Very real linux stories. Even though they don't seem like it

Lhe interaction between users and software generates all kinds of situations. We are going to review a couple of them that, although it may seem otherwise, are absolutely true.

Very real linux stories. The day CentOS was threatened to call the FBI

If there is a harmless Linux distribution it is CentOS. The only controversies this server-focused community distribution was involved in was indirectly. The first was when Red Hat made a change in its licensing policies to make things more difficult for its competitor Oracle, and since CentOS is also based on Red Hat's code, its development could suffer. Things were fixed and today Red Hat sponsors it, although it continues to be an independent community.

The one that concerns us is the second (first in the chronology)

Tuttle is a city located in Grady County in Oklahoma, USA. In 2010 it had a population of 6019 inhabitants and a population density of 79,72 people per km².

In 2006 it had (and I suppose it still has) a website.

It all started one day when a city authority (the English source says manager) sent this message to those responsible for the distribution.

Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it? Please remove your software immediately before you report it to government officials !! I am the Manager of the City of Tuttle, Oklahoma.

What had happened?

When the official entered the website, came across a message from the Apache web server indicating a malfunction and providing some technical details, including the operating system.

From CentOS they tried to explain the situation

Johnny Hughes, a developer, replied:

Sorry for your city. CentOS is an operating system. It is probably installed on the computer that runs your website. . . Please contact someone who is in charge of IT and show him the page so he can configure your apache web server correctly.

One would think that with this the situation would have been solved, but, the official insisted

Please remove this web page from my home page !!! You are blocking access to my website.

From CentOS they tried again explaining that it was an error message and that he should contact the technical managers of the service. There was no case.

I have four computers located in the City Hall. All of these computers display the same CentOS page when they try to bring up Tuttle-ok.gov. Now if your software is not causing this problem, how does it happen? No one outside of this building has complained about this problem. This is a block of public access to a city's website. Remove their software in the next 12 hours or an official complaint will be filed with the FBI!

And in another message

I am a computer expert! I am 22 years old in computer systems engineering and operation. Now can you tell me how to remove "your software" that you acknowledge to have provided for free? I consider this to be 'hacking'.

CentOS tHe ended up discovering that the problem was with the local ISP, however, the city manager was not very grateful

I am sorry that we had to go through the process and prosecution to resolve the issue. It could have been resolved much faster if, in my initial communication with you, you had provided me with the useful information that you gave me later.

It is fortunate that it focused on CentOS and did not see the word Apache, you could imagine an attack from the Indians.

Do not combine cats with penguins

My experience with cats and computers dates back to the 80s. Basically, when I copied a very long program of the ones that the magazines of the time brought, I would go away for a while and my cat decided to take a walk on the keyboard ruining all the job.

I no longer have cats, but who do have them?They tell some stories of felines' relationship with free software

The cat that blocked the screen

Ubuntu 14.04 was an extended support release that vbundled with Unity desktop and LightDM session manager. In Launchpad, Ubuntu's bug reporting service, someone commented the following problem

I locked the screen to go to lunch, when I came back from lunch the cat was sitting on the keyboard, the login screen was frozen and not responding.

An attempt was made to find out if the problem was repeated with dogs, but they had no interest in sitting at the keyboard.

The good news, for the coexistence between humans and felines, is that the problem was solved long ago.