Red Flag Linux... national pride... more reliable... cheaper... these are
some of the keywords emerging from BBC TV ClickOnline's current program
which focuses on GNU/Linux in China, apart from other issues.
It was telecast on Saturday 21 Sept at 1200 IST (and next coming up on
Sunday 22 Sept at 1600 IST and Tues 24 Sept at 1300 IST). An interesting
programme, though as is typical of television, it only skims the surface of
the issue. (You've guessed my biases when it comes to reading, radio and TV)
"If you haven't heard of Linux, it does the same things as Windows. But
unlike Windows (its code is freely available)." That's approximately how BBC
introduces GNU/Linux. Many Free/Libre and Open Source Software enthusiasts
might cringe to hear their favourite OS being compared to Windoze.
But the programme makes the point that there are many reasons for a growing
number (even if still a small segment of total computer users) opting for
GNU/Linux in China. It's cheaper, more reliable, there are questions of
national pride (building software indigenously), China's strategy of
adopting and adapting, security flaws, and even suspicion of secret
backdoors in closed-source proprietory software....
Perhaps the progamme could have mentioned that the international journal of
the Free Software Foundation is today published from China... If
interested, contact hongfeng(a)gnu.org
This programme also has an interesting debate on the usual question: can
China compete with Indian software... Do we have to see everything in terms
of competition? Louisa Liu agrees that this needn't be so.
On an offtopic subject, one learnt of a very interesting plan to teach
Internet and computing to the elderly -- the oldest student being 85. Maybe
we too could think of similar approaches. Why not? A good way of fighting
both the digital and age-bias all in one. --FN
PS: If you'd like to suggest future topics for programs to BBC, write in to
clickonline(a)bbc.co.uk
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
European Union Researches the Benefits of Open Source Software
--------------------------------------------------------------
[Desi angle to an international study...]
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/09/16/platform.html
European Union Researches the Benefits of Open Source Software
by Andy Oram
09/16/2002
Editor's Note: Andy Oram reports on the possible implications of a recent
study that explored the reasons behind the widespread use of, and support
for, free and open source software.
A major research project under the name Free/Libre and Open Source Software:
Survey and Study, or FLOSS, recently explored reasons behind the widespread
use of, and support for, free and open source software. This is, to my
knowledge, the first large-scale, rigorous study concerning any aspect of
free software. It involves interviews with thousands of developers and
hundreds of businesses, with carefully-chosen questions and a correlation of
results.
-----------------------
FN's comments:
Don't miss this.
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, chief writer of the FLOSS study, <rishab(a)dxm.org> has
been in the Netherlands for just two years. Before that he was based in
Delhi, and closely involved in the Indian internet/telecom scene, though he
stopped writing for PCQ/DQ/Asianage in 1996. Rishab had his own newsletter,
Indian Techonomist, going out to people like Reed Hundt and Vint Cerf, and
he wrote various consultation papers on the opening up Internet policy
(especially to small providers) on the request of telecom secretaries such
as Takkar and Gokak. Googling "Indian Telecom" still shows up his site as
two of the top four hits, even though "it's heavily cobwebbed", as Rishab
says! He's keen to find out the number of active LUG members in India too.
Is that somehow possible?
Indian computing seeks allies, solutions from wide range
by Frederick Noronha
fred(a)bytesforall.org
BANGALORE: From distant expats to tiny groups of computing
enthusiasts, elite research centres and language-speakers whom India doesn't
have much contact with... all these are being looked to as allies in finding
local language computing solutions for this country of one-billion plus.
Long delayed in coming, Indian-language computing is today reaching out for
help from varied sources, as a national-level Indic Computing meet held here
noted.
Global expat communities -- with a deep interest in the subject and also the
skills and funds -- could play an important role in this endeavour. The
Tamil diaspora has been particularly strong in networking across
national-boundaries to find IT solutions.
Globally, the English domination of computing has increased the problems of
getting Indian scripts to work on this powerful tool. Besides, some South
Indian languages groups, including Kannada, feel suggestions going to
international decision-makers from officials in Delhi have been inadequate
or largely attuned to the needs of North Indian tongues.
But there's a lot of optimism on possibilities of wider networking.
"I just met Laotian and Kampuchean experts who were keen to follow India's
work on local language computing solutions," said Prof Pat Hall of the UK
Open University, a close watcher on moves that could throw open computing to
hundreds of millions in this region.
Prof Hall points out that Burmese and some other South East Asian languages
use the Brahmi script to write, which is closely related to Indic scripts.
