for VLC to ask my age, but meh why not).
Because, it would be very difficult to get an open-source ID checker, or integrating a proprietary one into an open-source system, and even if Colorado makes an exception for open-source, there is plenty of countries that won't budge. EU standardization of identity (through European Digital Identity wallet, and using a cryptographic challenge as proof) may be a solution.
So, as long as my (Linux) computer doesn't need to know my age to boot or login (anywhere I could be), just as it doesn't need internet or see my face for that, I'm not completely opposed to the idea of age verification.
5 • Best parent (by Dave on 2026-03-16 02:42:06 GMT from Australia)
I agree largely with the results - Arch and Debian are the best parents. And, possibly the best distros in their own right. I prefer not to use derivatives, unless they're really adding a great deal you just don't want to do yourself.
6 • Favorite Parent Distro (by Veit on 2026-03-16 02:49:05 GMT from Germany)
Definitely Debian/Ubuntu LTS for my favorite parent distro. They are the most popular parent distro for reasons:
- loads of packages available, so you're standing on the shoulders of giants
- stable base with slow pace of major dist-upgrades and long upstream support, so downstream distro devs have the opportunity to polish their adjustments thoroughly. Mint is a perfect example for this.
RHEL equivalents like Alma or Rocky would also work well as a base.
But faster-paced distros like Fedora work much better on their own for me. Downstreams of those can't do much more than preconfiguring them and ease some of the initial work. Like EndeavourOS does for Arch: You get Arch with an easy installer and a choice of default software. But this can also fail, like we see in the d77void review...
7 • favorite parent istro (by Stuart on 2026-03-16 02:55:53 GMT from United States)
I've used only originals (Slackware, FreeBSD, Void, Debian). I'm looking mostly for simplicity and reliability so I've never felt the need to look at derivatives.
8 • Linux From Scratch & age verification (by J.D. Laub on 2026-03-16 03:36:41 GMT from United States)
I agree with Jesse that we should wait & see how things play out. That said, I'm left wondering how lawmakers would handle an OS built using the Linux From Scratch (LFS) instructions. The LFS team provides instructions, not the OS. Would lawmakers bother to file cases against the individual citizens who use LFS? Food for thought.
9 • Parent distros (by R. M. G. on 2026-03-16 04:29:23 GMT from Portugal)
Please don't Debian/Ubuntu. Debian is Debian is Debian.
10 • d77void (by Jobe314 on 2026-03-16 06:20:20 GMT from Australia)
d77void is a great attempt to bring Void linux to users with different desktops and windows managers without having to go and install the main Void ISO and customizing from scratch.
I have tried d77void myself and can only say: please get calamares working with encryption.
The void installer, although fast is hell to use if you want to setup encrypted /home or full drive encrypted install. Calamares solves this in a user friendly way .... when it works. So far, I have tried multiple times with multiple releases of d77void and each time once you start the install process exits immediately with errors.
In this day and age, running a non-encrypted system is just madness. So if the dev of d77void is reading this, please get encryption working with Calamares.
Otherwise, you are doing a fantastic job bringing these spins into existence and I hope you don't stop.
11 • age verification laws (by always-curious-about_FOSS on 2026-03-16 06:50:40 GMT from Germany)
First of all, they are soon knowing our ages! Not exaktly, but a thithteen years old boy are using an other way of using the Internet than a woman aged 46. They have learnt to know it in order to place their online ads precisely where they need to be.
I do not know the political Discussion in California. To protect Kids it would be belong to only give the information older or younger than 18 ( or 21 ). So the more information of a birthdate would violate the an individual's privacy. Wans,t this a part of the poltical Discussion before ?
This California law is s completely harmless compared to the delusions of like "1984" omnipotence controll that politicians here in Germany spout.
The age verification should be verified by an online Identification card wallet. And without online Identification card no access to social media.
