The Threat(s) Facing Linux | Open-Source | Freedom & Privacy

Watch the video. I think it's some of the best editing work I've ever done.

I went heavy on comedy for this one so please let me know if you thought it was funny.

THERE IS MORE INFORMATION IN THE VIDEO THAN I CAN FIT IN THIS POST.
So I recommend watching it.
This post contains information not found in the video, and the video contains information that's not found in this document.

1,973 words: estimated 7 minutes to read.

Threat #1: OS-Level Age/ID Laws:

The USA:

This is actually an issue that's been quietly brewing at the state level for some time.
Lawmakers in US states began talking about making people verify their age in an attempt to "protect children"(cough bullshit cough).
California and Colorado put forth age laws at the OS level, and I took note. But I still didn't really investigate.

What caught my attention was when a Github user named Dylan Taylor published pull-requests to systemd Git repository.
This caused a huge stir because there are already so many Linux users who despise systemd.
I'm not going to go into detail about why here, but it's laid out in my video.
You can visit https://nosystemd.org/ to learn about the controversy around systemd.

Eventually Dylan Taylor ended up doing an interview where he addressed concerns. He said:

• He simply added fields for user age to meet state-laws.
• There's no verification involved. It's a self-reported field with no outside mechanism.
• But he also did mention that he thinks this requirement should be met by systemd & userdb as part of the XDG/FreeDesktop.org specification.

His rationale is that personally identifiable information should be in a specific place, and protected rather than every Linux desktop creating their own implementation with differing permissions/locations/etc.
And I kind of understand this thinking.

I Personally, do not hate systemd

I learned Linux with systemd, and as someone who operates headless non-graphical servers, virtual-machines, and containers; systemd makes my life easier.
But I am glad Dylan Taylor made those pull-requests to systemd because I think it makes it easier to get people to pay attention to this issue.

He's Making A List, Checking It

Linux & Open-Source journalist Bryan Lunduke has done great coverage of this on his Youtube, and at The Lunduke Journal .
But more importantly he's created a Github list that tracks Linux distributions & other open-source operating systems based on their plans to comply, and he even shows their statements and links to their discussions.
You can find that here at Does It Age Verify.

SO FAR, only Midnight-BSD has made it into: Operating Systems Which Have Already Implemented Age Verification
They even created a system-daemon for it called aged(the d at the end denotes daemon) Daemons are servers or services in a UNIX/Linux system.

Conversely, these projects are NOT PLANNING to comply:

The USA now has 2 federal bills that have been proposed

One in the house, and one in the senate.
From democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer:
Cleverly branded HR 8250 "Parents Decide Act" Vaguely requires the OPERATING SYSTEM to verify the person creating an account is over the age of 18 years old.
Furthermore, it calls to store this information so that it can be made available to other apps/services, presumably websites included.
It even calls for it to be stored/provided in a "secure manner", how cute.

The senate bill S. 3062 "The Guard Act" is from a republican: Senator Josh Hawley: Calls for age laws regarding the use "AI chat-bots" or Large Language Models.
They will presumably cite the cases where Chat-GPT and the like have been used to plan for mass-casualty events or even suicide by teens.
These two bills essentially reinforce one another, and the house bill will help meet the requirements of the senate AI bill.
You can even bet these representatives will cut bi-partisan deals with their opponents in their respective bicameral legislatures.

There's also S. 1748 which once again refers to online platforms including social media.

ALSO: There are other states with legislation that borders on this issue. New York is one I know of for certain. You can check https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-bills/ to learn if your state has bills on Age-ID.

Brazil & The UK:

The other two nations I feature in the video are the UK & Brazil.
I know there are other nations where this is problem, but it took a long time to research this video as it is.

Brazil's national act is the most specific: It actually precludes Self-Attestation. Their law went into effect March 26, 2026, and they've even singled-out companies/organizations they're "monitoring" for compliance.
Which include:

• Valve(makers of Steam gaming platform)
• Canonical(makers of Ubuntu)
• Discord(gaming messaging/chat app)

What You Can Do To Push Back(in the USA):

IF you are in the USA: FSC Action Center allows you to track bills in your state by their status, and provides a way to contact your reprsentatives about this issue providing guidance on how you can fight back.

There's also the EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation with resources for taking action in California and Congress.

Threat #2: Android Is Being Locked-Down By Google.

Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID.

If you have apps you've installed by .APK files, or installed through F-Droid; those apps will be affected.
ALSO, this is the beginning of something. It doesn't mean that it will stop there.
Google announced this last year, and experienced massive pushback.
In response they've made a way to get around it for "advanced users", but it involves waiting 24 HOURS to enable it for 7-days or "indefinitely".
That's a slap in the face on your own phone.

What You Can Do: https://KeepAndroidOpen.org/

KeepAndroidOpen.org has the full story, and provides resources to contact your lawmakers/regulators for most countries.

Android is the most-widely used OS in the world.

Google achieved that with very opportune timing, but also because they used Linux & open-source.
Android is technically open-source, but you get the firmware & drivers from the phone manufacturer, and they are only compatible with Android's HAL or Harware Abstraction Layer.
Open source Android lacks Google Play Services, and the hardware vendors pre-load it with proprietary drivers, firmware, etc. AND Google Play Services & Google Mobile Services. Even push-notifications are part of Play Services.