Burmese is spoken by an estimated 32 million mainly around Myanmar.
Even if India's situation is seen as rather complex -- with there being some
1652 mother-tongues, from half-a-dozen different language groups, including
33 spoken by over a hundred thousand people -- things are not that bleak.
Solutions in a few major languages would immediately open up computing to
hundreds of millions, for instance.
"This is not rocket science. Solutions are possible. Indian-language word
processors and spreadsheets are badly needed," says Venky Hariharan, a
long-time campaigner on this front, now at the Mumbai-based Media Lab Asia.
"But this is not just an engineering problem. There are cultural issues,
lingustic ones, and questions of deployment involved," reminds Tapan Parikh,
an expat now based in India, and keen to see some solution come on this
front.
One strategy of the Indic-Computing group will be to network with others
working in the field -- ranging from the Free Software and Open Source
networks like KDE to software giant Microsoft.
Other smaller groups are also being seen as key players in the field --
including the IIT-Madras group that has been working and incubating
innovative Indian-language solutions, the NCST (National Centre for Software
Technology) in Mumbai, and the IIIT (International Institute of Information
Technology) in Hyderabad, which has done impressive work on machine-language
translation and related areas.
Local GNU/Linux Users Groups, scattered volunteers spread across India to
study and promote the use of Free and Open Source Software, are also being
looked on as potential allies.
India already has a wide network of LUG groups, as they're called, with
bigger ones operating out of the metros and IT-oriented cities like
Bangalore. This city, designated sometimes as the 'Silicon Valley of India',
is already planning a major national meet called LinuxBangalore2002 in early
December. Last year, over 2000 participants took part in this meet.
Organisations trying to widen India's computing base and take IT solutions
to the rural areas, are also searching for solutions. One example is
Bangalore's Simputer network, which plans to take a sharable, low-cost
people's computing device to the millions.
IIT-Madras has also incubated firms -- such as n-Logue -- offering solutions
for low-cost Internet and telephone access, which would also vastly gain
from local language solutions.
Other languages have gone far ahead. On the Internet, languages with far
more complicated script problems have already made progress. For instance,
it's already possible to list websites and do a search in non-Romanic Asian
languages like Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
But some Indian tongues are making headway. Tamil expat speakers in Toronto
recently highlighted the success of Mandrake, a brand packaging GNU/Linux
software, in coming out with a Tamil-enabled version.
Commented Toronto-based expat V Venkataramanan: "A total Tamil computer is
now available. With the release of Mandrake Linux 9.0, an average user
should be able to operate a computer and use Internet -- all in Tamil."
This means that for the first time, the prerequisite of English knowledge
for using computers has been eliminated, at least for those who know Tamil.
People throughout the world have been using computers and Internet in their
own languages. Some how, Indian users are compelled to use them in English.
Indian engineers and scientists are a dominant force in the IT world, but
have also faced criticism for being grossly negligent of the needs of the
commonman from their own region. "This has pushed India to the top of the
list of countries suffering from the Digital Divide," argue campaigners like
Venkataramanan.
Several Tamil programmers however have been given credit for making
computing more accessible in that language.
Tamil GNU/Linux programmers currently come from as disparate regions as
Canada, USA, Singapore, Japan, India and Malaysia, largely interacting
through the web and Internet discussion groups. There's also an
International Federation of Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT).
In Malayalam, the Free Software Foundation-India is undertaking some
initiatives. Kannada has been spearheaded by groups like the Kannada Ganaka
Parishad and scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Hindi and Marathi have also been getting considerable attention. Bengali IT
solution campaigners plan to share solutions with developers like Tani Ahmed
in Bangladesh, while the same could apply with Urdu possibilities from
Pakistan.
"Most of our clients have a big need for Indic-language solutions," says
Sunil Abraham, who's Mahiti.org works in equipping not-for-profit grassroot
organisations with IT solutions in Bangalore.
"We're anyway heading towards a boom in Indian Language computing. For all
these plans of G2C (government-to-citizen) initiatives to succeed, we simply
need it. Outside Delhi and Mumbai, people would still prefer to work in
Indian languages on their computers," says Microsoft Corporation (India)
localization program manager Raveesh Gupta. (ENDS)
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/09/16/platform.html
European Union Researches the Benefits of Open Source
Software
by Andy Oram
09/16/2002
Editor's Note: Andy Oram reports on the possible
implications of a recent study that explored the
reasons behind the widespread use of, and support for,
free and open source software.
