That’s the one, thanks. I thought this happened much earlier than 2013 for some reason.

Wasn’t there a long time ago a genuine bug report in Mozilla’s bug tracker reporting that the source code was publicly available and this was insecure? I can’t quickly find it because I can’t think of good search terms…

I think that has happened before, though?

Of course those would be good things. It still doesn’t sound like priority #1 when it comes to software freedom alone especially in a world where smartphones are mostly not open systems designed for installation of any new operating systems.

Are they planning to license it as free software?

Linux is already the most common kernel in phones in 2026. In this case we really have to distinguish between Linux (incl. Android) and GNU/Linux.

And given that AOSP is already FOSS, it doesn’t exactly sound like a priority to reinvent the wheel of a FOSS smartphone OS.

I honestly do not get why “touch grass” became a common phrase/meme around a decade after many people got mobile Internet access (through smartphones).

Before that, it would have made sense because you’d usually only be posting on the Internet when you’re somewhere inside where there’s a computer; but now that we can literally be posting online while lying on grass?! How did this happen?

Me too (whether Linux is an OS depends on how you define the term) and that’s why it’s such a silly post to make. If there weren’t anyone who thought KDE was better than GNOME, why would KDE still exist?

There are certainly some governments around the world that have considered requiring age verification for chatbots. Not sure any such laws are already in effect.

I don’t even want to express an opinion whether I find that worse or less bad than doing so for social media.

Pretty sure that compared to NetBSD, Linux still runs on relatively few architectures. 😝

I do use it, but you are quite right I don’t tend to mention it unless asked.

Yes. If vendors in those states want to then preinstall Linux on a device they would have to find a compliant distro…

Doesn’t matter much. At least those of us who aren’t engaged in the business of selling computers are unaffected.

Considering SteamOS includes Valve’s proprietary bits for the Steam client, this likely still applies to Valve and any hardware shipping with SteamOS

Where is the line? Most Linux distros have some nonfree software too, does it apply to them?

IMHO the correct legal and constitutional analysis ought to be: distributing software, in either source or binary form, is free speech protected under the US constitution as well as state constitutions. Therefore the government cannot pass laws requiring that operating systems, in general, implement certain features, doesn’t matter which.

What the government can do is engage in product regulation. It can require that operating systems preinstalled on devices sold in their jurisdiction have certain features. The correct thing to do wouldn’t have been to distinguish FOSS from nonfree operating systems, but operating systems preinstalled on devices from those distributed on the Internet which the user needs to install. That would have covered Android, iOS, macOS and Windows, which is obviously what the legislators were thinking of.

IRC prank from the 2000s: if you type /quit playing games with my heart you’ll hear a cool pop song.

2020s: if you type quit into Google it will understand this as an AI prompt.

It just has more of the web in its index than competitors do, so there are good practical reasons on occasion.

On the terminal yes.

On GUIs I generally use an IDE or VSCodium with vim keybindings.

Windows becoming a Linux distribution.

not what I want, I want Windows (as in, the existing Windows codebase) to become FOSS, if that happened, we would no longer need to care about anyone switching to Linux, in fact I might then install a FOSS Windows myself

I remember already playing it through Wine in like 2009 or so, so all that is new is that it’s now a decompiled version.

die Grammatik ist nicht wirklich besser

OK, if it is intended mainly as a description of investors and other “business” enthusiasts, then I agree with fighting against what they want.