Fsf-friends January 2003

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

25 participants
49 discussions

CDiT and OSSICS
by PostgreSQL Server 18 Jan '03

18 Jan '03

Hai, The CDiT has decided to strengthen its free software expertise. It has signed an MoU with OSS-Kochi for working together to promote free software usage in goverment sector. Regards, Anil, Kanhangad ATPS

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Kannur Science Park
by PostgreSQL Server 18 Jan '03

18 Jan '03

Hai friends, Kannur Science Park ( A project by Kannur District Panchayath) has decided to use free software alone for its science exhibition needs. It has plan to network different schools in Kannur and Kasaragod district. Kannur Science Park would like to provide latest scientifc information to these schools. They have invited suggestion for materialising their ideas. Can any one help Regards, Anil,Kanhangad ATPS

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'Vivara Vicharam'
by PostgreSQL Server 18 Jan '03

18 Jan '03

Hai friends, Please get a copy of 'Vivara Vicharam' published by ATPS(Appropriate Technology Promotion Society, a non-profit making charitable society at Kochi). The magazine mainly focused on free-software. Suggestions are invited for its improvement. Regards, Anil, Kanhangad ATPS

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Goldman Sachs: Fear the Penguin
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 16 Jan '03

16 Jan '03

Goldman Sachs: Fear the Penguin By James Maguire www.NewsFactor.com, Part of the NewsFactor Network January 15, 2003 Goldman Sachs believes that Linux' emergence "will most directly benefit independent PC semiconductor companies (Intel and AMD) and Intel-based server businesses (Dell)." Linux will emerge as the dominant operating system in corporate data centers, according to a new study by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). According to the study, IT buyers will use Linux to take advantage of lower-cost, higher-performance Intel-based servers -- and to avoid "premium-priced proprietary systems." Eventually, systems running Linux will displace systems based on Unix and RISC processors. "Many observers confine Linux's enterprise opportunity to the market for low-end 'edge' servers such as file, print, Web, and e-mail servers," the study, entitled "Fear The Penguin," notes. "But we are confident that the technical developments and market forces are in place for it also to become the dominant OS on the higher-end servers of the enterprise data center." Linux-on-Intel Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) research director Josh Walker agreed that Linux is on a path to dominate the data center. "The cost pressures that IT departments are under makes Linux a very compelling purchase," he told NewsFactor. But Walker said he believes that although Linux will displace many high-end systems, it will not replace them all. "There will always be the 20 percent that require the high overhead of better load balancing and fault tolerance" of RISC-based units, he noted. Winners and Losers Goldman Sachs believes that Linux' emergence "will most directly benefit independent PC semiconductor companies (Intel and AMD) and Intel-based server businesses (Dell)." It also will benefit "open" infrastructure software vendors, such as BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) , BMC Software, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) and Veritas. Yet the rise of Linux will have a mixed impact on proprietary systems companies like Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) , IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) , the study says, also claiming that "it may negatively impact overall software pricing." While Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) is "well on its way to establishing a definitive standard for enterprise Linux," Goldman Sachs acknowledges, "we also believe it is primarily a service provider and that it should be valued as such." Pace of Adoption The study also notes that while many observers expect Linux' emergence to be rapid, it is instead likely to "follow the more measured pace of server hardware upgrade cycles." One important factor slowing adoption will be lagging support from packaged Linux application vendors. On the other hand, "Trends such as server consolidation and wider deployment of J2EE-based computing models could significantly accelerate rates of adoption," the study suggests. Linux vs. Windows Unlike in the server market, Goldman Sachs believes Linux will not win market share from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in the desktop market in the near term. Forrester's Walker agreed, saying that "the cost savings [of switching to Linux] would be very high, but companies shy away from that because of the training needed." However, the study notes, Linux will "hamper the movement of Windows into the enterprise data center, an area that Microsoft has only recently begun to target for growth." It will do this by providing an easier migration path from current Unix-based deployments. "This shift will limit Windows' market opportunity in the data center for both its OS and its applications that run on that platform," the study concludes. ***********************************************************************y Posted by N.S. Soundara Rajan, Freelance IT journalist, Columnist "Deccan Herald", Spoken English Teacher and Knowledge networker ...connecting people to people, and people to knowledge

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World e-Governance Standards Committee
by CK Raju 16 Jan '03

16 Jan '03

Birth of another clone of WTO - Going by this report (The Hindu 13/01) it appears that Microsoft, Intel and Sandhill Systems (a proxy ?) are all set to establish a world standards committee (regulatory authority) on e-Governance, first draft to be produced before March 2003. FSF should be taking this message quite seriously, and discussions should start at all national forums to stop this 'cancer' from spreading. Ironically, while these corporates follow the philosophy of 'invisible hand' (unregulated, corrected by markets), most of the times when 'they' fear getting eliminated, 'they' themselves step in to function as a regulatory body. (Views of Samir Amin) CK Raju