A major research project under the name Free/Libre and
Open Source Software: Survey and Study, or FLOSS,
recently explored reasons behind the widespread use
of, and support for, free and open source software.
This is, to my knowledge, the first large-scale,
rigorous study concerning any aspect of free software.
It involves interviews with thousands of developers
and hundreds of businesses, with carefully-chosen
questions and a correlation of results.
Equally significant is the funder of the study: the
European Union. These government representatives have
displayed a growing curiosity about, and sympathy for,
the free software phenomenon; see, for instance, the
recent announcement concerning OpenEvidence, a project
in digital certificates and signatures. The EU is an
excellent body to sponsor a sympathetic but demanding
inquiry into the purposes and processes of free
software development. (The study was carried out for
the EU by Berlecon Research GmbH and the University of
Maastricht. The business survey involved only European
participants, but the developer survey was worldwide.)
This article, like most of mine, will involve a modest
portion of summary accompanied by an ample serving of
my own impressions and analysis.
Slow and Steady
The burning question many people bring to this survey
-- whether friend or foe -- is: "Why would
organizations choose to use free software?" We know
that the "free as in beer" aspect of free software
appeals to underdeveloped countries (see recent news
items from Peru and Venezuela, along with China's Red
Flag Linux). But in more affluent Europe, price is not
the issue. Over and over in the FLOSS study,
organizations place cost savings low on their list of
reasons for choosing free software. Ideological
reasons will be discussed later in this article.
Overwhelmingly, the highest ranking reasons for using
free software center on quality:
Higher stability
Better access protection
Higher performance
Better functionality
Admittedly, "better price-to-performance ratio" turns
up with a high rating. But the survey notes that true
cost comparisons are hard to make with any confidence.
Organizations also like the absence or low burden of
license fees, but I'm not sure that this is a cost
issue. Organizations might simply want to avoid the
pain in the ass of predicting needs, negotiating with
the vendor, dealing with malfunctioning license
servers, and so on.
Still, quality issues clearly trump cost issues in the
FLOSS survey. This is powerful ammunition for
activists fighting the old misconception, still far
too prevalent, that free software is a poor man's
consolation for the lack of funds to buy really good
software.
Looking deeper, I find another lesson in this
confidence expressed by businesses and nonprofits. The
relatively slow pace of development in free software
is one of its strengths. Proprietary software
companies have earned a terrible reputation over many
decades for shoveling in check-off boxes as fast as
marketing representatives can think them up. Bugs
inevitably abound. Users complain about bloatware and
features that merely get in their way, as well as
trying to fix bugs by upgrading to the next feature
release and getting more bugs.
Perhaps this is why MySQL is gaining market share,
even though it started off quite feature-poor; MySQL
AB has taken its sweet time adding such basics as
transaction support and encrypted data transfers. What
they offer is rock-solid reliability (along with the
performance that one achieves by leaving out
computationally-heavy functionality).
Security, which is now on administrators' minds more
than ever, has always been understood to be a function
of stability and code quality. Modern Windows systems
have a number of security features -- ACLs and
encrypted filesystems, for example -- that Linux and
the BSDs lack or require special patches for. But
security features are not what most users are looking
for; they want security, plain and simple. Linux and
the BSDs offer that more reliably (unless Bill Gates's
recent conversion to the creed of high security is
matched by growing adherents throughout Microsoft).
We must also remember that new features do not change
user behavior the moment they're released; they take
some time to percolate through the ground and up the
root systems of the user community. In particular,
programmers are people, too. They require time to
learn about new features, recognize their benefits (if
any), and upgrade their applications. Each delay
reduces the utility of a feature upgrade.
Please understand that I believe in evolution. But the
changes that make people feel an urgent need to
upgrade are those that radically reform their jobs and
their ways of interacting, such as graphical
interfaces, the Web, and cross-platform code
development. These sorts of innovation can occur in
both free and proprietary software. In contrast,
incremental change is not a big selling point.
I have not yet discussed ease of use, a measure where
free software presumably doesn't come off so well --
at least for new and nonprofessional users. The FLOSS
study addressed this in a couple criteria, especially
"Cost savings regarding training and introduction of
users," which predictably came out low as a reason for
using free software.
In general, free software has still not achieved the
widespread familiarity of Microsoft software. In a
recent analysis regarding the elusive "Total Cost of
Ownership" (TCO) measure, the analysts noted the
familiarity of Microsoft software as one of its main
advantages. More exposure to free software can close
the gap.
