Lunduke’s piece on CachyOS is below, but I wanted to highlight my distribution Endeavor OS‘ stance on age verification, basically it’s early and they’ll see how it progresses especially since it’s based on Arch which seems like it might embrace it, but it could be added to a lot of different packages within the OS including desktop environments. It’s a crackdown on FOSS to be like Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, but it’s going to expose all the projects that have had their boards infiltrated with donations and required board seats…
Age verification law
Like many of you, we were surprised by the news last week, and questions quickly followed about our position on this matter. We just have to wait to see how this will develop for FOSS and Linux in general. It isn’t easy for us to make a clear statement on it at this moment, because this decision involves not only the distros but also DE/WM environments, software packages and mirror networks. Like Arch, we don’t have any infrastructure to track how many users download or install our system, let alone who is running Endeavour on their machines. Besides the fact that it goes against FOSS fundamentals, we simply don’t have the manpower or resources to take on this near-impossible task.
Also, in creating this law, not a single person or entity from the FOSS world was represented or heard, and there is still a window of opportunity open to address the concerns for open source software and Linux/Freebsd systems before the law takes effect. After the news dropped, the OSI, FSF, and Linux Foundation must have realised their mistake in not reacting in time and hopefully will come into action for the many distributions and other FOSS projects, like us, that don’t have Californian or US legal representation. So, all eyes are on them, because Colorado and the rest of the world are next… We are not blaming any of the organisations mentioned by the way. We are just pointing out that the law isn’t set in stone, yet.
https://endeavouros.com/news/whats-new-in-endeavouros-titan-release/
Regarding CachyOS, it’s based on Arch Linux and tailored towards speed and being a good Linux OS for gaming, with perhaps the best optimized kernel for gaming. I haven’t run it myself, but some reviews have shown it great for gaming performance, but maybe not the best option for a production workstation. I prefer stock Arch, though my distribution is Endeavor OS which is just base Arch with a few additional apps for managing your system along with having an easy installer. And beyond the stock kernel, I install the Zen and Liquorix kernels, primarily running the Liquorix kernel daily which is pretty good for gaming. But onto Lunduke on this CachyOS drama, and it doesn’t bode well that they’re censoring and deleting posts like they are, which would rule them out for me to ever use.
Lunduke’s Github page for tracking operating systems that have signaled rejection or support for age verification so far.
https://github.com/BryanLunduke/DoesItAgeVerify?tab=readme-ov-file