Linux PC vendor System76 tries to talk Colorado down over OS age checks
- Reference: 1773151722
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/10/foss_age_verification_2/
- Source link:
Last week, The Reg reported that some US states are enacting legislation that would [1]oblige OS vendors to include mandatory age verification . There is some very limited good news on that front from the state of Colorado. On the other hand, multiple US states are also considering it.
We mentioned that one of the more insightful commentaries that we've read was " [2]System76 on Age Verification Laws " by CEO Carl Richell. System76 is one of the most visible companies in the world that makes PCs specifically to run Linux, and The Register [3]first mentioned Richell all the way back in 2009.
[4]
Yesterday, he [5]tweeted some encouraging news:
Today, I met with Colorado Senator [6]Matt Ball , co-author of Colorado OS Age Attestation Bill SB26-051.
Sen. Ball suggested excluding open source software from the bill. This appears to be a real possibility.
Amendments are expected for the CA age attestation bill. It's my hope we can move fast enough to influence excluding open source in the CA bill amendments.
No illusions, it's an uphill battle, but we have an open door to advocate for the open source community.
The relevance here being that System76 is [7]based in Denver , Colorado's state capital. However, the battlefront seems to be widening. Last time, we mentioned California, Colorado, and New York State. Comparable bills are being debated in various other states, including [8]Illinois Senate Bill 3977 , Louisiana [9]House Bill 570 , [10]Texas SB 2420 , and [11]Utah SB 142 .
This [12]Reddit thread goes into more detail, including the organizations pushing for the legislation and more.
[13]
[14]
It is not limited to the US either. Brazil's similar [15]Law Number 15.211/2025 , known as the "Brazilian Statute for the Protection of Children and Adolescents Online," was passed in September 2025.
[16]US state laws push age checks into the operating system
[17]Discord drama delays age verification debut until the second half of 2026
[18]UK data watchdog fines Reddit £14.47M for letting kids slip past the gate
[19]House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16
The problem of tech-illiterate campaign groups pressuring tech-illiterate legislators is only going to grow. After an early mention on The Simpsons, this is sometimes called [20]Lovejoy's Law : "Won't somebody please think of the children?" The Reg's own Rupert Goodwins [21]looked at this in 2024 – but the [22]first occurrence we can find was a full quarter of a century earlier.
We rather liked [23]this suggestion :
Simple age check for Linux:
Just have the shell ask the user to check the host IP on first boot.
If they type ifconfig they are old enough, if they type ip addr they deserve to be restricted from their computer 😇
Bootnote
We don't want to sound like we're advertising System76 here. Other vendors offering [24]Linux preloaded also exist, including [25]Linux laptops and [26]mini PCs . ®
Get our [27]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/06/os_age_verification/
[2] https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2009/04/16/ubuntu_release_candidate/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2abBOOUTvW9HMKYZHD2Wk8AAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://lightbrd.com/carlrichell/status/2031125624711164182
[6] https://www.mattforcolorado.com/
[7] https://system76.com/contact/
[8] https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus/FullText?GAID=18&DocNum=3977&DocTypeID=SB&LegId=167475&SessionID=114
[9] https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1882287
[10] https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB02420F.HTM
[11] https://legiscan.com/UT/bill/SB0142/2025
[12] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rmhxk1/i_pulled_the_actual_bill_text_from_5_state_age/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44abBOOUTvW9HMKYZHD2Wk8AAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33abBOOUTvW9HMKYZHD2Wk8AAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.vpbg.com.br/en/insights/articles/2025/september/19/brazil-enacts-new-law-to-protect-children-and-adolescents-in-digital-environments
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/06/os_age_verification/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/discord_drama_delays_age_verification/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/ico_fines_reddit/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/house_of_lords_votes_to_ban_under_16_socmed/
[20] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lovejoy%27s+law
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/e2ee_comment/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/1999/03/09/bill_consults_agony_aunt/
[23] https://nitter.space/ghidraninja/status/2030748120519172270
[24] https://linuxpreloaded.com/
[25] https://itsfoss.com/get-linux-laptops/
[26] https://itsfoss.com/linux-based-mini-pc/
[27] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Speaking up can make a difference. Speak up for FOSS.
