Fsf-friends December 2002

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

37 participants
77 discussions

Libranet 2.7 - Debian Made Easy
by Tarun Gaur 15 Dec '02

15 Dec '02

hi friends, Cool article ---------------- Libranet GNU/Linux, a commercial Linux distribution based on Debian, has been given increasingly positive coverage in Linux media. Its recipe for success is simple - it attempts to remedy some of the often cited shortcomings of Debian proper, by providing a simple installer, user-friendly system configuration tools and up-to-date selection of software packages. Combine that with a friendly user community and you have a winner. Let us investigate what Libranet is about and why you should give it a serious thought when choosing your Linux distribution. The Great Divide - APT vs. RPM One of the greatest strengths - and also one of the greatest weaknesses - of GNU/Linux is the way that numerous developers have taken the OS and molded it the way they like it. Occasionally this produces a "fork" - two (or more) camps of devout users, both vehemently insisting that their way of doing things is best. The most prominent example of this is probably the great GUI debate (Is KDE or Gnome better?). Another equally important divide exists over the seemingly mundane issue of package management. The two biggest contenders are the Red Hat package manager (RPM, as it is popularly known) and Debian's Advanced Package Tool (APT, or apt-get) system. Until late 2002, it seemed as if the debate was all but over - RPM was winning by a landslide. All the major Linux distros - including but not limited to Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Caldera, and Conectiva - were RPM based. Furthermore, the LSB (Linux Standard Base) project endorsed RPM. To add insult to injury, the big-three Debian-based commercial distros failed in the marketplace - Stormix, Corel and Progeny. Debian users had their loyalty tested when Linux kernel 2.4 was released in January, 2000. Within four months of the release, all the major RPM-based distros produced sets of nicely packaged CDs based on the new kernel. But for Debian users, the process of migrating to the new kernel took more than two years. During this interval, Debian was falling seriously behind the other well-known distros in terms of features. Of course, one could argue that by constantly downloading the "testing" and "unstable" packages, Debian users could in fact enjoy the latest and greatest that the RPM-based competition had to offer. But "testing" and "unstable" are just what the names imply. Whether they wished to admit it or not, Debian's loyal fans were pining for the day when the new stable release would hit the ftp servers. Debian 3.0 (code-named "Woody") was released on July 19, 2002. It was an occasion for much rejoicing - at last, Debian users had an up-to-date stable distro. Or did they? Stable, yes, but up-to-date was debatable. Linux development moves at nearly the speed of light, and by the time Woody was released, RPM-based distros were offering new features that Debian still relegated to the testing branch (now code-named "Sarge"), or the unstable branch (known as "Sid"). Furthermore, Debian continues to suffer from a relatively difficult-to-use installer, mediocre hardware detection, and somewhat complicated system administration. None of the above should be taken as a fatal flaw of Debian - indeed, Debian's slowness to market might even be considered a "feature". The Debian philosophy has always been "release when ready". As a result, Debian has bragging rights as one of the most stable distros around. Furthermore, Debian also can boast about being the largest Linux distro in existence - Woody includes 8710 packages. Creating and testing thousands of packages is no mean feat, and made more difficult by the fact that Debian is a non-commercial product, created by volunteers who also need to work day jobs to pay the bills. This is in sharp contrast to commercial distros such as Red Hat, where full-time programmers are employed. Obviously, Debian's fortunes would be improved if commercial developers decided to produce their own Debian-based distros with cutting-edge features. And rather suddenly, this has happened. Following fast on the heels of Woody, there were milestone releases of new Debian-based distros - Lindows 3.0, Xandros 1.0, Knoppix 3.1, and Libranet 2.7. Lindows and Xandros are both commercial distros, notable for their ease-of-use that will help Windows users make an almost painless transition to Linux. Knoppix is a different animal - a unique non-commercial distro that runs entirely off a CD-ROM. And then there is Libranet. Libranet is Debian made easy. The product of Jon and Tal Danzig - two programmers based in Vancouver, Canada - Libranet is a commercial Debian-based distro "that just works". Almost overnight, Libranet seems to have leaped out of obscurity and is now getting serious attention as a potential major contender in the distro wars. ----------- regards tarun gaur __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com

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Open Forum on GPL'd Software
by eiid 15 Dec '02

15 Dec '02

It is to inform all of you that there will be an Open forum organaised by Open Softwre Solutions Industrial Co-op Society, in Connection with Kerala Summit of World Social Forum at Thiruvananthapuram. The summit will be conducted on 26-29 Dec 2002. Exact time of Open forum will be announced later. The subject of open forum will be "The GPL'd Software, Its relevence and utilation". Dr. Achuth Sankar of CDiT, Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Arun M of FSF-India, Mr. P. Rajeev of Democratic Youth Federation of India, Mr Joseph Thomas of Appropriate Technology Promotion Society (ATPS-Kochi) will be pesenting the subject. ATPS-Kochi will be coducting a workshop on E-governance at 2.30 PM on 27th Dec 2002. in connection with Kerala Summit. This workshop will emphasis the need of GPL'd Software for E-governance. ATPC-Kochi is publishing a occassional publication to propagate the use of GPL'd Software. This publication is named "Vivara vicharam" and will published in Malayalam. Its first issue will be released in next week. Regards, Anil kumar K V.