12 • Favorite distro appears in my signature but Age Verification is worthless... (by Bobbie Sellers on 2026-03-16 06:54:50 GMT from United States)
Age Verification is worthless. The problems that teens face in this society
are real things like parental neglect, abuse in several modes and lack of
a trust worthy source of real information. Screens and displays are not
implicated in the reasons so many kill themselves or run from a horrible
home. The science is there on the part of about the kids with problems
not being harmed by bullying from online sources but from the people
who have unresolved problems themselves and seem to lack a normal
sense of parental responsibility.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLinuzOS 2026.03- Linux 6.12.76 pclos1- KDE Plasma 6.6.2
13 • age verification laws 2. (by alway-curious-about-FOSS on 2026-03-16 07:18:17 GMT from Germany)
The devil is in the details, or you could also say that the devil is in the practical implementation. 'm not an IT specialist, but I assume that a uniform technical standard will be necessary so that these software applications can work seamlessly with the websites within the operating systems.
as such a uniform technical standard already been developed, or does that still need to be done?
Jetzt kommen wir zum Knackepunkt. ( Now we come to the crux of the matter ).
Will this technical standard be free and open-source, or will it be proprietary and closed-source?
uppose the powerful tech giants were to succeed in establishing this technical standard as proprietary and closed-source - Then they would have practically succeeded in excluding Linux from the Internet.
14 • Age verification / favorite parent distro (by Keith S on 2026-03-16 07:37:18 GMT from United States)
Great summary of the issues around age verification. These laws really do not and will not help any users or protect any children. The idea of a digital identification wallet is nightmarish. I guess no one remembers the horrors of actual communism. Government is the problem, not the solution.
My favorite parent distro is Debian for the reasons stated by @6 Veit. And I agree with @5 Dave that the best reason for derivatives is "adding a great deal you just don't want to do yourself." MX Linux really adds a lot of polish and great tools, which is why it has been my favorite Linux for over five years now.
I love OpenBSD but I admit that it is a lot of work to get all the little things set up the way I prefer. If I had more time and skills, I would seriously consider making a spin of OpenBSD with those preferences included to hopefully help others enjoy it with less effort. Maybe when I retire (if I can ever afford it).
15 • Age verification (by Samantha Duncan on 2026-03-16 07:42:35 GMT from Brazil)
We're in an age of surveillance, tracking, restriction, manipulation and control.
George Orwell predicted our future.
Big techs are the ones pulling the strings in the background, they remotely in a subtle way control our lives, shape our behavior and reinforce societal norms. Basically, to sell targeted advertising, that's why age verification is so important for them.
Big Techs are undermining democracy, if it still exists... and putting our freedom at stake.
Are we back to the middle ages?
I use GrapheneOS, btw...
16 • Age and OS (by Noddy from Aus. on 2026-03-16 07:53:40 GMT from Australia)
I have several Mac items as well as a couple of linux systems. I got an update on my iPad and it wants me to identify my age with a credit card, well that just not going to happen, I will have to find another way, or the Mac units will become excess to requirement.
As far as linux os's go, I usually use linux mint mate on the main box and debian on the others as it's stable and reliable. Occasionally I also give Arch linux a run,as a play thing.
My main box is basically tied to linux mint as I have nvidia graphics and qnap nas. The reason for mate desktop, is when I started using linux was in the days of gnome 2.
Maybe just old and set in my ways......lol
17 • Which is your favourite parent distro ? (by eb on 2026-03-16 08:28:35 GMT from France)
Slackware ; and since :
- I consider the original is better than a copy
- chidren irritate me,
I stick with Slackware since 2005 !:-).
18 • Favorite parent distro (by Jake on 2026-03-16 09:35:59 GMT from United States)
Debian, because I learned on Debian and have no desire to learn other distros and their package managers. I guess I am now old and lazy, so I will stick to Debian based distros.
19 • Age verification (by Ion on 2026-03-16 11:11:12 GMT from Moldova)
I think that people who introduce age verification complicate themself too much with idiotic technical solutions.
Majority of people who use internet are ISPs clients. And it is much easier to implement age verification at ISP level. If you have minors, minors have devices which have a certain MAC address, this mac addresses can be registered as 18- and restricted from adult sites and discord and social networks, everyone else should be allowed. A network protocol which implement this things is easy.
BUT they do introduce some face recognition software and some companies who collect passport and personal id card data, and this is huge security concern.
