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I'm a system administrator in our company. I have purchased some HP servers.

I asked my local vendor to install CentOS on them using original images.

When I went to server room today to install them, I saw some strange label

example (rendered from <code>/etc/glat/coa.svg</code> file)

on every new server.

In addition, program glat-client was installed. After uploading this label, it started spamming the following message every hour:

This copy of GNU/Linux is not activated. You may be a victim of software counterfeiting. See ...... for details.

What does this label mean?

Martin Schröder
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2 Answers2

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GNU/Linux Activation Technologies (GLAT) “license keys” are practical joke (arguably taken too far)

Based on the Linux Genuine Advantage parody of the similar Microsoft programme http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/faq/ somebody actually set up a key server and printed stickers that allows them to instruct ignorant / gullible users that for using Linux distributions that anybody can download and use free of charge they need to enter a license code (and possibly pay)

Bob
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It's a joke, mostly.

The github link brings up glat-client, which in turn links to http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

From http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/faq/:

Q: Is this for real?

A: It's for real in the sense that the code actually makes your computer less useful. Although there is an actual license server, it doesn't do anything except return "FAIL", making any computers running Linux Genuine Advantage disable logins after the grace period expires. Incidentally, this is similar to what has happened with some other systems, such as Circuit City's DIVX system after they decided it was no longer profitable, even before they went out of business.

If those servers come preinstalled with the OS, I'd double check that they don't have glat-client installed on them. Otherwise you can just ignore the sticker.

Grant
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