The FLOSS study itself throws up its hands when
dealing with TCO. They report that companies "were
generally unable to provide even rough estimates about
the monetary value derived from using open source
software," even concerning "simple questions like
license fee savings or hardware cost savings."
Moral Concerns
A sense of moral imperative concerning information
freedom motivates a lot of free software developers.
Nearly all of the programmers surveyed understood the
philosophical difference between "free software" and
"open source," as articulated by Richard M. Stallman
and the Free Software Foundation. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh,
chief writer of the FLOSS study, finds in the
developer results several thought-provoking
observations:
Although organizations trying to commercialize free
software (such as my own company, O'Reilly &
Associates) promote the term "open source," more of
the developers identify with the "free software" side
than the "open source" side (48 percent versus 38
percent).
Most "free software" developers were content to
coexist with the "open source" label, but 38 percent
of them -- 18 percent of all developers in the survey
-- took a stronger position and refused to identify
with the "open source" community. Furthermore, 38
percent of all developers agreed with the statement
that software should not be proprietary.
Participation in free software projects tends to
sharpen developers' philosophical and political
concerns. Belief that "software should not be a
proprietary good" and a desire to "limit the power of
large software companies" were larger motivations for
developers continuing to work on projects than they
had been in attracting these developers in the first
place.
It would be interesting to imagine what would happen
to the open source movement if proprietary software
projects dried up. The demographic part of the FLOSS
survey showed that the majority of contributors to
free software are professional programmers. Most of
them work on open source projects as a hobby, often
for just a couple of hours a week. In short,
proprietary software provides an income for fully half
of the people who work on open source software. But
perhaps many of these programmers work on in-house
software rather than on commercially-sold software (a
point made by Eric Raymond in his essay "The Magic
Cauldron," published in The Cathedral & the Bazaar).
Related Reading
The researchers conducting the FLOSS study could not
detect much of a concern for moral issues in the
organizations using free software (whether commercial
or nonprofit). But my interpretation of the statistics
shows more of a groundswell of concern among customers
than the researchers allowed for.
The percentage of organizations that agreed with the
statement "We prefer using open source software --
that's part of our company policy" was low (19
percent), but still pretty impressive, when you
consider how rarely businesses take stands on
questions outside of purely-practical considerations.
Similarly, I consider it an achievement when 35
percent agree with the statement "By using open source
software we want to support the open source
community."
On the other hand, I do not feel a sense of confidence
that companies take a moral position by allowing their
developers to contribute to open source projects
during work hours. While 36 percent say they allow it,
they could be doing so simply for pragmatic reasons.
The FLOSS researchers correlated organizations'
responses with many demographic characteristics, but
did not correlate the responses to particular
statements with responses to other statements. In any
survey, it is hard to draw conclusions about beliefs
and motives. So both the researchers and the readers
of the FLOSS survey are left guessing about the
meaning behind many responses, just as we are left
guessing why free software programmers (a whopping 48
percent) prefer the Debian GNU/Linux distribution far
more than any other operating system.
What about the availability of source code? Open
source's defining characteristic, it's been touted as
an unbeatable competitive advantage. Here the
researchers find very little interest among users. But
once again, I think they underestimate the importance
of the interest they do find. Some 12 percent of
organizations rate the openness of source code "very
important" (the percentage rises to 19 percent for
desktop software and Web sites) and an even greater
percentage rates it lower but still "important." I
think that 12 to 19 percent of a user base is quite
enough to create a supportive community, and is
competitively significant, as well.
It's no surprise that more companies are interested in
modifying their desktop software (which is currently
not too stable) and Web site software than their
operating system or database, just as a typical home
owner is more comfortable rehanging a window than
ripping out the plumbing.
Demographics and Personal Motives
The FLOSS study spends a good deal of time looking at
what kind of person writes free software, and why he
(because 99 percent of these developers are male)
chooses to do so. The results tend to validate another
recent study made by the Boston Consulting Group,
wherever the two studies overlap.
As mentioned earlier in this article, the majority of
contributors are professional programmers. Many can
boast an academic computer science background. They
tend to be young, but (contrary to popular belief in
some quarters) students do not predominate. A good
number of developers are in their thirties. These are
heavily represented among project leaders. But most
projects have only one or two contributors.
How about motivations? Non-monetary rewards, such as
respect in the community, are important. Both the
Boston Consulting Group and the FLOSS surveys also
found that one of the most popular reasons for joining
a project was to learn new skills.
And indeed, the investment of time pays off. A slight
majority -- if one includes indirect employment, such
as support -- earn some money from free software.