20 • Favourite parent distro (by JD on 2026-03-16 11:29:25 GMT from Italy)
Kubuntu LTS.
21 • age verification laws 3. (by always-curiou-about-FOSS on 2026-03-16 11:34:31 GMT from Germany)
A few moments ago, a new article on the topic was published on the German technology website heise.de.
Here is an important section from the article:
"California have stipulated in recently enacted laws that "providers of operating systems" must in future offer an age verification mechanism. It will be activated as soon as someone creates an account on the respective computer. Because trust is good, but control is better, California additionally stipulates that the system must compare the entered data with public databases during registration. The law is not yet concrete, but Governor Newsom has already announced changes and expansions."
Here the link to the english article:
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Think-of-the-children-Linux-community-against-age-verification-11212220.html
22 • Favourite parent distro - Solus (by WhiteWolf on 2026-03-16 12:05:01 GMT from Poland)
As in subject - Solus and looking forward to Aeryn.
23 • Age verification (by Neutrino on 2026-03-16 12:09:53 GMT from United States)
I hope my old computer lasts a long time and that the age verification does not involve hardware that can't be bypassed (e.g. TPM) or use a protocol that I can't block through a firewall.
The data suckers already get too much from us. Why can't the verification mechanism give us a send/don't send option in the OS? Why send age to a cooking blog just because they want it?
If the mechanism is in an OS, I may make a few ISOs with different ages and use a Ventoy drive to allow me to select what I send.
I still think additional data harvesting must be opposed with every means possible, including opposing the new data centers being built "for AI".
24 • d77void (by zanwalk on 2026-03-16 12:21:49 GMT from United Kingdom)
d77void user here, using both Fluxbox and Awesome WMs. I have found it to be a reliable and easy to use/install version of Void. No problems so far.
25 • Age Verification (by Geo. on 2026-03-16 12:24:54 GMT from Canada)
Thank you Jesse, that was an excellent article.
🙂
26 • Age Verification Laws (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-03-16 13:06:45 GMT from United States)
A very high percentage of users of the internet will likely just play along with it, and whatever other intrusive laws come around. I think that is true because a high percentage of users just want to get online and browse and do whatever they do and go about their day. As long as nothing shuts down (most) everybody will feel fine about it or be largely unaware of what's going on. Or both. Will business users of the internet cause a different dynamic to blossom as time goes by? Are there implications for them as yet unforeseen?
Those of us in this comments area who are discussing this subject are likely by-and-large a sort of "mild activists" group in that we're aware and concerned and expressive about it, but what will we really do? Will any of us confront the makers of these laws? Will we boycott or sabotage or picket or organize or whatever?
Some of us might dig deeper to see just who is benefiting from this whole thing.
27 • Age Verification of Multiple users? (by AloofBrit on 2026-03-16 13:35:00 GMT from United States)
Something I haven't seen discussed is multiple users - presumably every time a new account is set up on a machine it would need to check age? What about shared accounts? Plus I believe macOS still has 'Guest' somewhere
And what about the meme'd 'any games on your phone?' scenario
28 • Fav Distro and age... (by Friar Tux on 2026-03-16 14:08:00 GMT from Canada)
Ade verification... Don't actually feel it's an issue. I've been telling folks my birthday and age since I started talking. The same with location. There really isn't anything that anyone knows about me that is detrimental in any way. IF some government wants to use anything against me, they will invent it anyway - true or not (in most cases - not). We've seen this happen many times in history. Mind you, I DO live a pretty "boring" life, by most standards, so there's that.
Favourite parent distro... I'm with the Debian bunch. I prefer a derivative of a derivative. Debian > Ubuntu > Linux Mint. I once read, somewhere, "Ubuntu took Debian and improved on it, and Mint took Ubuntu and improved on it". I can believe it. Ive said, many times before, ad nauseam, that Linux Mint was the ONLY distro that loaded on/installed, without the slightest issue, consistently, every time. ALL the others, without exception had issues, or would flatly refuse to install - even Debian and Ubuntu. (I still try out distros, now and then, but Mint is still Number One.)
29 • Age Verification (by dragonmouth on 2026-03-16 15:14:11 GMT from United States)
Today Age Verification is mandated by the government using "protecting the little ones" as an excuse. What other personal information will be mandated to be included in registering to use an O/S using the same excuse?