> Don't underestimate a politician's desire to not look dumb.
Sure, he's suggesting excluding open source, but I'll believe it when I see it. They do "suggestions" all the time and don't follow through.
Re: Speaking up can make a difference. Speak up for FOSS.
I'm somewhat skeptical too. Or perhaps cautiously optimistic.
But chances are this story arc began without the politician even knowing what open source or an operating system was. Now he does, and that's definitely a victory. Might not have won the war, but we did win a battle.
We've won a major victory if a politician goes into committee and says, "Wait a second, an operating system isn't just Windows or MacOS."
Re: Speaking up can make a difference. Speak up for FOSS.
You need to get them to realise "wait a second, an operating system isn't the thing wot you use to access the interweb".
They see a kiddie using MySpace and think "operating system" when the reality is "web browser".
Re: Speaking up can make a difference. Speak up for FOSS.
We've won a major victory if a politician goes into committee and says, "Wait a second, an operating system isn't just Windows or MacOS."
And win another victory when a politician says "Not all computers are desktops or laptops or mobile 'phones."
At heart it's not a terrible idea. If age restrictions are needed at all (and I did write "if") then it makes a lot of sense for the users age to be established and verified at OS level so that individual app(lications)s and websites don't have to check individually.
Lots of problems of course, not least the inability to tell whether the person using the system is the person verified, bit if it has to be done I can't see why a FOSS solution is impossible.
Re: verified at OS level
What happens when someone else uses your computer, or you theirs? How will it know the difference?
It's open source ergo there's nothing stopping users from recompiling components with the age verification stripped out or modified to always assert the user is an adult. Any technical solution to try and prevent that just strips all of us of the freedom to use our computers as we wish i.e. they'll lock down the hardware so you can't install just any Linux distro or they'll push to use Secure Boot to heavily restrict what you can install.
Nothing in the license is stopping them, but the difficulty and/or time requirements are stopping users from recompiling their operating system.
I've done it for the sake of doing it. It's miserable.
If we want desktop Linux to gain market share, then we need to stand against these barriers which make it hell. And yeah, setting up a desktop from source is hell. Want more desktop Linux? Then it's gotta be easy to flash an ISO onto a thumb drive and just click next.
"it makes a lot of sense for the users age to be established and verified at OS level "
"Established" and "verified" are doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Do you have any suggestions as to how this might be done without invading the user's privacy? (Come to that, does the Colorado Senator? Or any of the other proponents?)
My problem with that age check...
.... is I inevitably end up timing "ifconfig -a" into the CMD app on my Windows box; then "ipconfig /a" on Linux.
Memory: the 2nd thing to go...
In addition to computers with Linux installed it's worth remembering that some vendors may provide laptops with no OS installed at all.
Dilbert's Law
People become managers (or politicians or lawyers) exactly because they don't have real skills, eg as sysadmins.
A non-issue
These laws will be completely unenforceable. The only way they could be enforceable is if the OS’s and applications in the firing line were limited to the US states in which the laws apply. But they are not and nobody is going to voluntarily (because that is what it would take) accept and implement these laws outside of those states just for the convenience of those states’ legislature
It’s a storm in a teacup and it won’t matter how much the politicians of these US states stamp their little feet, it’s not going to happen
Speaking up can make a difference. Speak up for FOSS.
> Sen. Ball suggested excluding open source software from the bill. This appears to be a real possibility.
While there's no shortage of reasons to be cynical about politics/government these days, FOSS supporters shouldn't let cynicism cross the line into becoming an unhealthy excuse for inaction.
This proves it. Chances are this politician just signed up for an account with whichever company made his operating system (Microsoft or Apple) after going through the OOBE funnel. Chances are he had no clue what it means to download an ISO or how this bill would impact open operating systems...until someone informed him.
Don't underestimate a politician's desire to not look dumb. Age checks for Windows/Mac might be bad policy, but outside that duopoly, they're just unworkable and dumb.