While this doesn’t answer your question, I use Docker for this exact purpose, since you can throw away everything if it fails, whilst keeping a recipe for success documented in a Dockerfile.

And how is an operating system defined in that law?

Should this be handled at the BIOS level, the kernel level, the init level, the packaging level, the GUI level, the user login level, the user desktop level, or somewhere else entirely, like a derivative distribution with its own layers, some of which will be different from the base distro?

I’m asking because each of those levels are pretty much handled by different groups of individuals, groups and organisations in different jurisdictions, cultures and countries.

While we’re talking about options on where to put this “feature”, who is liable for it not being implemented?

You might have an opinion on where it “should” be, but I can guarantee you that there are at least as many opinions on where it should be as people you ask.

That’s why the Debian Project is doing what it is.

Asking an expert for their opinion, even if that expert is a lawyer, is not “lawyering up”, nor is their any evidence whatsoever that the Debian Project or the SPI is going to “probably sue over it”.

The summary under the heading “TL;DR” was nothing more than an inflammatory opinionated interpretation of the headline and as interpretations go, it was not in any way, shape, or form, anything that might be considered a summary, which is what the “TL;DR” implied.

Hence my “WTF?” response and subsequent top level reply with the actual text and its source as sent by the DPL.

I note that the issue of “age verification” is an extremely troubling trend and I think that discussion about it needs to be considered and nuanced, neither of which were in evidence.

This is what the DPL actually wrote on the subject:

Recent discussions have started around new age verification legislation that may affect free software operating systems. In particular, the California Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), expected to take effect in 2027, raises questions about whether operating systems and package distribution mechanisms could be required to provide age-related information to applications. In parallel, a recently adopted law in Brazil appears to introduce similar requirements and is already in force, with initial interpretations suggesting it could apply to components such as package management tools. These developments are currently under discussion within Debian and other projects, and SPI has initiated efforts to obtain legal guidance. At this stage, the situation remains unclear, and further analysis is ongoing.

From a non-lawyer perspective, it is not yet clear how such regulations apply to a non-commercial, volunteer-driven project like Debian, which does not sell software and provides it in a highly decentralized way. It seems plausible that obligations, if any, may primarily affect redistributors or commercial entities building products on top of Debian. In such cases, Debian would as usual be open to contributions that help downstreams meet their requirements, while keeping such features optional and respecting the needs of users in other jurisdictions. However, this is an area where proper legal analysis is still required.

Source: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2026/04/msg00001.html

WTF?

Given that you’re having issues with the DNS, I’d look at this.

Specifically, are you using the ISP DNS as an upstream lookup, or have you configured another DNS as the upstream?

Is the ISP DNS locking you out because you’re hammering it?

Does the ISP block traffic on Port 53?

When you’re having issues, can you look up addresses using a different DNS?

How is your DNS configured / implemented?

Youngest to oldest, physically at the table at the time.

Tailscale is possibly a solution for you.

The article says nothing about genai and uses a paywalled article as its source. A second source is an article written by the author.

Not sure what barrow this is peddling, other than repeating the absurd notion that software engineers are paid too much whilst the Australian Computer Society promotes articles stating that they should be paid at 1995 pay rates.

As an ICT professional with over 40 years experience, all I see is poorly informed HR teams hiring the very cheapest graduates they can find and believing that Assumed Intelligence will make it all better after they decimated their experienced staff.

No wonder we have escalating data breaches and security nightmares, not to mention unstable consumer electronics and a growing list of terrifying trends in vehicle software implementations with absolutely no global mechanisms for regulation or certification.

Edit: spelling

In my opinion, a more interesting question:

What does “wet” actually mean?

Well it’s lucky that the FCC regulates a country where the local manufacturers are already producing millions of these devices locally … oh … wait.

So when is this happening, so we can mentally and logistically prepare for the next influx of new users into the fediverse?

You do understand that California is not the centre of the universe, that states within the United States of America don’t agree on how to conduct voting, let alone agree on laws and finally, that there are 8.3 billion people on this planet, 96% of whom don’t live in, or are subject to laws made in the USA.

I’m sorry, but no.

Age validation is surveillance under the guise of “protecting the children”, which it spectacularly fails at for more reasons than I can count.

1. Everyone has to validate their age, which creates a whole infrastructure that require documents that “prove” your age.
2. A verified “under age” user will be added to a database by unscrupulous players, creating a honeypot for predators.
3. Age verification isn’t universal, isn’t uniform and regardless of the jurisdiction in which it’s implemented, won’t actually prevent content from being procured from sources outside that jurisdiction.
4. One source of objectionable content is another’s entertainment, legally so, given that laws are made in isolation from each other across borders.
5. The result of such legislation is the effective censorship of content that some lawmaker finds objectionable, which will cause more harm than good.
6. Operating System level age verification on open source platforms will spectacularly fail since they’re published outside the jurisdiction.

So … no.

I understand your point and agree that this is the thin end of the wedge.

What we’re doing here is discussing the phenomenon and I’m highlighting some concerns.

I believe that this is how you get a dialogue happening which will effect change, which is what we’re both advocating.

I think that age verification is about surveillance rather than protecting children and I think it should be fought at every level.

This is me contributing to that fight.

In my opinion, storing a date is pretty much irrelevant unless there’s a process that validates the supplied date, otherwise every Linux user was born on 1/1/1, if not, an administrator can “fix” that

Furthermore, that systemd thinks that it’s the place to store such information is in my opinion beyond absurd.

Who appointed that project the source of age truth in the Linux ecosystem? What discussion was there, who was consulted and where was the vote?

I have it and I use it daily and I absolutely hate it. The latest MacOS Tahoe is an abomination.

It’s unstable, it sleeps monitors connected over USB-C while in use, Bluetooth audio pairing randomly doesn’t work, the virtualisation engine is crash prone, X11 integration magically stopped working a year ago and nobody seems to care.

Permissions are impenetrable, sshfs and fuse requires a kernel module and repeated reboots and permissions to be enabled.

I’m forced to have an OS update, requiring a reboot, to support a new model that I’m not running.

There’s no native package manager so applications just throw their shit all over the filesystem and the alternatives, Homebrew, Anaconda and MacPorts each have system breaking problems.

So … no. It absolutely sucks.

And here’s the kicker, it’s still better than Microsoft Windows.

Given the history of A/UX, I’d be surprised if System V didn’t have an oar in the water too.

I use apt, but you don’t have to, instead you can use any package manager from any distribution and use that distribution within the container.

If an application isn’t packaged, you can use the same mechanism to compile from source.

IMHO, if it’s not packaged and you can’t compile from source, it’s time to look for a different application.