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Free, Non-Free, Commercial, Gratis
by Suraj Kumar 15 Dec '02

15 Dec '02

After a talk with the Madras Christian College I realise they are very confused with commercial free software and gratis non-free software. I made this image for explaining things more clearly in the future. I thought this might help FS advocates here: http://gpasokan.com/demo-schools/images/free-and-commercial.png -Suraj -- +-------------------------------------------------<suraj(a)symonds.net>--+ | He is free from faults, yet my beloveds separation | | is mystic; his feigned sulk has undefined pleasure | | (the delight of boudiere - 5), Thirukkural | +--<http://symonds.net/~suraj/>----------------------------------------+

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Dr Anil Seth on RMS...
by Frederick Noronha 14 Dec '02

14 Dec '02

For those of you reading this in Goa, don't miss Dr Anil Seth's article in Gomantak Times (Goa, 13 Dec 2002 Page 5) titled 'Learning from an alternative role model'. Quote: It was very inspiring to listen to Richard M Stallman (RMS) at Goa Engineering College recently.... We may not be able to emulate RMS, we can still do a lot for free software. Free software is extremely important for India given the low usage of software technology in our country. Not to mention, we can change the rules from "how much money has been lost by the software industry by sharing" to "how much money society has saved by sharing software". For people not convinced by that idea, I would like them to think about water. We see a lot of ads of mineral water. The mineral water industry pays a lot of taxes and provides a lot of employment. The more our municipalities are unable to provide safe clean water, the more the mineral water industry flourishes. Hence, it is economically undesirable to have free, safe drinking water flowing from our taps! Are the municipalities actually helping the society by not providing drinking water? There is nothing wrong about selling mineral water, though most of us would agree that it is unethical to bottle tap water and lable it as mineral water.... This article is interesting. It should be circulated in full. Dr Seth, could you please send me the plain-text version? Thanks. For those who don't know him (if you're reading this outside Goa), Dr Seth is a veteran member of our GNU/Linux group in Goa, and a US-educated scientist of an early generation which went there in the 'sixties and 'seventies and then returned to work out of India. Dr Seth, could you also agree to join our Project Resource Centre network, a list that aims to link up young programmers and students with technical gurus who can guide them to take up challenging and socially-useful IT projects? It is at: _______________________________________________ prc mailing list http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc FN

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The Linux Desktop Needs To Be Easier
by Tarun Gaur 14 Dec '02

14 Dec '02

Hi Friends, An Article in OSOpinion.com .... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Linux Desktop Needs To Be Easier Send this Article Print this Article Talkback Related Stories Contributed by James Maguire osOpinion.com December 12, 2002 Installing a new program, or the OS itself, proves cumbersome for some users. Creating a home network or developing individualized settings can be confusing or frustrating. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was talking with a friend recently, a truly techie-geeky kind of fellow, and he told me a familiar story. He talked about a recent experience of his, working on a Linux desktop system. No matter what he did -- and he did quite a bit -- he could not get the system to connect to the Internet. He switched over to a nearby Windows system, and -- bingo -- he was connected. His experience points to a problem that may be reality or merely perception. But either way, it's a widespread attitude: The Linux desktop just ain't easy to use. A Pocketful of Promise Clearly, Linux has the potential to devour the desktop market. It is dirt cheap in comparison to Windows. And that's not counting those pricey Windows upgrades that are called for on a regular basis (ouch!). With Linux, you can install the OS on all your machines without feeling like a fugitive. And if you're lucky enough to have a geeky friend, he or she can get underneath the hood and modify your software, customizing it for your needs (try doing that with Microsoft). Perhaps the biggest advantage of the Linux desktop is that many Linux packages are fully equipped with not only an OS, but also a full suite of programs. For example, the Lindows 3.0 release bundles the core OS with access to a library of free software. Compare this with Windows' a la carte "each program costs more," which gets expensive fast. Add it all up, and Linux's potential is bigger than Bill Gates' bank account. (Well, maybe not that big, but you get the idea.) So, What's the Deal? With all these advantages, why does Linux have a tiny 2 percent share of the desktop market, with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) commanding a mammoth 93 percent share? Part of this disparity stems from Microsoft's marketing muscle. It's hard to beat an effort with that many ad dollars behind it. However, it is also undeniable that Linux is not easy to use for the average desktop user. Installing a new program, or the OS itself, proves cumbersome for some users. Creating a home network or developing individualized settings can be confusing or frustrating. Developers' Efforts Linux' reputation for being difficult to use is "a [negative] rap that's going to take it a while to live down," Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio told NewsFactor. However, she said, "I think we're getting closer." The open source system's biggest problem in gaining desktop share is simple lack of familiarity, she said. "Linux hasn't been a desktop phenomenon until recently, in the last 12 to 15 months. "Clearly, Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) , SCO, the Lindows people -- they are all aware of the fact that you have to make this stuff easy or nobody will use it," she added, pointing to the Lindows OS as a "major step forward" in terms of ease of use. Incentive Exists Although Microsoft essentially owns the OS desktop market at this point, there is ample incentive for Linux developers to create distributions whose ease of use makes the open source OS compelling. As DiDio pointed out, the market is not just U.S.-based, but global. And whereas the U.S. PC market is mature, the global market is in its infancy. "As you see Linux gaining market share, it's not that people will defect from Windows, it's that new users are going to Linux on the desktop," she said, explaining that European and South American users, among others, welcome open source alternatives. "The pie is not finite." --------------------------------------------------------------------- regards,, tarun gaur _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