Perhaps it is not so remarkable that a majority of
contributors are convinced they take out of the
projects more than they give.
Lofty Goals
The FLOSS report is long but quite readable, and I
recommend exploring the subtleties of its reasoning
for yourself. While the results will interest anybody
who thinks about the prospects for the growth and
spread of free software, the FLOSS project is
ultimately about much more. Among the goals stated in
the survey's overview are:
"A better realization of political aims [presumably
those of the EU] in the context of open source
software" (p. 8)
"Identifying the impact of and recommending changes in
government policy and regulatory environments with
regards to OS/FS" (p. 3)
Drawing "broader" conclusions about "non-monetary and
trans-monetary activity in the information society,
beyond the domain of OS/FS" (p. 3)
The researchers are even mining the source code on a
huge number of open source projects to trace the
connections between the projects and their authors.
Although these efforts are tentative, someday they may
help to firm up our understanding of the unique
opportunities for education, code reuse, and
synergistic evolution presented when programmers
publish source code to the whole world.
Andy Oram is an editor at O'Reilly & Associates,
specializing in books on Linux and programming. Most
recently, he edited Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power
of Disruptive Technologies.
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
LWN.NET: THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION'S OPEN LETTER TO THE
UNITEDLINUX BOARD
"Bradley M. Kuhn, the Executive Director of the Free Software
Foundation, has submitted an open letter to the UnitedLinux
Board of Managers. 'However, since nearly all of the volunteers
from the Free Software community (your fellow developers) did
not receive a copy of the so-called 'closed beta', we ask that
in a show of good faith, you make available at least the terms
of distribution you used for that product...'"
COMPLETE STORY:
http://lwn.net/Articles/10257/
------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is an open letter from Free Software Foundation President
Richard Stallman to SecurityFocus' Jon Lasser, in response to his
article Lobbying for Insecurity:
I read your article about Microsoft and Security-Enhanced Linux with
interest, and saw your advice to the open-source community.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27121.html
-------------------------------------------------------x---------------
###################IndicComputing Bytes#########################Issue01
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue: o Bram Moolenaar's input
o Search engine for Japanese, Chinese, etc
o Good news: Mandrake goes Tamil!
FROM BRAM MOOLENAAR <Bram(a)moolenaar.net>, the person who wrote VIM, the Free
Software-based editor, when asked whether it would be possible to "work on
Indian language solutions for Vim":
Vim 6.1 supports translated messages, menus and Unicode. It should be
possible to make a Hindi translation. Places to ask around for someone
willing to do the work. Appropriate places are the vim maillist and the
comp.editors news group. Perhaps there are a few Indian news groups, I
obviously don't know about that. I also don't know if the current Unicode
support is sufficient for your language. Please find out yourself.
- Bram
--
Engineers are widely recognized as superior marriage material: intelligent,
dependable, employed, honest, and handy around the house.
(Scott Adams - The Dilbert principle)
/// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram(a)moolenaar.net -- http://www.moolenaar.net \\\
/// Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.vim.org \\\
\\\ Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.a-a-p.org ///
\\\ Lord Of The Rings helps Uganda - http://iccf-holland.org/lotr.html ///
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
A SEARCH-ENGINE FOR JAPANESE, CHINESE ETC: From seo(a)cybermultilingual.com
Let us submit http://www.cityradio.nu for FREE on Japanese search
engines, German search engines, Hispanic search engines , French search
engines , Chinese search engines etc.....! Wonder if they have plans for
IndicComputing? Can someone follow this up?
Let us submit your website on International search engines for FREE!
Visit us at http://www.CyberMultilingual.com for full details!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
MANDRAKE GOES TAMIL: "V_VenkataRamanan" <venkat(a)tamillinux.org> wrote: Here
is a Press Release, I wrote on request from people here in Toronto, on the
forthcoming Mandrake 9.0 with Tamil enabled. Please feel free to forward to
people who may be intrested. You may be able to download a formatted version
of this in tamil and english from the following URLs.
Tamil: http://www.tamillinux.org/articles/mandrake_tam.pdf
English: http://www.tamillinux.org/articles/mandrake_eng.pdf
Feel free to download the screen shots from
http://www.tamillinux.org/kde/imsges/Thumbnails.html
Total Tamil computer is now available: People throughout the world are
using computers and Internet in their own languages. However, Indian users
are compelled to use them in English. This is strange and is inexplicable to
anyone from outside India. It is undeniable that Indian engineers and
scientists are a dominant force in the IT world, but it is also true that
they are grossly negligent of the needs of their own masses. This has pushed
India to the top of the list of countries suffering from the Digital Divide.
