userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd
github.com
Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

Fork time? Maybe all the anti-systemd zealots were right all along…

Edit: To address whether it is likely that this change will affect users: Gnome is planning a stronger dependence on userdb, the part of systemd where this change is being implemented. https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2025/06/10/gnome-systemd-dependencies/

Final Edit: The PR has been merged into main.

  • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
    10·
    3 days ago

    What is the most effective way to gather all of my personal stuff within Linux and it be as plug and play with every distro as possible?

    Like if I wanted to infinitely distro hop to avoid this fucking Trainwreck right here, how would I easily and effectively ensure I can?

    Can I take a set of folders?

    Is there a backup format of some kind?

    Is there a way to do this with installed programs in a way that can be dropped in?

    • glitching@lemmy.ml
      5·
      3 days ago

      btrfs. aside from useful things like on-the-fly compression and deduping, the thing has subvolumes; think partitions as folders, so you don’t have to pre-size them. so e.g. your root (system) and home (user files and settings) are in separate subvolumes, which a) allows for easy backup/migrations and b) nothing stops you from installing a completely different OS (or several of those) in their respective subvolumes and then mount your home to each of those.

      so you can have e.g. fedora and debian and arch, all on the same file system, using the same home, with all your shit available at all times and they don’t interfere with each other.

      • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        3 days ago

        That is wild. I assume that’s part of the design from the get go with btrfs? That sounds like it would have to be.

        I am currently using btrfs afaik, I’ll have to check on this tomorrow.

        • glitching@lemmy.ml
          1·
          3 days ago

          yeah, e.g. fedora has by default a root and home subvolume. the caveat is, standard installers are either incapable of allowing you to install to a subvolume or are super-cumbersome, as that’s currently not a top UX priority, so, a manual install process (with e.g. debootstrap and the like) is often needed.

    • Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      Use a home dir on a separate partition and use nix or flatpak or some other distro agnostic package manager

      • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        3 days ago

        Is the idea here that an agnostic package manager will install everything within home as well, and so when that’s ported, and you have one of those PMs installed, it’ll pick up where you left off or is there any specific protocol for importing something like that?

        • utopiah@lemmy.ml
          4·
          3 days ago

          Pretty much what nix (distinct from NixOS) is.

          That being said I would recommend NOT to do that because you most likely need 10 specific packages at most. That should take you 15min tops to install with few minutes paying attention.

          Just make sure /home is its own partition, or even disk, the distro hop if you want. You can also have in your ~ directory an apps directory where you keep binaries, AppImage, etc.

          For most people this is not a real concern.

          • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            3 days ago

            I’ll have to look into that. I’ve been daily driving Linux for maybe about 2 years now, and I’ve learned a bit and have messed around with it on and off for years, but I don’t know it.

            I’m at a point though where I know that there’s going to be a time where I need to know to feel secure in avoiding bullshit like this post, malicious packages, general good security practices and what not, so y’all may see quite a bit of questions from me.

            Thanks for the info

    • fozid@feddit.uk
      2·
      3 days ago

      You just setup with the traditional partitioning scheme, so / and /home on separate partitions. You can have as many / partitions as you like with different distros on sharing the same /home partition. You still need to install all the packages you use in each distro, but your setup, personal and config file are consistent and preserved across all the distros.