As Jesse says, this should have been nipped in the bud as soon data harvesting was started. We ARE already on the slippery slope and the snow ball is getting bigger and bigger.
People who don't mind Age Verification because, as they proclaim, "they have noting to hide" are just fooling themselves and making things harder on those who want privacy. If the government wants to get you on trumped up charges, they WILL get you. Was Field Marshall Rommel actually involved in the assassination plot on Hitler? Did the Canadian Government have the right to confiscate the truckers' bank accounts?
You have had to live under a regime that knew all about you to understand what an attack on privacy rights Age Verification truly is.
30 • Age Verification (by Jonathan on 2026-03-16 15:29:22 GMT from United States)
As a 17 year old, who just a few years back started using Linux MInt for fun, I don't see how beneficial implementing age verification to an OS is, or anywhere on the internet for that matter. I have in many accounts that I still use, which I just lied about my age. Whether is on steam, or some google accounts, none of this will benefit any minor whatsoever. Even id, or facial recognition can be easily bypassed by using their parents/family personal information or game assets or pictures to bypass these technologies. It just shows how these politicians are so out of touch with basic technologies and the people in general.
Back to implementing age verification to Linux distros, thankfully I am not on either one of these states, but just wait for a couple of months when this gets implemented in California and Colorado, and the rest will follow. If its an easy provide your age like in steam, then its very easily bypassed and anyone can just lie about it. But I still disagree to giving more of my information just to use a computer I had for years and been using. Its ridiculous.
I can just imagine if windows will implement this. Many under-aged users such as in schools have either windows, or chromebooks. If they implement any of these it will just be more inconvenient for students and will provide higher security risk. Now these companies have exact information such as their ages from MINORS to easily target them and advertirse to them. Or students asking their parents for their age to use it instead. I can already see Windows and Google going for this.
Honestly, more personal data and security risk making users more vulnerable, and more profit for large companies such as windows or google.
31 • Age Verification (by grindstone on 2026-03-16 15:34:25 GMT from United States)
Nice job, Jesse--thanks for taking the time.
32 • Age verification laws (by Jesse on 2026-03-16 15:35:17 GMT from Canada)
@28: "Ade verification... Don't actually feel it's an issue. I've been telling folks my birthday and age since I started talking. The same with location."
There is a difference between declaring your age and location, manually, to specific people you feel should have the information and having your computer share that information to everyone in the world on your behalf. Surely you can see the difference?
> "There really isn't anything that anyone knows about me that is detrimental in any way"
This shows a lack of imagination or a wilful ignorance. The people at your bank and your utilities know your banking and credit card information. Your neighbours know when you're home and when you're away, leaving your home undefended. If you have a smartphone the carrier knows your travel and shopping habits. All of those bits of information could easily be used against you. And that's without a crime in your area happening.
Are you still going to assume information can't be used against you if your phone reports you were in the same area as a kidnapping? Are you going to feel safe if the police look up your search history while investigating a hacking attempt and notice you are a software enthusiast? Anyone who doesn't think innocent-to-them information can be used against them has not been paying attention to how criminals or law enforcement behave.
Even if, for a second, you ignore all of that (and it's a lot to ignore) doesn't it give you a moment of pause that giant companies are spending millions of dollars lobbying for the right to track you? Even if you can't think of a reason you should hide this information, surely you should be a bit worried that companies are pushing so hard to try to get this information about you. They are not doing it for your benefit.
33 • Favorite partent distros (by kc1di on 2026-03-16 15:50:54 GMT from United States)
I use Debian most of the time so I suppose that would be my favorite parent distro as well,
But Slackware use to be my go to one. But have gotten lazy in my old age :)
More Distros over the years have been based on Debian than any other.
34 • Why "Convenience" is the Enemy of Ownership... (by Tech in San Diego on 2026-03-16 16:16:08 GMT from United States)
To those arguing that OS-level age verification is a harmless convenience or a safety necessity: we’ve seen this movie before, and it’s currently playing out in the automotive industry. We are witnessing the death of the "Tool" and the birth of the "Platform."