No more! The solution is on the horizon. With the release of Mandrake
Linux 9.0, an average user (without much technical knowledge) should be able
to operate a computer and use Internet -- all in Tamil. For the first time,
the unfathomable prerequisite of English knowledge for operating computers
has been eliminated, at least for those who know Tamil.
What is possible? Mandrake is a package distributor of Linux and other open
source software. While installing Mandrake Linux 9.0, it gives the choice
of language for Graphical User Interface (GUI). All that is needed is to opt
for Tamil here. The installation, in most of the cases, will be smooth with
all hardware and network connections auto configured.
At the end of the installation, when you reboot and login, you will be
presented with a Tamil GUI (with the exception of a few yet to be
Tamil-enabled programs). It is all yours to explore. Almost all operations
for an average home user or a small office are now possible with total Tamil
interface. You can do these tasks with Tamil GUI;
1.Configure your computer and connect to Internet
2.Create and edit files in Tamil and English (and other languages!!)
3.Manage your files and disks
4.Send email, browse Internet and chat.
5.Listen audio files and watch videos
6.Do all small office works (Word Processing, Spread Sheet, Presentation
Graphics)
7.Maintain your personal/small office accounts
8.Schedule your tasks, Add and manage users.
9.Manage your desktop appearance,
You can do much more than these. For example, you may be able to configure
and run a FTP site with Tamil GUI. There are a few areas where work is
currently under progress these include a graphics editor, a CAD drawing
program, etc.
Why in Tamil?
Why not? Almost all developed countries use computers and Internet
entirely in their local languages. In India, there is an unfortunate mindset
to equate (English) language ability to technical achievement or
intellectual superiority. Like every other device, computers are the tools
invented by men. It is natural to sharpen the tool to make it suitable to
the human beings as against adopting himself to the tools. To make the
fruits of technology available to the common man, it should be made simple
enough for the common man to understand.
English language ability as a precondition to computer use is ridiculous
in the context of majority non-English speaking population. Unless we shape
the tool to our needs, we will always be dependent on other toolmakers for
our survival.
Availability of Tamil computers will enable localized
applications (such as Sales Tax forms or Voter's List) to be developed
rapidly.
This will also take the local business to the new realms of commerce.
There will be a strong motivation for the students to develop applications
for their commonplace problems. Modern appliances such as cellular phones
and televisions are being designed with embedded computers ^� it will be
impossible to penetrate the local market without a native interface.
If we do not do it now, we will be losing on all subsequent
technologies.
What is Linux?
Linux is an Operating System (very much similar to the familiar Microsoft
98, 2000 or XP). An operating system interprets the user commands for the
microprocessor in the computer. Linux is an outcome of efforts of millions
of volunteers around the world. Currently popular commercial OS like Windows
XP do not reveal source codes.
This prevents knowledgeable users from efficiently using the programs.
While every other product you buy lets you to modify it to your need (you do
not need to seek permission from your realtor to repaint your bedroom or
attach an additional jar for your mixer), software companies have
manipulated patent and copyright laws to forbid users from adding or
modifying their programs. Some intelligent and conscious programmers viewed
this as anti-social and initiated the Free Software Movement (Free as in
`speech' and not as in `lunch').
Thousands of programmers joined this movement that culminated as the Linux
Operating System and other Open Source software. Product released by these
volunteers are cleverly labeled as `copyleft' (to poke pun on `copyright')
^� which lets the user to peek into the source code, modify them and
redistribute them without any strings attached. The only obligation is to
make all modifications available as copyleft again.
As this pool of programs grew excellent products started emerging out in the
late nineties, weeding out the poor ones by natural selection. This has now
emerged as a true and potential alternative to commercial products. As the
source codes are freely available they are tested and driven to the limits
of their vulnerabilities and all security holes are blocked.
Linux is now estimated as the only operating system that grows in the market
share.
What is Mandrake-Linux?
There are several companies that collect all the free programs developed
by the users, test them for their integrity, package them and distribute
them at a moderate cost. While selling the free programs seem an irony, many
companies have successfully thrived and are continuing to grow despite the
overall downtrend in IT.
Mandrake is one of these companies that distribute Linux in a box. It
aims at taking Linux to the non-technical users and towards that they have
created some excellent installation and administration tools (which are
again available freely with source open). Always willing to experiment, the
engineers at Mandrake have worked closely with volunteers developing Tamil
programs for Linux and have now announced that their upcoming version 9.0
will enable users to configure their computers with a Tamil GUI.
