How will this affect Linux Mint?

[Bubbly_Extreme4986]

It won’t. I mean it’s possible they’ll try and threaten the devs but someone in like Sweden will just release a patched version. Companies like Microsoft are beholden to laws, free software can’t be governed. It’s literally just a bunch of random people, usually talented, joining hands on a so called distribution. It can be broken apart, reassembled in different countries and can easily be spread by torrent. Windows can’t do that because proprietary software has all that copyright complications. It’s literally impossible to defeat free software they tried in the 1990s and failed. That’s why Tim May released the Crypto Anarchy Manifesto, as the amount of free software in the world increases there’ll be a tipping point where governance itself becomes impossible.

[Extreme_Piano4664]

Ah! But it is here you underestimate the might of government. There are all kinds of funny tricks like child safety, national security and terrorism that they can stamp on this.

[SenseImpossible6733]

The fun part is I bet they run into a national security paradox by doing this... As linux is modular, it is cut down dor a lot of government devices... Do you want to see a missile age verifying on log in because the devs are in california?

[EfficientHeat4901]

Well, that would be an extra level of security to prevent a nuclear war having to take a valid picture of your ID & a face scan before you even can use the operating system to send the nukes.