I know what you mean, at work right now when you run Linux they don't give you support but they also don't enforce any of the bullshit but skill give you VPN access to the work resources.

On win and Mac they dust disabled USB storage access and there is a to other bullshit going in TN the name of security while everyone uploads their code to openai or anthropic because they're pushing for it

So now I am hidden from IT, when those Sanitized Linux ditros start showing up they will build in the same bullshit as they have from win and Mac now and then I'm fucked, because they will force me to use them

I don't think we'll see a "year of Linux" per say, I think we're not likely to see either a decade or generational shift to Linux.

I've been using Windows and Android all my life, so it's what I got used to. I'm in my 30's now and over the last year or so I've slowly been introducing myself to Mint Linux on my laptop for basic web browsing and Ubuntu Linux 24.04 on my home server for hosting my own data. In some ways it's actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, but I'm still learning a new language.

On the one hand I considered myself pretty technically savvy, until I dove head first into Linux and quickly discovered how much I really didn't know. On the other hand, I am learning as I go given enough repetition.

How would anyone place a 100% community driven distribution like Debian in such a cage? There's no monetary leverage, the community is truly international, so local laws don't apply .....
Please note that it's also one of the most prolific distributions, and the foundation p.e. for *buntu.

If you're living in an oppressive jurisdiction, your employer might obviously not allow you to use a truly free operating system, but that's hardly Linux's fault.

So if your favorite distribution is starting bullshit, just switch to the next one, there are literally thousands of them. That's why "Year of the Linux desktop" is confusing: it's "year of steamOs" or "year of *buntu", probably even "year of Debian", but most certainly never "year of the nixos desktop".

You have choice. Use it.

I think it's helpful to put some thought into why you use Linux and what you really need from it. I use it primarily for choice, privacy, and to just not be using anything by Microsoft/Apple/Google. Security is nice to have but it's not the reason I'm using Linux, so handing over my photo ID to a third party I trust is an acceptable if disappointing risk.

Sure, my OS will be tied to my ID, but as long as my online traffic isn't that should be fine. If they wanted to monitor my online traffic it would make far more sense to do it at the VPN level instead. Not by having my open source operating system redirect my traffic so that it's associated with my ID.

The big risk is social media requiring proof of ID. Bots are becoming more and more common and proof of ID available at the OS level on Windows, Mac, and Android would be very tempting for social media. That's a different concern though.

If the compliant, age-gated version becomes the industry standard, where does that leave the rest of us?

With the distros that don't comply, as always.

Ive been running Linux for close to a decade now and one thing that I've noticed is rarely brought up in Linux circles is that Linux Kernel Development is heavily funded by major big tech corpos. Examples include Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and IBM.

There is a vested corporate interest in keeping Linux well maintained as it is the OS that underpins the vast majority of corporate server architecture and infrastructure.

I'm not saying Linux development wouldn't exist without them, but imho, Linux certainly wouldn't be as ubiquitous as it is today without this corporate backing. Thusly, it is worth noting that in many ways, we Linux users have not escaped corporate influence simply from switching from Windows or MacOS to Linux.

We've maybe lessened it to some degree, but to think we are somehow immune to the misguided mandates from state governments, like the latest recent age verification laws, is misguided.

Year of linux?

Dude, please. I'm on my third decade of the thing already.

Here's one way that liberal fascism maintains control:

• Maintain control of everything
• If control is lost, create mass hysteria about "social media", "kids," "addiction", "islam", "immigration", whatever, etc.
• Steamroll everything.
• Regain control.

It's how they got TikTok, etc. It's how they'll try to get Lemmy, Linux, VPNs, etc. The wild part is how many lib "allies" will fully support this.

Yes, it's a trap like everything else. It's another front in the struggle.

People don't care about this beacuse they will make it so that if you don't ask questions it just works.

In the meantime those of us that need to work in these jurisdictions need to comply with the bullshit so we hope to be able to continue to work with linux, but if that won't be possible we will be forced to write software for microsoft or whatever else in the apple crap.

That is why there will be forks for the hobbyists, but for those that need to actually use a computer to make a living, compliance was always the only creal choice.

And as usual some asshole will come with the usual nazi comparison with compliance, like they did in the other seven posts were the subject was discussed. These people can risk their own family but the way they write, they probably aren't even responsible for themselves

Their building a Prison System ™️ regardless, open source (e.g. Linux) just offers SOME protections.

We have to do more regardless, but it's still all part of the good fight in my book

That stupid Newsom age-gating OS bill is pure political theatre. It won't affect Linux -- too many capitalists would be inconvenienced, and inconveniencing capitalists is the last thing capitalist darling Newsom would do; he couldn't even be bothered to support a modest 5% tax on billionaires.

Linux is here to stay -- it runs the internet. And it will always be customizable, because that's part of what gives it so much value.

I think the "trap" is to believe "we" can "win" once and for all.

Under capitalism (and I'm not suggesting there are better systems, only highlight a core mechanism) there will always be competition to capture value, both customers and lawmakers who (should) protect them.

There are countless examples but one of the most obvious on that topic if Microsoft itself with it's sadly now classic EEE en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,… of which we can admire the comtemporary version with Github. Initially Github was acquired and no changed, nowadays a lot of basic functionalities, e.g. search within a repository are locked behind a login, there are more and more advertisements for Microsoft other products, e.g. CoPilot. That last product itself is questioning the foundation of free software and open source with its license washing process making unclear who did what, breaking provenance, etc.

The same happened with Google acquiring Android but not locking it down more and more.

The list could grow longer and longer, overall the point is to showcase a pattern : nothing is just "let" alone to grow on its own. It's gradually captured and enshittified until there is nothing left but the name of a project because corporations exist only to extract more money. There is no moral, only an imperative for profit or their death.

So... unfortunately we WILL have to keep on both building AND protecting what's been built so far with newer and more powerful threats. Microsoft, Google, and all large corporations who advertise themselves as allies of free software and open source MUST be judge on what they actually do, not on what they claim.

We have to push back and we will always have to. This year and the next.