Guess GNU/Linux is about to get popular with kids.
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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While I'm not the average person, my kids have never known anything but Linux or ChromeOS (because school). They game on SteamOS/Bazzite, they use a Linux laptop at home, and they use Android devices. Everything they use, somewhere inside deep down, is powered by Linux.
Good. Maybe then future generations won't be as tech illiterate.
Thanks to smart phones, this generation of kids is roughly as tech literate as boomers.
I wouldn't get your hopes up.
My 14yo is on Linux and has been troubleshooting the VR setup. Not going to say she knows Linux well or better than me, but motivation is the key.
Are they the avarage teen in the avarage family tho? I feel like we cannot call that avarage if the parent uses the Fediverse xD
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That you and your daughter rock aside, anecdata alas does not trump statistics.
This was never about the children. Besides what does this really accomplish when there's Roblox?
I’m glad there are still options.
Cynical me thinks this might make big software vendors marginalize or demonize these platforms further for not “verifying” their users.
Oh, it'll be just like the "anti-cheat" system, which screws Linux users.
I had a thought, this is done to reduce opposition to age verification. Most people who really care about privacy will use Linux and open source. So now a lot of those will not care about the age verification being thrust on Microsoft/Apple users because it doesn't affect them.
This is likely an attempt to kill Linux and to an extent FOSS.
If sites require OS level age verification, then you can't visit them if your OS doesn't have it.
Not kill, it's an attempt to marginalize Linux, maybe.
same thing in this context.
It's not the same. Linux is unkillable. However the proprietory software purveyors can try to slow down the growth of Linux.
It won't work.
If you marginalize it so its no longer usable on the modern web to do all the things you need to do.. Then yes, thats the same as effectively killing it.
Although I'm sure Red Hat and Ubuntu will implement it eventually to keep their enterprise clients compliant.
Which compounds the problem.
I'm sure that was an added benefit, but the market share of Linux users is not that big to give a political care about. This was likely a result of effective lobbying to the right people willing to listen to reason.
ETA: I'm still against Age Verification, and throwing Linux a bone doesn't change that.
Also because there's no logical, effective way to enforce this on FOSS tech
Aside from, you know, not being able to access anything that looks for that OS okay, or worse..declaring people not on compliance in criminal violation of the law and mass arresting.
Open source ftw
better but still bad. hope it blows up in their faces in ways worse than i can even imagine.
I am waiting for the day to teach the niblings how to operate TempleOS
A good day. A good day, indeed.
So if you want to protect your kids from adult rated content, and you live in California, you need to buy a propietary system. Which make sure data collectors get to know all about them, and therefore doesn't protect them… But am I the only one to see the commercial argument about to be used by MS, Apple, and others?
Their websites and services will ask for age verification and Linux will not provide it.
Therefore Linux systems will be barred from using online services. You will need a proprietary spyware OS in order to continue banking, citizen. Please drink a verification can to continue.
There's nothing preventing Linux from giving online services a random age. Being exempt from the law just means we don't have to implement real age verification.
Nothing yet. Just give it a year or three before those age attestations given to websites have to be cryptographically signed by a corp.
There are some steps you can take in Linux but there are also steps you can take regardless of OS. Gnome has built in parental controls. I’m not sure about the other DEs but Gnome has something. Browsers have had controls for a long time.
For those so inclined, you can set up network wide controls via a PiHole instance. If that’s too restrictive, you can pick and choose your kids’ devices to apply the restrictions. That’s what I do. It was super easy. I just update the block list regularly and test it.
As parents, we need to have some awareness of what our kids do online. I’m all in favor of making it easier for parents to do that and better educating parents on what is available.
The big guys might advertise their “new parental controls” but I doubt they will be advertising against Linux and open source. I’m sure Apple will have a version of this that is slightly more privacy respecting than Microsoft and maybe they’ll advertise that. They don’t care about Linux though. Not from a competitive standpoint, not yet.
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So if you want to protect your kids from adult rated content, and you live in California, you need to buy a propietary system.
That’s not at all what this means. You’ve always been free to add any additional parental controls to your kid’s devices, and that hasn’t changed.
I know it is not the aim, I am concerned by how it may be used against free softwares... once more, I hope I am wrong.
Also, I am concerned by the loss of freedom involved by this policy. And I don't think it is made to protect any one, just to restrict and control.
Geez. Windows is just getting less and less worth it, even for more mainstream consumers.
I don't think anyone should be using Windows. It's fascist spyware. Windows users don't own their systems, Microsoft does.
You're definitely not wrong there.
Why to specify the licenses? Why not all opensource software?
If it's public domain, is it required? If it's EUPL, is it required?
It's not just those specific licences, it's:
an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.
Thank you very much!
I'm really impressed!
I'm under the belief the push for Linux to be exempted is because the amount of work that enterprise would have to retrofit their network, server and software applications would be too costly. So once again Capitalism favors itself over the consumer. Just here the consumer gets a taste of what a govt exemption feels like.
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