# The Devuan Prank, or: Life sucks // 19-4-5

Devuan.org ran an April fools [prank][1] this year, which claimed
the site was hacked by gopher fans. This raised some concerns,
whether the distribution was safe or not, and also on [C.S][2] a
discussion started which lead to heated debates. Some days ago,
[leeb][3] posted their opinion; there are certainly a lot more to
be found in gophersphere and on the web, but that one triggered my
post here.  I believe the reactions are influenced by our mindsets.
(Note: there are some expressions here which I'm not the first one
to coin; but I don't believe in every thought requiring a full
reference. It just makes life tedious, and I still appreciate all
those who came before me.)

It would be nice if we could be sure things never break and are
always safe, but that's unreal. The more parts there are, the more
can break, and an operating system together with its developer and
distribution network is awfully complex, even if we ignore wilfully
bad actors.  Better accept things will break or age, no matter what
you or others do; the best remedy are redundancy, resilience -- and
relax with a laugh.  In the long run, we're all dead anyway.

## Redundancy

Have several items/tools/devices to keep your system going. Keep a
written note on paper, not just in your smartphone (well, better
not rely on a smartphone at all, but that's another topic). Make
backups. If you have sensitive data, don't just store them in a
harddisk (or *horrors* in a cloud), but encrypt them before. Check
distribution fingerprints from different sources before installing
software. Keep reserves you can rely on if you have no income;
make friends.

## Resilience

Prepare for reducing the impact of a failure and for standing up
again after you have fallen. Compartmentalize your assets (which
is closely related to redundancy), to keep at least parts going.
Know what you really need; the less you have, the less can break,
and the more you can focus on keeping the small number of things.
Accept change, and even losses, as possibilities to improve; if you
lose, don't lose the lesson. Make sure you know in advance whom to
call for help, and that they know you and your needs.  Make sure
your backups work; test them. Plan for disaster. Have a secondary
system on standby for taking over (again related to redundancy),
if the primary gets compromised, so that you can shut it down as
soon as you get hints of a problem. Think ahead of what you will
do if you lose your job, and how to live until you find another.

## Relax

Most things are less important than you might initially think.
Step back, relax, assess your situation -- already before and after
an incident; it's rarely doomsday. Keep calm.

But it's more fun if we laugh every now and then.

.:.

[1]: http://www.devuan.org/pwned.html
[2]: gopher://circumlunar.space:70/
[3]: gopher://republic.circumlunar.space:70/0/~leeb/phlog/2019-04-02_The_Devuan_Thing