California has created a bill which forces age attestation on the OS layer. This is then supposed to be used by an Application “store” to “verify” the users age.
Now the Problem is, that this bill has no ways to opt out for Server Operating Systems, like TrueNAS (and also stuff like Autoscaling VM Clusters… that seems like an egregious oversight which WILL come back and bite them in the ass, because this basically illegalizes Autoscaling and forces a System Administrator to verify their age on every single node… but I digress).
Their broad definition of “store” not only includes normal linux Package management systems like apt, dnf, zypper, etc. (which all need to implement this), but also things like Docker and the TrueNAS app catalogue.
So yeah, has anyone from the TrueNAS team thought about ways to solve this? Asking for the Administrators age and somehow using that age in the TrueNAS Application Catalog sounds like a royal pain in the ass, but also like the only way to comply with this?
So yeah, I am curious about TrueNAS way forward in this legal mess.
California residents are not authorized to use MidnightBSD for desktop use in the state of California effective January 1, 2027.
California law https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1043/id/3269704 CA AB1043 requires a complex age verification system implemented for operating systems with no exceptions for small open source projects.
this is not the official or even unofficial legal stance of iXsystems d.b.a. TrueNAS and is just a shitpost
Yes, this is bad aswell. And this might also affect TrueNAS, or rather the underlying ZFS Encryption System. But for now they are targeting for example messaging apps, and not Enterprise Storage Systems. So for now this doesn’t affect TrueNAS. And the big advantage is, that TrueNAS is Open Source, so if Encrption gets backdoored, hopefully People will notice.
For now, the larger issue for TrueNAS specifically is the Age Verification Bullshit. I think the other issue (at least on TrueNAS’ side) is something to tackle, when actual laws go into effect.
Outside of TrueNAS, its of course important to write politicians, go to/create protest, etc. to not let encryption banning laws get deployed. But this is kinda out of scope for TrueNAS, I think.
To be fair, California does have both good and bad like most states. While this age verification does seem to be less thought out than it should be, other things California have done worked.
And for those that don’t think CA has any redeeming qualities, note that CA produces A LOT more food than it uses. Partly because some places have 2 growing seasons. Not to mention it used to be a real joke that you could tell someone had lived a long time in Los Angeles because of the pollution in their lungs. Not any more…
One final jab, Los Angeles was one of the first places to have EMTs in the US. They also started the first nationally accredited paramedic training program in the United States. That required state level law changes…
Breaking news: HoneyBadger announces that the 2027 version of TrueNAS will be based on MidnightBSD! 
