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):
paramazo/systemd "The systemd System and Service Manager without age verification"
ganitam/systemd "Systemd fork just before the Age Verification addition. Hoping more capable developers and maintainers do same.."
GSYT-Productions/systemd-fork "The systemd System and Service Manager, without the stupid Age Verification"
speedythesnail/unre tarded-systemd "The systemd System and Service Manager, without the r e t arded age-verification commits"
ta13579/systemd "The systemd System and Service Manager WITHOUT THE FUCKING AGE CHECKS"
r4shsec/systemd-no-age-verification "This is systemd but without the age verification made via pull request https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40978"
Pingasmaster/fightthesystemd "Systemd without the nonsense: no age verification, no lighthouse built-in."
Jeffrey-Sardina/system "Liberated systemd -- no surveillance. Ever."
HaplessIdiot/systemd-saneagecheck "The systemd System and Service Manager with age verification bypass and polling rate options for said feature"
Queer-Coded-LGBTQ/systemd-fuck-california "The systemd System and Service Manager, but without age bs added in."
Codiak540/unshitted-systemd "A fork of systemd aiming to strip the Age verification. Sue me california."
Hopefully the energy of this reaction won't be scattered among too many alternatives, although some amount of scattering is always good.
I'd rather just go back to sysvinit tbh.
I wouldn't personally. But either way all these forks are silly considering the non issue they're addressing. Though it's their developers, God-given time to waste. Should they choose to.
It was a merge request from an external unassociated developer. To add an optional text field to a bunch of other already optional and generally unfilled text fields. With no method to check or enforce anything. To the nameD subsystem of systemD. If the text field offends you don't fill it. Save your powder for those implementing checking and enforcement.
I can definitely see both sides. On one hand I do agree the actual change itself is pretty meaningless. Just don't fill the systemdb entries with any info. However what the change represents is much more alarming. It signals a foot in the door to open source devs conplying to the authoritarian whims of a governmental power. They should definitely not comply with dumb legeslature like this, especially considering their userbase.
TLDR: the change itself is dumb and small, but what it means for the foss community is much more alarming and dangerous.
I still don't. Unfortunately these groups are still required to follow laws regardless of how stupid they are. And many more than this are indeed, very stupid.
If you want to have riteous anger at someone who deserves it that might have positive impact. Rail against the governments. Not to downplay what happened in Nazi Germany. But would you think it reasonable to harras and harangue German Jews who wore the star of David to identify themselves as required by the government? I don't think a reasonable person would. When I bump into groups that have to comply with stupid state laws here where I live, I don't blame those groups. I blame the state like any sensible person would. Not attacking and blaming other victims of the state.
Do you think they should resist the state? That's all well and good. Will you be there to defend them when the state comes? To fund these random devs defense? No? You won't and they're largely on their own? Then what do they owe to us? What entitles us to give them so much grief?