The new Age Verification Laws are the software equivalent of "features" being forced into modern cars. Consider these parallels:
1. AUTO STOP/START (The "Efficiency" Signal)
The Car: Forces the engine off; wears out starters; must be manually disabled every drive.
The OS: Mandatory age-signaling that you must find ways to spoof or disable to maintain privacy.
2. PASSIVE KILL SWITCHES (The "Safety" Gatekeeper)
The Car: Algorithms that monitor biometrics and can "lock you out" of your own vehicle.
The OS: An OS that refuses to run software or access sites unless you "verify" your identity with the state.
3. CAPACITIVE TOUCH & SCREENS (The "Modern" Interface)
The Car: Removes physical knobs for screens that track every tap and movement.
The OS: Moving local settings behind "Cloud Accounts" so your preferences are centrally tracked.
4. SUBSCRIPTION HARDWARE (The "Rental" Model)
The Car: You pay for heated seats, then pay a monthly "rent" to unlock the software to use them.
The OS: Buying a computer only to be "rented" the right to use the OS features you already paid for.
5. DRIVER MONITORING CAMERAS (The "Always-On" Nanny)
The Car: A "Big Brother" lens that beeps if you look away from the road for a split second.
The OS: "Always-on" telemetry and background processes that "phone home" with your activity and age bracket.
The "User" vs. The "Owner"
When you own a tool, it works for you. When you are a "user" of a platform, you are a data point. The argument that "this makes things easier" is the bait. The switch is that you are no longer the one in charge of the machine you bought.
If you bought a hammer, and the manufacturer required it to "verify your grip" before it allowed you to hit a nail—and then sent that data to a central database—you’d call it insanity. Why do we accept it from our operating systems?
The Illusion of Safety
These laws and features are always sold as "safety." But a teen who wants to bypass an age gate will simply use a VPN, just as a determined driver will bypass a software governor. Meanwhile, the law-abiding user is the only one left with a less secure, more tracked device.
The Metric that Matters
The question isn't "Will this feature actively hurt me right now?" The question is "Does this benefit me?"
Does my car stopping at every light benefit me? No.
Does my OS broadcasting my age to every random website benefit me? No.
When the benefit goes to the regulator or the advertiser, and the burden goes to the owner, it isn't a "feature"—it's a liability. We should expect our tools to work on our behalf, not as double agents for the state or a corporation. Once these "signals" become the standard, the "slippery slope" isn't a theory—it's the cliff we've already driven over
35 • Age verification (by Any on 2026-03-16 17:05:41 GMT from Spain)
"Don't be a zucker!"
RMS
36 • Age verification for websites (by Dan on 2026-03-16 18:35:45 GMT from United States)
"The new law is called California's Digital Age Assurance Act and, in brief, it requires that an operating system stores the age of each user and, upon request from an application (or website via a web browser), the operating system will report the user's age to the application or website."
I think that this interpretation of the bill is misleading regarding the "website" part of it. The text actually reads: "(c) “Application” means a software application that may be run or directed by a user on a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device that can access a covered application store or download an application". Web applications and site scripts seem to be out of the intended meaning - that is, an app which can be downloaded from a covered app store.
For local applications it is enough to agree on the interpretation of the comment field in /etc/passwd to signify the age bracket, isn't it?
I agree with Jesse that such laws are unlikely to actually help people.
37 • Fave parent distro (by Jyrki on 2026-03-16 19:33:28 GMT from Czechia)
years ago (I mean before they dropped their init in favour of systemd), I would vote for Arch. Nowadays, it's Slackware.
38 • Age verification (by Vic on 2026-03-16 20:32:03 GMT from United States)
Thank you for very sane position on the topic! I am glad that many people hold same beliefs as I do.
I have already read about it about a week ago somewhere else and was stunned that such laws are starting to show up now and some find them reasonable...
39 • Favorite Distro Poll (by Bill Nace on 2026-03-16 20:45:24 GMT from United States)
PCLinuxOS hands-down. I've used it since 2006 and am a huge fan. The community support is second to none, and the philosophy behind it just makes sense.