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The pros and cons of open source computing
by Tarun Gaur 14 Dec '02

14 Dec '02

Hi Friends, An Article in Linux Today .... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The pros and cons of open source computing 12/5/2002 3:23:26 PM - by Liam Lahey The great misconception about open source computing is it doesn't truly exist in the IT industry, according to Russell McOrmand, an Ottawa-based Internet and Linux consultant. McOrmand is a member of GOSLING (Getting Open Source Logic Into Governments), a software lobby group that aims to change how Canadian governments purchase and use proprietary software. "Linux is often seen as the open source poster child, which is ironic, since it's not the most visible in its domain," McOrmand says, adding that government should take a leadership position on open standards. McOrmand also takes issue with the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) and its annual studies on North American software piracy. McOrmand says the methodology employed by CAAST and its international partner the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to determine the rate of software theft in Canada is critically flawed. For one thing, he says, CAAST's methodology does not make any allowance that systems shipped without CAAST-member software could be using open source software instead. "CAAST is wanting open source to disappear," says McOrmand. "Its studies are based on the premise that open source doesn't exist," McOrmand says. McOrmand says users that switch to Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) are not differentiated from illegal copying of CAAST member software. He says a computer that is shipped without any CAAST or BSA member software could be equipped by the home or business user with a full set of FLOSS tools. Free software encourages a more direct, customer needs-driven relationship, McOrmand contends, treating software as a service rather than a "one-size-fits-all" product. Jackie Famulak, spokesperson and a member of the board of directors for CAAST, says McOrmand makes some interesting points with regard to software. However, she says CAAST's studies are intended to track its members' software only and the studies don't include following operating system distribution or non-member company software proliferation. "First, a large percentage of free, open source software out there is Linux-based; it's not products such as a photo management software suites," Famulak says. "If you look at the users of software, there's not a lot of people out there that are ready to begin programming their own software. Companies don't always have the resources (to develop software) and they can't afford the downtime or provide the necessary support that a manufacturer can give them 24/7. When you consider it in that regard, we already are providing a service." Many established industry players have set sail into open source waters over the last few years. IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Oracle, SAP and many others support Linux. In mid-November, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a new Linux strategy in conjunction with its 32-bit LX50 server. Sun is giving its customers what they're asking for, says one Sun manager. "If we go back to why Linux is evolving, people want to take the benefit of industry-standard hardware," says Robert ffoulkes, strategy group manager, volume systems products for Sun. "The open source mechanism is also really important as it enables the focusing of a huge amount of software development. Therefore it accelerates the development of things." But questions arose from developers and industry analysts during the LX50 press conference in Toronto about how Sun would support Linux. "We have a lot of our own technology that we're putting into the open source community," ffoulkes says. "The limitation we see with open source is not with the development process or with participation. But if you want to have systems you can guarantee you're going to run a business on, somebody has to do quality assurance." Sun, says ffoulkes, sees itself in this quality assurance role, having the muscle, as a long-established industry player, to bring Linux into the mainstream. "If things work well, as Linux proliferates and becomes more of a mainstream environment in business, the development of a software ecosystem will happen much more quickly," says ffoulkes. Dan Kusnetzky, vice-president, system software for IDC Corp. in Framingham, Mass., says Sun's attitude may result in a backlash from customers. "Sun is basically saying to these people, 'we are not going to make our supported software available to you. You will have to buy a machine to get that software'. That . . . will upset the people who are otherwise loyal Sun buyers," he says. --------------------------------------------------------------------- regards,, tarun gaur _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Brazilian Citizen Petitions President-elect for Free Software
by Tarun Gaur 14 Dec '02

