System76 warns age-verification laws curb Linux

This is less a product announcement than a sharp defense of open computing from a Linux vendor that thinks lawmakers are regulating centralized app stores and accidentally hitting general-purpose computers. System76’s core point lands: if rules are easy to evade yet still normalize surveillance and lock down experimentation, they risk hurting legitimate users more than bad actors.

• –System76 says kids will route around restrictions anyway, whether through lying, reinstalling the OS, or spinning up a virtual machine
• –The company argues Linux distributions could get penalized even when they are not structured like Apple or Google’s centralized platforms
• –The New York proposal stands out as the bigger alarm bell because it could require adults to prove age just to use internet-connected devices
• –For developers and open-source users, the post is really about who controls the computer: the owner, the platform vendor, or the state