40 • Age verification (by BlueCow on 2026-03-16 20:57:13 GMT from United States)
As usual, the government will not work for the people, they are against the people. Citizens have no chance nor power to change anything, so deal with it and if you don't like it, well, there's nothing you can do.
That's democracy (who said it was the best choice btw?).
41 • age verification nonsense (by Jobe314 on 2026-03-16 22:17:07 GMT from Australia)
An ammendment to the age verification bill in California is already in the works:
"Colorado and especially California have stipulated in recently enacted laws that "providers of operating systems" must in future offer an age verification mechanism. It will be activated as soon as someone creates an account on the respective computer. Because trust is good, but control is better, California additionally stipulates that the system must compare the entered data with public databases during registration"
Compare entered birth date to public database.
Someone was mentioning slippery slope, well here it is in all its glory.
You want to use a computer? Show me ze papers pleaze.
Once california get this ammendment added, every other legislation for OS age verification will do the same.
But i have nothing to hide, some cry. I don't mind giving my licence or passport to use a computer or phone/tablet or even my TV....yes your tv will require age verification to use too as it is running and OS.
It's one thing though that government pass stupid privacy invasive rules.
It's another thing when people obediently fall into line and take it up their cornholio so easily without even putting up any resistance. What is this phenomena where people are first in line to throw away their privacy, where devs are scheming up ways to be first to code up age verification systems before the ink has even dried on the "legislation"?
B00tlicking. That's what it is. Plain and simple.
"Many individuals engage in b00tlicking as a means to gain the favor of those in positions of power or authority. By ingratiating themselves with those in control, they hope to receive recognition, praise, and ultimately, a sense of validation.One of the primary psychological motives behind bootlicking is the innate human desire for approval and validation."
Of course you can argue the point, Canonical is a corp and in California so it must of course adhere to the rules. But, Canonical could just as easily packup and more their HQ to Texas. They could also do as MidnightBSD have done. They could just simply refuse also and challenge this madness in court. But money, poor Canonical is so poor they can't afford lawyers, ahhh, so sad. Oh well, I guess they better just roll over and accept the new laws and lockdown Ubuntu for the children.
Too many people, more than the majority in the population suffer from this mentality; this b00tlicking mentality. This psychological disposition, combined with a lack of intelligence is why we are now at this point; OS level age verification.
It's insane to be honest and yet the majority of people out there will accept it and take it, even beg for it and more invasive privacy destroying tech (think chip implants) in the future. These people are destroying freedom, they are destroying our way of life because they don't want to stand out and have zero backbone.
Everyone has the capacity of choice in their lives. To choose good or evil. Yet these people will choose the path of least resistance, they choose evil everytime.
People, we can see where this is going. There will be no opposition to it. Perhaps a few distros will resist, but the overwhelming trend will be that this will happen and will only get worse in the future.
My suggestion to everyone again; download rolling distros (because you only need to install once) now and scrutanize all updates.
Resist this invasion of our freedoms.
Also for internet, there is TOR and I2P as alernatives to clearnet internet. Perhaps Jesse could consider creating a clone of Distrowatch on either TOR or I2P.
If clearnet internet keeps getting more surveilled and locked down/gate keeped, i think TOR and I2P can be the solution.
42 • All about age verification laws and Linux (by James on 2026-03-17 07:58:12 GMT from New Zealand)
RE: "Since the software [os] just reports the age we give it without verifying, can't people just lie? Yes, people could lie or make up a random date to provide to the age tracking software. Which just goes to show how pointless the new age verification laws are. They only punish honest people while anyone who wants to work around them can do so trivially."
If a user lied about their age to the OS, then used a govt website that gets the users age from the OS, and the govt already new the actual age of the user, then the govt would also punish the user for lying about their age in the OS setting.
43 • Signed BPF in Linux Kernel 6.18. The notorius security module considerations. (by Kernel6.17 user, parentDeb-er on 2026-03-17 09:09:36 GMT from Latvia)
Linux 6.18 has signed Berkeley Packet Filtering (eBPF, libpcap).
I will use menuconfig to turn it off, YAGNI.