14 Dec '02

Hi Friends, An Article in Linux Today .... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Brazilian Citizen Petitions President-elect for Free Software Dec 14, 2002, 04 :00 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (78 reads) A Brazilian citizen has started up his own online petition to persuade Brazillan President-elect Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to end government funding of foreign proprietary software firms and instead turn government software spending towards free and open-source software. The petition, which is being hosted at PetitionsOnline.com, is a brief missive to President-elect Lula urging him to divert funding from purchasing software from companies such as Microsoft and use the savings to facilitate the transition to free software. The arguments made by the petition are relatively straightforward: shifting the government to using only free software would not only save funds right off the top, but ideally would seed citizen's use of similar technology. This is a familiar argument, having been used in Israel and other nations to promote the use of government free software use. The petition specifically highlights the Brazilian government's relationship with Microsoft--a government the petition cites as providing 80 percent of all of Microsoft's sales in Brazil. The author of the survey is Renato Siqueira, who describes himself as "a Brazilian how cares how the public administration and people spend money in my country." Siqueira plans to have the petition online until it has acquired 500,000 signatures. While not a member of any free software of Linux group, Siqueira, a self-proclaimed "GNU/Linux lover" would certainly weclome assistance from "any free software group wants to help me with marketing or training in GNU/Linux..." The petition is only valid to Brazilian citizens, though Siqueira indicated that any comments on his efforts would be welcomed and most likely posted on his own personal weblog. How President-elect Lula would react to this petition should be interesting, particularly is the requistite half million signatures are gathered. As a member of the Workers' Party in Brazil, Lula has in the past been very left on the political spectrum. Some have described him as socialist. Even though he turned to more centrist views during this current successful presidential campaign, Lula has always maintained very strong ties with Brazilian labor groups. Not surprising given his backgound of 20 years as a labor negotiator. Given his leanings away from big business, Lula may be a powerful ally in shifting government software use towards a free or open source environment. With Brazil currently having the eighth largest economy in the world, that will mean big stakes for proprietary software vendors. --------------------------------------------------------------------- regards,, tarun gaur _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Some Good Work !
by Tarun Gaur 13 Dec '02

13 Dec '02

Hi Friends, Some good work ... http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-12-13-004-26-RV-SW-DV http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-12-13-002-26-NW-HE-SV Free software for the brave GNU World. regads, tarun gaur _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

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Mentoring students... from a friend in Bangalore
by Frederick Noronha 13 Dec '02

