Fsf-friends September 2002

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

14 participants
33 discussions

BBCTV focuses on GNU/Linux ...
by Frederick Noronha 21 Sep '02

21 Sep '02

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

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What makes Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) attractive?
by Frederick Noronha 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

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?

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NEWS: Indian computing seeks allies, solutions from wide range
by Frederick Noronha 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

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

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FLOSS study: EU researches benefits of Free/Libre OSS
by Frederick Noronha 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

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. ------------------------------------------------------------------

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NEWS: FSF's open letter to UnitedLinux Board
by Frederick Noronha 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

------------------------------------------------------------------ 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/ ------------------------------------------------------------------

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RMS: why open source needs Free Software's ideals
by Arun M 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

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

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IndicComputing Bytes #001
by Frederick Noronha 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

-------------------------------------------------------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

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ZDNet UK News: Government body says developing countries need open source
by ajith＠nsc.ernet.in 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ See the Digital Rights News Section for the latest on DVD-Ram, DVD-RW, zoning and copy protection. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. ZDNet News: The UK's best source for computing news - updated throughout the day. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/ Please report any abuse of this service to ukwebmaster(a)zdnet.com

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Re: [Fsf-friends] IT Vision
by klak＠giasbm01.vsnl.net.in 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

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

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Columbia next country to try for a free software law?
by Raju Mathur 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

[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

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Fsf-friends September 2002