If you can feel a very small tinge of existential horror when you read the words “try to”, congratulations, you’re a true *nix devotee.

If legislators get grumpy about this, just gently thwap them with your handy copy of The Unix Haters Handbook and tell them you’re working as hard as you can under the circumstances.

  • Vocalize8711@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    By definition of this new law, is Linux an OS? It is technically just the kernel. At what layer of the software stack does the responsibility of age verification lie at?

    • thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      Linux is the kernel, GNU is the operating system, make demands to them
      GNU is only a component of the GNU/Linux system, make demands to distributors
      But this is a distribution of Linux, make demands to Linux
      But Linux is the kernel…

      • kittykillinit@lemy.lol
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        5 days ago

        Nobody in the government and few people in tech are smart enough to make this distinction.

        Kinda sad how the world is run by idiots.

    • GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      Sigh… If nobody else is gonna do it, I’ll reply with the copypasta.

      I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

      Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

      There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!