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TheOpenCD Translations
by henrik＠theopencd.org 16 Jan '03

16 Jan '03

Hello, I see that some of you have started using and disributing TheOpenCD in India, which is great! For our next version, due out this spring we will focus on internationalisation by adding multiple language versions of major programs and other CD content. The new mozilla-based CD browser now has multi-language capabilities. I see by the OpenOffice pages: http://l10n.openoffice.org/localization_responsibilities.html That there are some Indian language versions in the works; any further news on the progress? It would be great if we could get some help translating our web pages and CD-browser content! Thanks, Henrik http://theopecd.org

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FW: [bytesforall_readers] New software to assist NGO documentatio n of human rights abuses (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Fred, Brendan Nyhan passed your note on to me. We designed Martus software to be compatible with GNU/Linux and the program appears to work though we haven't tested it extensively. We are just looking into working on an installation process at this time. This could be an opportunity for designers in the free software community to have a hand in its development. Please let me know if there are other questions I can help out on. Best, Marc ________________________ Marc B. Levine Senior Product Manager, The Martus Project www.martus.org A Project of The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity 870 Market Street, Suite 1214 San Francisco, CA 94102 USA (415) 394-9838 (415) 394-6560 (fax) marc(a)benetech.org www.benetech.org ------ Forwarded Message From: Frederick Noronha <fred(a)bytesforall.org> Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 23:14:22 +0530 (IST) To: Brendan Nyhan <bnyhan(a)benetech.org> Cc: Niranjan Rajani <niranjan.rajani(a)maailma.net> Subject: [bytesforall_readers] New software to assist NGO documentation of human rights abuses (fwd) Great! Does this work on the GNU/Linux or the Windows platform? If the former, I could popularise it among Free Software circuits here. If not, you could include it on the Open CD network (a CD containing GPLd software that works with Windows). An interesting idea! FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Bytes For All readers - I wanted to let everyone know that the nonprofit I work for, The Benetech Initiative, just released our human rights software, The Martus Human Rights Bulletin System. The release (with URL) is below; the main Martus site where people can download the software is http://www.martus.org. Sincerely - Brendan Nyhan http://www.martus.org/project_update.html NEW SOFTWARE PROVIDES SECURE WORLDWIDE TRACKING AND DOCUMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES The Benetech Initiative and The Asia Foundation team up to deliver The Martus(tm) Human Rights Bulletin System Palo Alto, Calif. - Jan. 15, 2003 - The Benetech Initiative, a Silicon Valley nonprofit, today announced the release of The Martus Human Rights Bulletin System, an open source technology tool designed to assist human rights organizations in collecting, safeguarding, organizing and disseminating information about human rights abuses. Through a partnership with The Asia Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit working on the ground in Asia, Martus will first be implemented in the Philippines to provide better resources to groups combating hundreds of human rights violations per year. Currently, much of the violation and abuse information gathered by grassroots human rights groups is lost to confiscation, destruction, or neglect, making it difficult or impossible for prosecutors, truth commissions and others to use the information as evidence to hold the perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable for many of their crimes. The Martus software enables grassroots NGOs to securely store their records on off-site servers with easy-to-use software, preserving crucial evidence for research, investigation and prosecutions. "Grassroots NGOs told us it was essential that the software be easy to use, so we modeled it after the simple interface of email," said Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech. In the Philippines, The Asia Foundation is sponsoring and facilitating the first implementation and training of the Martus software in the 22 offices of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, and a network of domestic human rights organizations. In February, the software will be installed on Internet-connected workstations, allowing these organizations to securely document and disseminate information on human rights cases for the first time, which in turn will facilitate and improve the process of investigation, prosecution, assistance, and advocacy for victims of human rights violations. "Information technology has the potential to dramatically improve the ability of human rights groups to manage information, giving them evidence to prosecute perpetrators," said Dr. Steven Rood, Country Representative of The Asia Foundation in the Philippines. "The Martus software provides a platform for nongovernmental human rights advocates to communicate with the Commission on Human Rights in a secure manner, and will provide detailed information to help press for broader reforms." The software was designed in consultation with human rights groups and experts worldwide, including Dr. Patrick Ball of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world's leading human rights statisticians and Senior Advisor to the project. Beta testing took place in Guatemala, Russia, Sri Lanka and the US. Aspiration, an organization specializing in nonprofit technology implementation, has supported the development and introduction of the Martus system. Jonathan Peizer, Aspiration's President, says, "The Martus software is essential for human rights groups working to document abuses. We are now working actively to help support its deployment." Future applications of the Martus software for social justice groups include monitoring other issues like violence against women, human trafficking, environmental destruction and hate crimes. The software and its source code are available for download at http://www.martus.org. About Benetech http://www.benetech.org The Benetech Initiative is a Silicon Valley nonprofit that develops technology projects addressing major social problems in areas such as disability, human rights, literacy, education, and the digital divide. Its purpose is to use the high technology enterprise model to address pressing social problems. Many technologies have compelling social applications that are not developed because such efforts do not meet investors' financial expectations. Benetech specifically pursues endeavors with a strong social, rather than financial, return on investment, bringing commercial technology and private sector management techniques to bear in creating innovative, non-traditional solutions to problems ranging from literacy to human rights. The Martus Project was funded by a major grant from the Information Program of the Open Society Institute, as well as by individual donors and the Benetech Initiative itself. About The Asia Foundation http://www.asiafoundation.org The Asia Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports programs in Asia that help improve governance and law, economic reform and development, women's participation, and international relations. Drawing on nearly 50 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, technical assistance, exchanges, policy research, and educational materials. With a network of 17 offices throughout Asia, an office in Washington, D.C., headquarters in San Francisco, the Foundation addresses these issues on both a country and regional level. The Asia Foundation has a proven track record of success. In just the past fiscal year of 2002, the Foundation has provided grants, educational materials, and other resources of more than $50 million to 21 countries in Asia and through its Books for Asia program has distributed over 750,000 books to over 4,000 schools and other regional educational institutions. During the past five years, the Foundation has supported more than 800 public interest NGOs. The Asia Foundation has been working in the Philippines since 1954 and has a trusted network of partners. With funding from the U.S. State Department, The Asia Foundation is supporting this first implementation of the Martus system in the Philippines. Contact: Brendan Nyhan The Benetech Initiative Phone: 202/588-8269 Email: bnyhan(a)benetech.org Contact: Jennifer C. Betti The Asia Foundation Phone: 415/743-3367 Email: jbetti(a)asiafound.org ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Turn flat surfaces into speakers with the Soundbug. http://us.click.yahoo.com/QWAVSC/onCFAA/xGHJAA/C7EolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: bytesforall_readers-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------ End of Forwarded Message