The Android story is an interesting one, but too much for this post.
I'l also be publishing an article about how Android took over the mobile OS market, and why it was such a brilliant and sneaky move.

The Lockdown Is Faciliated By Google Play Services:

Surely, you know the Google Play Store. It's Android's app store.
But less people know about Google Play Services and Google Mobile Services.
These are Google's PROPRIETARY layers by which they retain control of the Android operating system, despite it being open-source.

Here's everything included in Play Services:

• App Ecosystem & Updates: Google Play Store, and updates to Google's core apps.

  Google Apps AKA Google Mobile Services: Gmail, Google Chrome, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, Play Store

• App Compatibility: Many apps—especially banking, rideshare, and streaming platforms rely on Google's API's to function.

• Push Notifications: Apps that rely on Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) for instant notifications will fail to deliver alerts into your notifications.

• Location & Mapping: Location services will default to basic GPS hardware rather than Google’s seamless Wi-Fi and cell-tower assisted location tracking.

• System & Security Updates: Critical low-level system updates (like APEX and WebView updates) rely heavily on Play Services to keep devices secure without waiting for a full OS update from the manufacturer.

• Contactless Payments: You will lose access to digital wallet options like Google Pay.

Alternatives to Android:

Installing an operating system on a mobile phone is very different from PC's because of the hardware. Mobile phones use SoC or system-on-chip designs where most of the "computer" is on a single processor.
That's the CPU, GPU, networking, memory-controller, audio-processor, camera-processor, and more all on the same chip.
The phone manufacturers ship the firmware/ROM/drivers with the phone.
Some are proprietary/closed-source and other's are open, but they are almost always designed specifically for Android's HAL/HIDL layer.
This is why OS'es for mobile usually come as images for individual phone models. Ironically, Google's Pixel phones are the most commonly-supported for both Android forks & mobile Linux OS'es.

Android Forks:

Back in the long long ago there was CyanogenMOD that basically goes back to the beginning of Android, and it persisted to Android 7.1 Nougat.
After that it became Lineage OS.

Lineage OS

is probably the largest open-source fork of Android, and perhaps has the most supported-devices.

Replicant

The other early fork was Replicant. Because Replicant is 100% open-source it's drivers limit to mostly older hardware.

Calyx OS

A privacy-focused, "de-googled" Android operating system developed by the Calyx Institute. It removes built-in tracking and bloatware while prioritizing encrypted communication, built-in firewall protections, and user-friendly open-source software.

/e/OS

Started by Mandrake Linux founder Gael Duval, and the /e/Foundation or project has now created microG.

microG is an open-source replacement for Google Play Services meaning:

Emulates Google's background APIs so apps (like ride-sharing or banking apps) do not crash when they can't find Google services.

Push Notifications: Manages app notifications (like incoming messages) using an obfuscated framework so you don't miss alerts.

Location Services: Replaces Google's location trackers with alternative services (like the Mozilla Location Provider) to preserve your privacy while still enabling map and navigation apps.

microG works with /e/, Lineage OS, & Calyx OS.

Graphene OS

Graphene OS is a security focused Android fork.
Heavily security-hardened, featuring specialized memory allocators, secure process spawning, and a highly restrictive environment.
Mostly limited to Google Pixel phones.

Real GNU/Linux alternatives

Linux is monolithic kernel that dynamically loads modules at boot based on hardware detection. Linux actually supports a lot of the hardware in a smartphone, but the bootloaders and firmware are often the hardest thing to overcome.

UBports (formerly Ubuntu Touch from Canonical)

Supported on 31 devices, and it has the ability to run Android apps.
There are several phones you can buy with UBports.

KDE Plasma Mobile

Mobile Linux from KDE. I don't know much about it, but it's worth mentioning.
Possible devices: Pinephone's from Pine64.

Mobian

Debian for mobile.
I don't know a alot about it, but there are several phones you can isntall it on. Possible devices: Pinephone's from Pine64.

Purism (PureOS)

Purism has built 2 open-source phones that run their very own Pure OS.
The Librem 5 and Liberty Phone which is made in the USA.
Gnome-based, and I assume shares a lot with Mobian.

Postmarket OS

Based on Alpine Linux which replaces GNU's C Library & Core-Utilities with Musl-libC & Busybox. More minimalist and compact compared to GNU/LInux.
Ironically, Alpine's packages are also .apk's(alpine package keepers), but are entirely different from Android's APK's.

Sailfish, Harmony, Tizen etc:

There's also Sailfish OS which I believe is native on Jolla phones.
Sailfish can run Android apps.
These are used in some parts of Europe and maybe Asia.
Jolla's phones and Sailfish are possibly associated with Russian govt, and I THINK they're banned for govt service personnel in the USA.
Same with Huawei and it's Harmony OS which are from China.

Volla Phone is also a non-USA brand and they offer Volla OS which is a text-based Android interface. They sell phones with UBports, Tizen, Sailfish,

If I missed something like another mobile-OS, or a law being introduced by by your country: LEAVE IT IN THE COMMENTS.

Thank you for watching/reading,

Jay @dstechmedia