To Whom It May Concern: Pangu Lab said the NSA used ?classic?BPF as backdoor, Spectre can leverage it against you, code from CrowdStrike for both RHEL's and Windows' eBPF causes global problems in/on infrastructure/client sides.
44 • Government intrusion (by Tikoy on 2026-03-17 11:36:40 GMT from Singapore)
The angst is palpable in the geeky forums, but in the news-feeds and media aimed at the masses, aside from the occasional blurb, it's silence. Not approval or rejection, but indifference. And even most of the fear and loathing in techie world is aimed at the wrong culprits. There are two modes of online intrusion: transactional and coercive. I make frequent use of Google Maps for directions, and for that to be effective it needs my exact location. In exchange,it provides me a direct service I appreciate. I also wear a smartwatch. It knows where I am 24/7. It counts my every step, my every heartbeat and breath, tracks my oxygen and stress levels. It knows when I am sleeping. It knows when I'm awake. (Santa Clock?) All this is sent to a server in China where it's added to a database of all users, by gender, age, etc. In return, among other things, should heart arrhythmia strike at 3AM, it will wake me. At my advanced age, that's priceless. That is transactional, value for value.
Then there is government. Government is coercive by its nature. Do this or else! Governmental intrusions are not for your benefit as an individual. They are for the protection of "society", "the children", "the underprivileged", "the citizens", and on and on. It's not one side or the other, not Republican vs Democrat, Labour vs Conservative, left vs right. "Whatever is not expressly allowed is prohibited." "Whatever is not expressly prohibited is allowed." Those are not opposites. They both refer to maximum coercion and minimum choice. And worst is the combining of business and government. Aircraft companies trading freely produce airliners to facilitate transport. Combine them with government and they will produce bombers to rain death on others.
Then there's the ineffective balkanized opposition. I saw a form of it in Venezuela years ago. On this forum it's mostly about FOSS and Linux. Let Apple and Microsoft and their sheep sink for all we care, as long as our little FOSS dinghy remains afloat. But maybe we're not in our own dinghy. Maybe we are in a little cabin on the same boat. It's not just about California AB 1043 or all the others enacted and in process. It's yhe growing governmental intrusion, and not only in computers. Where I live, one can no longer connect a SIM card without providing ID, photos and proof of address. "Better Call Saul" would be out of business, and so would anyone wanting anonymity of calls and texts. Per the Halt Drunk Driving Act, the US NHTSA will require passive sensors in all new cars tracking behavior, head position, eye movement and other signs of impairment. This will be tied to an ignition interlock. Telematics are incorporated in some cars already, allowing remote disabling for non-payment or in cooperation with police. There's AI-enhanced CCTV which can detect "pre-incident" signatures. Shades of "Minority Report". The more intrusion methods available, the more they will be used. Count on it.
45 • Age (by Twostroke Applefarm on 2026-03-17 13:40:00 GMT from Denmark)
Top marks for this week's Q&A Jesse.
We'll find a way.
46 • Favorite Parent Distro (by Andra on 2026-03-17 14:40:17 GMT from Indonesia)
I prefer to use independent distros over those derived from other distros. They have their own uniqueness and character. For example, Arch is simple and very plain. Gentoo has fine-grained control. Fedora is innovative. Debian is super stable and conservative. Slackware has remained unchanged for several decades.
There are some interesting independent distros, but their sustainability needs to be tested. One of them that is promising are Aeryn OS and Chimera if they can survive.
It doesn't mean that I'm against derivative distros, as long as they make things easier and provide additional value beyond their parent distros. One of the strongest points of the derivative distro is the ease of adaptation in use for new users, so I recommend this derivative distro for friends who are migrating to Linux.
47 • @34: (by dragonmouth on 2026-03-17 14:44:20 GMT from United States)
Right on!
48 • Missing the point (by Deadwing on 2026-03-17 15:08:43 GMT from Canada)
While I'm not here to argue the merits or lack thereof of age verification, I wanted to point out that the intent is for parents to create their kid's accounts. Obviously a kid will lie, but how many 8 year olds are setting up their own profiles on a PC or phone? I have 2 grown kids, and they didn't set up anything. It was always Dad's job. If they don't have admin-level perms, they can't change it.
Number of Comments: 48
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| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
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