The controversy became particularly heated after reports suggested platforms like SteamOS could still fall under the law due to their ties to proprietary application ecosystems. Valve ’s Linux-based gaming platform ships with the proprietary Steam storefront and client, potentially placing it closer to Apple’s App Store or Google Play from a regulatory standpoint.
AB 1856 does not repeal the original Digital Age Assurance Act. Instead, it narrows the definition of who qualifies as an “operating system provider” under the law. Commercial platforms with proprietary app ecosystems could remain subject to California’s age-assurance requirements even if most open-source Linux distributions are ultimately exempted.
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Etiido Uko is a news contributor for Tom's Hardware covering the latest updates in big tech and the PC industry. He is a mechanical engineer and senior technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things engineering and technology, and is an expert in gadgets, manufacturing, robotics, automotive, and aerospace. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-24/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Etiido Uko Social Links Navigation News Contributor Etiido Uko is a news contributor for Tom's Hardware covering the latest updates in big tech and the PC industry. He is a mechanical engineer and senior technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things engineering and technology, and is an expert in gadgets, manufacturing, robotics, automotive, and aerospace.
Notton 1798.500. For the purposes of this title: (c) “Application” means a software application that may be run or directed by a user on a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device that can access a covered application store or download an application. They revised it? And they still left this banger of an explanation of what an "app" is in the bill? Reply
Sam Hobbs Young people will be more likely to learn Linux. Would Linux executing in a VM in Windows also be exempt? What about WSL? I do not know if Apple still gives Apple computers to schools but I think they did in the past. I think the idea is that if they learn Apple in school then they are more likely to use Apple for the rest of their lives. If young people learn Linux then that is likely to increase the popularity of Linux. Reply
Terry Lambert The state of California needs to provide an API, which can be called against the state database, in order to determine the age of the person using the computer. How they do this, is of course up to them, but I would suggest a restful API, utilizing a credential, which can be verified internationally for every human being on earth. Again, how they established this credential in the first place, and the session token associated with that credential, is up to them. I have no problem calling their API. As long as they are the ones responsible for the API, and I am not the one responsible for the API. If they want the cat belled, then they can bell the cat. I am perfectly happy to listen for the bell, once the state of California has created and attach the bell to every person on earth. Dibs on serial number 000–0 00–0 0–0667. Reply
ravewulf Sam Hobbs said: Would Linux executing in a VM in Windows also be exempt? What about WSL? Running in a VM or WSL would have no impact as they're still separate OS installations/environments. It would apply to Windows but not the virtualized Linux distro. Reply
Ogotai age verification is 100% pointless and useless unless it can be verified by some other means, as whats stopping a 17 year old, from putting his real birth date and month, but putting 1993 as is birth year when its really 2009 ? hell on one site.. i put own birth year as 1925.. and it still let me continue… this whole thing is pointless and a waste of time…. Reply
xiq I wonder if Microsoft or Apple would make some sort of "open source" versions of their operating systems to avoid the law. Don't know why they would do that but it's an interesting situation. Reply
usertests xiq said: I wonder if Microsoft or Apple would make some sort of "open source" versions of their operating systems to avoid the law. Don't know why they would do that but it's an interesting situation. Let's see if Windows puts it in the IoT version. Reply
TheWerewolf And so this bad idea starts to unravel. Why is ok for open source operating systems to not verify the age of their users and yet Windows and MacOS have to? Basically, this has two effects: unfair competition by making Linux the go to OS for kids to watch porn or adult content on (no, but that is what they claim this act is supposed to stop), and inconsistent application of the law, which just opens the door for Microsoft and Apple to take challenge the law to the Supreme Court and ask that it be quashed on the grounds that it's unfairly discriminatory (laws cannot be drafted in a way to single out entities who aren't themselves breaking the law). Also, as others have pointed out, what if you installed Linux on MacOS or Windows? That makes bypassing the age restrictions on the computer trivial. Yes, the user is under age. They install VirtualBox and Linux and voila – instant bypass. As always, when non-technical people draft laws that "regulate" tech, it ends up being a disaster because they do not understand the thing they are legislating against. Reply
TheWerewolf ezst036 said: How do journalists all magically decide to omit the same information? How are they doing that? I know for 100% certain that it's not actually a conspiracy but by golly it feels all the same as if there is one. If there was a conspiracy between all of the news websites what the heck would be the difference of the end result of what we actually have now? Yeah; journalists; really kind of useless. You're making a primary error: that the people writing for tech sites are journalists. In reality, most are not formally trained in journalism and the main goal of these sites is to get you to stick around reading enough copy-inches to see at least one ad. That's why we've drifted from tight, concise, well written news articles to long, first person opinion pieces framed as news (ie: any article like "I tried X and you should to…") and endless faux competition articles that focus on "Which is better?" when "better" is never defined other than "biggest number" (or made by Apple because a LOT of these non-journalists are Apple fanbois). It's not just Tom's Hardware – ALL tech sites are like this now. For those of us who have been around tech since the 1960s – the – I want to say slow erosion, but in reality it happened fairly quickly – from news to advertainment has been very disappointing. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/california-moves-to-exempt-linux-from-its-upcoming-age-verification-law-after-backlash-over-forcing-operating-systems-to-collect-users-ages-amendment-proposed-by-the-same-lawmaker-who-wrote-the-original-law#main
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