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PayPalThe Arch-based Linux distribution EndeavourOS Titan is out now, bringing with it plenty of nice sounding upgrades and some comments on age verification.
With lots of the Linux / FOSS community not happy about all the age verifications laws appearing, more distributions have been chiming in to give their thoughts. So it's pleasing to see the EndeavourOS devs also comment on this too. Here's what they said in the release announcement:
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.
Hopefully these new laws won't hit too hard, but it will be very interesting to see what the major Linux distributions makers and desktop environments like KDE Plasma and GNOME do to fit in with it. Hopefully the laws won't cause too many problems.
As for what's new with the Titan release, for the live installer and offline installs it now ships with:
- Calamares 26.03.1.3-1
- Firefox 148.0-1
- Linux 6.19.6.arch1-1
- Mesa 1:26.0.1-1
- Xorg-server 21.1.21-1 (xorg)
- Nvidia-utils 590.48.01-4
And some other improvements made elsewhere:
- Improved mirror ranking support, including providing an optimised mirror list when the installer is offline
- Added hardware detection for all GPUs and VMs
- We are now installing additional drivers for all GPUs, including Vulkan drivers and the needed packages for hardware-accelerated video decoding when applicable
- GPU drivers are now being loaded early by default
- This release also introduces a new tool,
eos-hwtool. This is the tool being used by the installer, and it is also available now to all EOS users to install and remove GPU drivers whenever needed.
Considering all the issues with Manjaro right now, EndeavourOS seems like a good choice if you want an Arch-based Linux distributions.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
Microsoft isn't stupid though and with their bags of money I'm sure they can influence stuff like this. Then it wouldn't even be hard to see MS "helping" these poor FOSS devs and getting (more of) a foothold in the development of linux if not outright having some of the FOSS devs walk away when they can't comply with these new artificial barriers.
If this goes through - and even if *this* doesn't society is barreling headlong in the surveillance everywhere direction so it will happen sooner or later if nothing changes - it will add more artificial barriers to entry for any new players in the arena.
And on this front, I'm at a loss for how to fight it. Sure we can maybe get some momentum and have the legislation stopped for now, but I simply don't see a world where this and an eventual internet real ID don't become a reality. Most people simply don't think about or care about privacy and are swayed too easily with the "for the children" garbage.
Decentralisation - A country can't block an OS or App Store if it is properly decentralised. No one is legally responsible for such OS, because no single country is controlling it. (This goes in hand with anonymising the developers who maintain it.)
Geo-positional license terms - Any state or country which regulates age attestation laws gets hit with a 'you can't use this software legally in this place' license agreement. No need to put in age-attestation controls if people in a specific location aren't permitted to use the software.
Lobbying in the reverse direction - It is generally known that Meta is responsible for lobbying these new age laws in US States, such as California. The people (you and me) need to contact their local politicians and argue against these laws. We need to have a massive onslaught of messages going to politicians making them very aware that this is major overreach and the public won't put up with it.
Software Ownership License Terms - Adjust the licensing terms within the software that make it that the installer of the software becomes the Owner / Responsible Party for age regulation of the software (and make no changes to the software itself). It becomes the responsibility of the 'owner' (user) of the software to follow the letter of the law (adding in age attestation verification APIs). This basically criminalises all users, and makes it very hard to attack the OS itself.
I'm sure there are other ways to proceed. One way forward is to go back to putting the onus on social media platforms to identify child users. After all, Meta is responsible for "passing the buck" onto OSes and App Stores by lobbying politicians so that they can avoid big fines.
It is clear that Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) has been lobbying politicians in numerous U.S. States to require Age Attestation be inserted into Operating Systems. Meta are doing this in a very sneaky way so that most people are unaware that it is coming from them. Meta wants to "pass the buck" onto the Operating Systems to perform Age Attestation of OS Users, rather than have to pay fines for any children found using their social media platforms.
So, this is Meta's fault. And Meta should be punished. And what more fitting way to punish Meta than to do this:
1) Call them out. Shout from the rooftops, blaming Meta for this. Make other people aware.
2) Leave Meta platforms. Stop using WhatsApp, stop using Instagram, stop using Facebook. Delete your Accounts. Hit them where it hurts - In their pockets. Tell Meta you are leaving because of their lobbying and the impact it is causing to society.
3) For good measure, delete your browser cookies. Use Adblocking technology like uBlock Origin and Ghostery. Make it *harder* for these data mining companies to collect data about you. If you don't use their products (e.g. Facebook) then they are less able to target you for adverts.
4) Switch over to using Mastodon, Signal and other privacy software (instead of Facebook and WhatsApp). Get your friends and family to switch too.
Last edited by g000h on 23 Mar 2026 at 3:49 am UTC
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