You may be able to buy Mandrake Linux in the local bookstore or
electronic shop or through their web store. Like every other Linux
distributors, Mandrake also makes the entire product freely downloadable (it
comes to about 2 GB). But, by buying these Open Source products, you
contribute to those volunteers who devote their time and effort for this
laudable cause.
Unlike commercial OS, which requires buying a lot of extras (say an
Office Suite, a Photo editing tool, a drawing utility, etc.), most of the
Linux distributions come packed with hundreds of programs and an average
user should be able to get almost everything he needs right after the
installation.
How Tamil GUI is enabled?
The Linux volunteer base encompasses the entire globe. As such they have
a common need to make these programs inter-operable with many languages.
Their intelligent design of the GUI separates commands that are passed to
the core of the OS (known as the kernel) from the interface icons and
command prompts presented to the users. This enables easy translation of the
interface without knowing the finer details of the programs. Volunteers
working on these projects typically translate commands into their own
language. With some minor compilation it is then firmly integrated with the
program.
There are some additional tools necessary such as a keyboard driver,
the native language editor, etc. Several programmers have written such tools
for Tamil. An incomplete list of volunteers include (not in any particular
order) Sivaraj, T. Vaseeharan, Dinesh Nadarajah, Sivakumar, Gomathi,
Venkataramanan, Nagu Chinnaswamy, Prabu Anand, M.K. Saravanan. This list is
by no means exhaustive. Like a typical Linux volunteer cross section, Tamil
Linux programmers come from Canada, USA, Singapore, Japan, India and
Malaysia, largely interacting through the web and Internet discussion
groups.
It should also be mentioned that these works were possible due to several
pioneering efforts on Tamil computing by K. Kalyanasundram, Manivannan,
Muthu Nedumaran, Suvadi Ilango and others. There was also support and
encouragement from the International Federation of Information Technology in
Tamil (INFITT) and some industrial partners.
What are the opportunities?
Endless -- can be the only word that can quantify the floodgates of
opportunities open by this. Linux has proven to be an excellent and
reliable OS for all applications ^� from tiny laptops to supercomputers. In
a country like India, due to the digital divide, not even 30% of the
population has used the computers. Further penetration will be only
possible if computers are easier to use.
With Tamil enabled computers there will be enormous opportunities for the
vendors to design and build computers for local needs. As already indicated,
this will spur the growth of software tools for common applications such as
sales tax reporting. Other Indian languages will soon follow the advances
made in Tamil. As we master the art of enabling local language interfaces,
we will be ready to assimilate the new technologies as they emerge.
As Linux OS runs equally well on mean machines, it is possible to design and
implements low-cost computer laboratories for schools in our community.
Another potential area is computers for government offices. Open source
software has been found robust and secure and there are no hidden
vulnerabilities. Many developed countries have started adopting open source
solutions for e-governance.
It is a great coincidence that the first out-of-the box Indian language
computer is being released during the 5th Tamil Internet Conference to be
held in San Francisco, during 27-29th September 2002. Many interesting
discussions are expected during this conference.
Dr. V. Venkataramanan
http://www.tamillinux.org
Some Useful Websites
� The Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu.org)
� To know more about Linux (http://www.linux.org)
� Tamil Linux developments (http://www.tamillinux.org)
� Tamil Linux discussions (http://groups.yahoo.com/tamilinix)
� Mandrakesoft (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/)
� The International Federation of Information Technology in Tamil
(http://www.infitt.org)
The fifth International Tamil Internet Conference and
Exhibition at Foster City, California
(http://www.infitt.org/ti200s2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Compiled in public interest from material on the Net by:
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
This ZDNET UK News story has been forwarded to you by ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in.
They have added these comments:
------------------------------------------------------------
Government body says developing countries need open source
Developing countries should look at open-source software and should avoid
legislation designed to stop anti-copying measures being circumvented, a
government-backed group of influential experts will warn on Monday.
In its report, called Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and
Development Policy, the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights will
encourage developing countries to take a stand against unfair copyright
measures affecting online media, and against software pricing that puts
products beyond the reach of many citizens.
The commission, an independent body set up by the UK government in 2001,
includes on its board Professor John Barton of Stanford Law School and
Professor John Enderby, vice president of the Royal Society. Other
members include Daniel Alexander, a barrister specialising in
intellectual property law, Professor Carlos Correa of the University of
Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Dr Ramesh Mashelkar, director general of
the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and secretary to
the Indian government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
The report covers many areas of intellectual property, but the
recommendations on copyright, software and the Internet will add fuel to
debates over the use of open source in government and over copyright
protection mechanisms.
