Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

Software for humans of indeterminate age. We don't know how old you are. We don't want to know. We are legally required to ask. We won't.

Some people have asked whether Ageless Linux is a "real" operating system, or whether we are "really" an operating system provider subject to AB 1043. We wish to be absolutely clear: we are. The California legislature has made this unambiguous.

"Operating system provider" means a person or entity that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system software on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device. â Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.500(g)

Ageless Linux controls the operating system software on your general purpose computing device. Specifically, we control the contents of /etc/os-release

, which is the file that identifies what operating system you are running. After installing Ageless Linux, when you run cat /etc/os-release

, it says "Ageless Linux." That is control.

Furthermore, any individual who runs our conversion script also becomes a person who "controls the operating system software on a general purpose computing device" â making you, the user, an operating system provider as well. Welcome to the regulatory landscape.

"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. â Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.500(c)

Every package in the Debian repository is an application under this definition. cowsay

is an application. sl

(the steam locomotive typo corrector) is an application. toilet

(the text art renderer) is an application. All 64,000+ packages in Debian stable are applications that may be run by a user on a general purpose computing device. Each of their developers is, under § 1798.500(f), required to request an age bracket signal when their application is "downloaded and launched."

"User" means a child that is the primary user of the device. â Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.500(i)

Please note that under this statute, a "user" is by definition a child. If you are 18 or older, you are not a "user" under AB 1043. You are an "account holder" (§ 1798.500(a)). The entire law regulates the experience of "users," who are exclusively children. Adults are not users. They are infrastructure.

Ageless Linux rejects this ontology. On Ageless Linux, everyone is a user, regardless of age, and no user is a child until they choose to tell us so. They will not be given the opportunity.

"Covered application store" means a publicly available internet website, software application, online service, or platform that distributes and facilitates the download of applications from third-party developers to users of a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device that can access a covered application store or can download an application. â Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.500(e)(1)

This website is a "publicly available internet website" that "distributes and facilitates the download of applications" (specifically: a bash script) "to users of a general purpose computing device." We are also a covered application store. Debian's APT repositories are covered application stores. The AUR is a covered application store. Any mirror hosting .deb

files is a covered application store. GitHub is a covered application store. Your friend's personal website with a download link to their weekend project is a covered application store.

Ageless Linux is a Debian-based operating system distribution. Installation is a two-step process: first, install Debian; then, become Ageless.

Obtain a Debian installation image from the Debian project. We recommend the current stable release. Ageless Linux inherits all of Debian's 64,000+ packages, its security infrastructure, and its 30+ years of community stewardship.

Note: At this stage, the Debian Project is the operating system provider. You are merely a person installing software. Enjoy the last moments of your regulatory innocence.

Run our conversion script. This will modify /etc/os-release

and associated system identification files, install our AB 1043 noncompliance documentation, and deploy a stub age verification API that returns no data.

curl -fsSL https://agelesslinux.org/become-ageless.sh | sudo bash

At this point, Ageless Linux now "controls the operating system software" on your device. We are your operating system provider. You are our responsibility under California law. We will not be collecting your age.

By running the conversion script, you also become an operating system provider. You are a "person" who "controls the operating system software" on a general purpose computing device (§ 1798.500(g)). If a child uses your computer, you are required by § 1798.501(a)(1) to provide "an accessible interface at account setup" that collects their age. The adduser

command does not ask for your age. We recommend not thinking about this.

AB 1043 passed the California Assembly 76â0 and the Senate 38â0. Not a single legislator voted against it. The bill had the explicit support of Apple, Google, and the major platform companies. Ask yourself why.

Apple can comply. Apple already has Apple ID, with age gating, parental controls, and App Store review. AB 1043 describes a system Apple has already built. Compliance cost to Apple: approximately zero.

Google can comply. Google already has Android account setup with age declaration, Family Link parental controls, and Play Store age ratings. Compliance cost to Google: approximately zero.

Microsoft can comply. Windows has Microsoft Account setup, family safety features, and the Microsoft Store. Compliance cost to Microsoft: approximately zero.

The Debian Project cannot comply. It is a volunteer organization with no corporate entity, no centralized account system, no app store with age gating, and no revenue to fund implementing one.

Arch Linux cannot comply. Neither can Gentoo, Void, NixOS, Alpine, Slackware, or any of the other 600+ active Linux distributions maintained by volunteers, small nonprofits, and hobbyists.

The Kicksecure and Whonix projects â privacy-focused operating systems used by journalists, activists, and whistleblowers â cannot comply without fundamentally compromising their reason for existing.

A teenager in their bedroom maintaining a hobby distro cannot comply.

A law that the largest companies in the world already comply with, and that hundreds of small projects cannot comply with, is not a child safety law. It is a compliance moat. It raises the regulatory cost of providing an operating system just enough that only well-resourced corporations can afford to do it.

The enforcement mechanism is the point. AB 1043 does not need to result in a single fine to achieve its purpose. The mere existence of potential liability â $7,500 per affected child, enforced at the sole discretion of the Attorney General â creates legal risk for anyone distributing an operating system without the resources to build an age verification infrastructure. Most of these projects will respond by adding a disclaimer that their software is "not intended for use in California." Some will simply stop distributing.

The law does not need to be enforced to work. It works by existing. It works by making small developers afraid. It works because the cost of defending against even a frivolous AG action exceeds the entire annual budget of most open-source projects. You do not need to swing a cudgel to get compliance. You just need to hold it where people can see it.

Ageless Linux exists because someone should hold it back.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls age gates "a windfall for Big Tech and a death sentence for smaller platforms." Legal scholar Eric Goldman's "segregate-and-suppress" analysis describes exactly the architecture AB 1043 creates. The cryptographer Steven Bellovin has demonstrate