{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreigree2re3mbvdlpqs2twtkdfp5tlbacpx7yukfzohbq4ylgjcjpzm",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:ql5nzcyoitey44ceaysoz6ez/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhinikixpmc2"
  },
  "description": "I find myself wondering about my past choices today.\n\n**Who knew that choosing Slackware because ZipSlack was the only way I could get my hands on a distribution as a 56kbps dial-up internet user overnight would save me from this mess of rash decisions by systemd maintainers?** As a Slackware user, systemd is an annoyance only because software maintainers regularly try to make systemd a dependency or an assumption in their instructions (similar to listing “dev” packages as dependencies rather than the real dependencies of their software). But I think that shifts this week from annoyance to a general...",
  "path": "/user/3/posts/852",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-20T13:35:03.000Z",
  "site": "https://nokoto.org",
  "tags": [
    "linux",
    "Slackware",
    "youth"
  ],
  "textContent": "I find myself wondering about my past choices today.\n\n**Who knew that choosing Slackware because ZipSlack was the only way I could get my hands on a distribution as a 56kbps dial-up internet user overnight would save me from this mess of rash decisions by systemd maintainers?** As a Slackware user, systemd is an annoyance only because software maintainers regularly try to make systemd a dependency or an assumption in their instructions (similar to listing “dev” packages as dependencies rather than the real dependencies of their software). But I think that shifts this week from annoyance to a general fuck-this-shit attitude.\n\nI think back to my journey in the mid-1990s as young teenager growing up in California.\n\nWhat would I have done if I did not feel pseudo-anonymous on the internet as a child?\n\nLet loose on the playground of America Online for a couple of years, I discovered chat rooms about my favorite video games where like-minded people of all ages talked about irrelevant topics regarding their favorite characters. I knew that I shouldn’t answer “ASL” and “IM me” with any seriousness. With my schoolmates, we shared what we discovered, and as typical teenagers, we developed in-jokes and silliness of our own.\n\nIf we were bound by applications, would we have come up with silly usernames that fit the, at the time, 10-character username limit?\n\nWould I have been able to join IRC to play Tetrinet, and thus know of IRC enough to join online communities that have made a deep impact on my pre-adult and adult lives?\n\nI might have dropped right back into touching grass forsaking technology as a playground for adults only. I may not have realized my potential.\n\nWould I have created my first very own e-mail address on Yahoo!, which I still make some use of today knowing my real identity would have been _explicitly_ tied to it?\n\n**Yes, you bet I lied about my age to get that e-mail address, and I would do it all over again.**\n\nIt allowed me to grow and participate in something greater than myself. I was able to organize video game tournaments and participate in online community governance discussions as a leader without being treated like a child. There was a time that I fought explicitly for freedom of expression when some server operators wanted to permanently ban people from choosing specific names from _all servers_ rather than just their own, and if I had not had the opportunity, they may have well succeeded.\n\nIf I were bound by my age, would have I asked my friend for a user on his linux box in high school from which I was able to experiment and learn how to program informally? I am not sure if I would. Or maybe he himself would have chosen to learn BSD at that point, and I would be writing this on my BSD-based desktop?\n\nIt was with the freedom I was privileged enough to have without restriction that led me to learning even being surrounded by all these alleged and real nefarious presences in chat, games and discussion forums. Access to an unrestricted internet exposed me to the diversity of the world, and I not once questioned whether people should be allowed to exist based on their race, religion, gender, sexual preferences, sexual orientation, or sportsball team preference because I was not restricted by age to make the friends from all around the world.\n\nThinking about it some more, I do not think I ever attempted leadership _until_ I felt this freedom, and that experience allowed me access to scholarships in college and other opportunities later.\n\nAnd so around 1999, I wanted to install linux for myself on an old computer, and I chose Slackware. I think I failed the install a couple of times due not quite understanding boot records and partitions, but the ncurses user interface was strangely comforting and easy for me to follow. Many years later, I would try to give Ubuntu a whirl on a media center PC, but ended up staring at a loading screen, and that simple elegant ncurses interface of Slackware saved me once again.\n\n**So my recommendation for teenagers is to (or continue to) lie the fuck about your age and identity online.**\n\nSeparate and compartmentalize your online presence into multiple identities as much as you can. You do not need to be “Your Real Name” on every platform. You do not need your real picture as your avatar or show it to anyone online.\n\nUse this as an opportunity to rebel and say fuck you to these autocrats, oligarchs and those who would bow before them, and those who think they know more about you than you. If that means fucking off from linux forever and antiquating us, so be it. **You are the future**. Not us assholes. Protect yourself and your future from those that would destroy or control it.\n\nMake your own languages, systems, knowledgebases, and share knowledge about how to run and bypass systems with each other to protect yourself. Anything that you can do to become your true self is fair game. **Laws are not necessarily moral or ethical**.\n\nThese laws and decisions made now have the goal to restrict you, not protect you. You protect yourself by being _aware_ of the dangers around you, and it is your choice on how learn, explore and respect the world.\n\n**Anyway go out, be awesome, and do good.**",
  "title": "On the recent unethical and immoral legal realities imposed on us",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-20T13:42:17.000Z"
}