userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd
github.com
Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

Fork time? Maybe all the anti-systemd zealots were right all along…

Edit: To address whether it is likely that this change will affect users: Gnome is planning a stronger dependence on userdb, the part of systemd where this change is being implemented. https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2025/06/10/gnome-systemd-dependencies/

Final Edit: The PR has been merged into main.

  • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemmy.zip
    2·
    1 day ago

    What systemd does here is offer a solution to secure it centrally

    It doesn’t as long as other init systems exist and people can luckily choose, hopefully that will always be the case.

    Here’s to hoping this entire discussion becomes just as pointless as you expect the PR to become

    Agree on that, I think that’s the hope for everyone here.

    • luciferofastora@feddit.org
      2·
      1 day ago

      It doesn’t as long as other init systems exist

      Of course, which is why I said it was “somewhat” central earlier in the thread: it’s not universal, even if systemd is widely used.

      Other init systems generally also have ways to store data (not specifically dates, just in general), and some overarching standard for securely accessing them would be useful for intercompatibility, but that’s a mess as it stands anyway.

      people can luckily choose, hopefully that will always be the case.

      Also agreed. Just because I personally come down on the systemd side of the debate doesn’t mean everyone should have to use it. Standards are nice, but there always should be alternatives, in case a standard gets captured by twats (which kinda is the debate we’re having: whether systemd has started bowing to fascists significantly enough to warrant migrating away).