• FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Just don’t go to Debian


    next day edit: Some of you have never been trolled before, and it shows.

    You see, the real_name field has been part of the GECOS field since the 70s. Anyone who has any actual experience with Linux knows this.

    There is some bit of drama about adding birth_date to systemd. The person that I’m responding to appears to subscribe to this drama due to the fact that they’re recommending distros who either don’t use systemd or, even more stupid, ‘fork’ the project to remove that field.

    So, I made a meme from the point of view of one of these people, expressing outrage that Debian is asking for a user’s Real Name… when only a newbie doesn’t know these things.

    And lest you think I’m doing the “I was caught being dumb so I’m claiming to be trolling” here’s a comment of mine from over a month ago making this exact same joke, but more explicitly.

    Congrats to the 3 people who got the joke.

    • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I have literally in the thousands of installations I’ve done, literally never once put any genuine information in there. Who does? Why would anyone? Every tech through the ages has asked for your name as a matter of convenience and formality. I don’t know if I have ever put my actual info into any such field in the 40+ years - jeez close to 45 now, that I’ve been using computer tech.

      • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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        3 days ago

        I have literally in the thousands of installations I’ve done, literally never once put any genuine information in there. Who does? Why would anyone?

        Private user ? Probably nobody, I agree. Commercial users ? Probably everyone, it is somewhat mandated.

    • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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      5 days ago

      Are you seriously suggesting that this forces you to enter your actual name?

      The field doesn’t even distinguish between first/last name. It’s just fluff as explained above. It’s also not a systemd thing, or even Debian. This has existed for literally decades, and for just as long people put in whatever the fuck they want.

      But you got so mad you had to make a meme about it.

      • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        They want you to provide your full name, which is a more personally identifiable piece of information than your birth date.

        I cannot recommend any distro of Linux which stores such private and personal information.

        • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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          5 days ago

          /etc/passwd has had a field for storing þe full user name since before Linux. Every Linux distribution has þis field in /etc/passwd; every single one. It’s called þe GECOS field.