13 Dec '02

Abhas is a friend in Bangalore who is doing some good work in mentoring youngsters. I'd like to introduce his work to this list. It came up on the Project Resource Centre list earlier. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hi Fred and others... On (11/12/02 23:33), Frederick Noronha wrote: > Hi Rajeev, Great to hear from you. I already know Abhas and have long > admired his work. DeepRoot's mentoring plans in PES IT need to be > replicated by the Free Software and Open Source communities elsewhere. > > Permit me to share this note with friends on the PRC mailing list. > > Maybe you could share with us some of your experiences in mentoring > youngsters. What is the help that they need most? At which point do > bottlenecks come up? What could *really* make a difference to their > achievements? > > Thanks again for getting in touch, FN Here are my views on this issue... Actually we have been working with students for more than a year and a half before we started our PESIT lab. Working with students has taught us a lot about project management and most importantly, about how to work with students. In fact, today we continue to get project requests from students all over India - Pune, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Srinagar, Bangalore, lots of colleges in Karanataka and a whole lot of cities in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. So at any point of time, there has always been an exciting group of students working with us - either at our development center or remotely over email. Genearlly, we've met three types of students: a. Those who have a good knowledge of Linux and are prepared to start off working on projects right away. Here again they are some who have a some specific interests and want to work in a specific field and those who are not yet focused into something specific. b. Those who are just starters getting initiated into Linux through friends, books and Internet c. Those who have are looking at Linux as a way of expressing some of their ideas. Their ideas are not Linux specific but then they somehow understand that working on them in Linux could be the best way to do it. We have different approaches to handling each type of student. Whenever a group of students approach us we try to guage a couple of things about them: a. Their seriousness for the project b. The amount of passion they have for their work/project c. Things they know and have worked with and which are not a part of their curriculum d. The amount and work they are willing to put into their project e. Their motivations and drive Its really important for us to guage this as this will tell us if its worthwhile for us to spend productive time guiding them on their projects. Guiding them on projects can be an enormous sag in our energy and time if the students can't contribute equally in terms of what they are supposed to be doing. Most of the times, we give them something in which we have more than an academic or passing interest. Giving out practical projects that can help achieve something specific is a part of our committment to anyone who applies to us for projects. We then go about analysing what sort of project the students could do. Our project lists is divided into three parts: * A research and testing list * A development and programming list * A documentation list Most projects go through all these three types of tasks. Students first spend time research and test some software and understand basic technology concepts. Then some of them go on to use this knowledge to program while others use this basic knowledge to design and setup more advanced systems and setups which are then tested for things such as stability, performance and so on depending upon what the project is about. We always make it a point to explain that you can't start programming from day one. And that you have to spend some time experimenting with different things so that you can use them later on to program. At, PESIT since we were working in a more formal setting and with a larger number students (around 60 now), we held formal introductory classes for them. These started at the usual discources about Free Software, Softwar Freedom, GNU/GPL, Linux, history and other such elements and went on to make them capable enough to install, configure and manage their own desktops and computers. Our approach was to use very basic and bare-bones utilities (no GUIs or abstraction layers here) to explain how the system boots up and how networking and other stuff work on Linux. Debian GNU/Linux is the distribution of choice in our Lab at PESIT and all students have to do their own installations and configurations. Anyway, there are a couple of things we have learnt about leading students on these projects: * Students don't want a formal setting at all (which is why we are very friendly with them with specific limits) - formality would limit their exploration and growth * Students are mostly very capable and hard-working - their energies just need to be drawn in the correct direction. * Moulding them in any way is up to the people guiding them - you can get them to write ground-breaking software if you could motive and guide them enough. * They just need guidance - we've found that most of them can find their own way around technology. We just show them the basic tools and how to use them (Internet, Mailing lists). * Its important to have an atmosphere congenial to information sharing - all of us share more than information; we also share code and experience. These values of sharing have to be imbibed in students as well otherwise there is no growth at all! * They need to understand the larger picture about what they are doing - so that they know what they are aiming at with their project. Which is why it is important to give out practical projects that can achieve something in the short run as well. (They have 3-6 months for their project work.) * They need to be introduced to FLOSS traditions - that is the only way they will ever remain active developers in the Linux community contributing a lot over the period of many years to come. Another thing we have understood is that sometimes it is difficult to hold them accountable. So there are times when you can't do anything because a student chooses not to do some work on time. At least, this is important for us if we give them a project on which we are also depending upon. Well - these are somethings that came to my mind and I thought that I should write them down. They are a lot more things of course... All I'd like to add is that students can be very powerful force if they can be guided properly and professionally. Now its all up to all of us! cheers, abhas. PS. Please mark a copy of your replies to me as I am not subscribed to the PRC mailing list. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Abhas Abhinav | Free Software at its product-ive best. CEO, DeepRoot Linux http://www.deeproot.co.in ---- Server Appliances ---- Ph: +91 (80) 856 5624 ---- Linux Support and Services ---- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Knowlege is power... share it equitably! _______________________________________________ prc mailing list prc(a)mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc

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Gunify ... from Pune
by Frederick Noronha 13 Dec '02

13 Dec '02

URL : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gnunify/ Description Category: [11]Computer Science [GNUnify.jpg?grLDu.9Ac4EPunI9] Unify is the annual fest of SICSR, which has various cultural and academic activities. This year we are introducing an all India Free Software Festival - GNUnify, our own way of contributing to the upcoming use of FREE SOFTWARES &; LINUX. Here we establish a footage for future IT students of the country to be aware of the advantages and use of free softwares. The future of our country pirates or programmers lies in our own hands!! So today, we stand up for ourselves and for all the others who are not even aware of what might be a big leap for the professionals and the whole education system of our country. The event thus organized is devoted to a united effort to promote the use &; knowledge of free softwares among the budding coders. Various academic institutes from across the country are invited to be a part of this first ever event being held. It includes various contests and paper-presentations. More to come sooooon Most Recent Messages Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2002 22 Group Email Addresses For more information: [12]http://www.symbiosiscomputers.com Post message: gnunify(a)yahoogroups.com Subscribe: gnunify-subscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: gnunify-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com List owner: gnunify-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Group Info Members: 21 Founded: Dec 7, 2002 Language: English

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Fsf-friends December 2002