Everyone ignoring what is essentially the end of open computing.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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I never got a cited response to this question on /c/pcgaming: when was this so called “open computing” era?
Well, that would have been the entire history of computing right up until the point that the government starts fiddling with operating systems so ultimately we'll have to provide proof of identity to download or install software.
I know you kids are too young to remember this, but back in the day there used to be a cartoon from The New Yorker, "on the internet nobody knows you're a dog". Very quickly it appears that many jurisdictions are trying to make sure that it is built into the frameworks of computing that everyone will know exactly that you're a dog.
Glad someone actually knows their history🤝.
Let's bloc up, and ensure nobody knows who we are in the internet. Squeak Squeak.
Fortunately linux users are quite privacy focused so there is sure to be several distros that will ignore this stupid bullshit. Unfortunately the general public are morons and will just accept it without question when it shows up in the majority of OS's.
The days of needed a VPN just to install and OS are looming and I am going to do anything I need to never fucking give any OS so much as a fake birthday because I shouldn't have to and I don't fucking want to.
Even aside from the obvious (or at least, should-be-obvious) tyranny, there are so many problems with this as a concept. For example, WTF is supposed to happen when the OS is in a VM spun up by an automated system and has no human user to begin with?
Doubt they even know what a VM even is
They can just make you agree that you are not in California when you download.
One distro, I forget which one as I saw it on yt yesterday, changed their EULA to bar Californians from using the OS after that "law" is enacted
Wow, another fail for California. What is their legislature doing? First the 3d printer monitoring bullshit, now this
sudo apt remove ca_age_verification