"Developing countries and their donor partners should carefully evaluate
the costs and benefits of using low-cost and/or open-source software
products," the report recommends. Publishers of software, as well as of
conventional and online materials, have a duty to review their pricing
policies to help reduce unauthorised copying and to ease access to their
products in developing countries, the commission believes. "The cost of
software is a major problem in developing countries and it is the
principal reason for illicit copying," it notes.
Part of the problem with proprietary software, says the commission, is
that publishers often make no allowance for markets in developing
countries where it notes many people live on less than $2 (£1.30) a day.
But the report goes further than other recent studies on the use of
open-source software in government, and recommends that to help adapt
software to meet local needs, developing countries should ensure that
their copyright laws allow reverse engineering of software programs
"while complying with relevant international treaties they have signed."
The commission cautions developing countries against some forms of
international treaty; in particular the WIPO copyright treaty, which many
countries are pressured into signing in return for monetary aid from
organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The WIPO Copyright Treaty, while being less restrictive than laws such as
the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the EU's Copyright Directive,
which is due to be enforced in the national laws of member states next
year, still "contains provisions of concern in developing countries,"
says the commission.
In the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has received a great deal
of criticism for making it illegal to circumvent technological
protection, even when the purpose of circumvention does no violate
copyright laws.
Developing countries are advised against passing similar laws, and the
commission goes so far as to advise them to declare void shrink-wrap
software licences in some cases.
"Internet users in developing countries should have fair use rights on
available information, including creating and distributing printed
electronic copies in reasonable numbers for educational and research
purposes and making reasonable excerpts in commentary and criticism,"
says the commission. "If suppliers of digital information or software
attempt to restrict fair use rights, either through contract provisions
or by technological methods of protection, the contract provisions may be
treated as void."
In particular, says the commission, developing countries should allow
their citizens to circumvent copyright protection mechanisms and should
not follow the example of the US and the EU by enacting laws that ban
such practices.
Even weak levels of copyright enforcement have had a major impact on
diffusion of knowledge and knowledge products throughout the developing
world. "Stronger protection and enforcement of copyright rules may well
reduce access to knowledge required by developing to support education
and research, and access to copyrighted products such as software," notes
the commission. "This would have damaging consequences for developing
their human resources and technological capacity, and for poor people."
The report is to be formally launched on Monday at an event in Geneva:
speakers will Clare Short MP, the UK secretary of state for International
Development; Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, director general of the World
Trade Organisation; and Dr Kamil Idris, director general of the World
Intellectual Property Organisation.
The full report is available at the Commission's Web site here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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On 17 Sep 2002 09:10:01 +0530, "P. Sugathan" <sugathan(a)nsc.ernet.in> wrote:
> The Kerala IT@School syllabus do mention about free software. But do
> they encourage using free software at school? The approach paper on
> IT@SCHOOL prepared by the Govt. do insist that, the computers bought by
> the school should have pre-installed Windows9x as operating system!!.So
> what is the point in telling the school children about philosophy of
> Free Software and asking them to work on proprietary Software.?
Yes, that does sound like a joke, doesn't it? Just goes to show what
we are up against when dealing with an irrational Government
bureaucracy :)
At this very moment, some free software advocates are seized of the
matter of the curriculum and are planning to do something about it.
Nevertheless, the fact that a few pages on software freedom made their
way into a school textbook for the first time (in India?) is quite an
achievement don't you think? It will start those young minds thinking
about it at least? And as has been stressed repeatedly on this list
and elsewhere, letting people know about the philosophy of free
software is far more important than getting them to use free software
immediately. Once they are knowledgeable about software freedom and
understand its implications, they will *ask* for free
software. Perhaps the students, teachers and parents too will see
through the irrationality of the syllabus?
Regards,
--
Khuzaima
[Thanks to ox-en]
Looks like Colombia is the next country to be contemplating a law on
free software a la Peru and Mexico. My Spanish is rotten (read,
non-existent after hijo di puta and vaya con dios ;-) so this message
is about what I understood from the Google translation, which isn't
particularly good.
FWIW, the original text is available at:
http://bachue.com/colibri/ley.html
The Google-translated page is at:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbachue.com%2Fcolibri%2…
Any Spanish-speakers here who could offer more information?
Regards,
-- Raju
--
Raju Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/
It is the mind that moves