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[OFFTOPIC] NEWS: India's first computerised village council in Kerala (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 15 Jan '03

15 Jan '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- India's first computerised village council in Kerala By Sanu George, Indo-Asian News Service Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (IANS) A Kerala village is all set to create a record -- as the first to have a fully computerised grassroots administration in India. The Vellanad 'gram panchayat', or village council, 20 km south of this city, will be declared fully computerised Wednesday by state IT Minister P.K. Kunjalikutty. The Information Kerala Mission (IKM), a project of the state-owned autonomous institution, Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, took up the computerisation of Vellanad. The entire cost of computerisation came to Rs.600,000. "It took IKM almost a year to fully computerise the village council," said the Local Self-Government Minister Cherkalam Abdullah at a news conference here Tuesday. "As a result, certificates for deaths, births, marriages and taxes will be ready for villagers in a matter of minutes." IKM has developed 12 different packages for application at the village level. A survey of the socio-economic status of villagers, a databank on the qualifications of the unemployed in the area and the financial position of the administration will be among information now available at the click of a mouse. Staff at Vellanad has undergone two computer-training programmes, and a final one is scheduled to commence on January 20. IKM is hoping that the forthcoming Global Investors Meet on January 18-19 will help spot a suitable investor to take up computerisation of all 1,214 local bodies in the state. Among the biggest project proposals of the local self-government ministry is one worth Rs.7.5 billion that is getting ready to be showcased at the meet. --Indo-Asian News Service

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Kannur shows the way
by Sujeevan Pullanhiotan 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

Hi All, Kannur Achieved a unique feat by implementing very cost effective and economicaly sustainalbe( the least expensive approach known sofar!!)computer education facilities for school children. Children of 49 Govt. schools in Kannur parliamentary constituency will now have access to their own computer facilities running on GNU/Linux Operating sysytem packed with the latest GNU free softwares.The computer facilities are being setup at schools and the first facility setup at Valapatnam Govt Scholl will be inagurated by Shri A P Abdullakutty, Hon. M P ( Member of Parliamnet) of Kannur at 10 A M on 14- Jan 03. The resource for the project comes from the Constituency Development Fund of Kannur M P Shri A P Abdullakutty and is being implented by Keltron who provided the hardware facilities. The Software solution and support is provided by Swatantra Software Solutions & Support( S2S2),at Kannur who implented the cost effective LTSP( Linux Terminal Server) solution. The computer facility include One P4 Sever and many diskless workstation using etherboot to load Redhat 8 Operating system. The other GNU software package include, Openoffice, multimdedia, programming tools, and many applets for educational use( physics, chemistry maths etc.) all installed using GLUE CD. Regards Sujeevan S2S2, Kannur

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security- a discussion
by Manjush G. Menon 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

hi guys, Check out the forwarded message, which originated from the following groups. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: linux-middleeast(a)yahoogroups.com, arab-linux(a)yahoogroups.com From: Peters A P <peters1968(a)yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 03:38:36 -0800 (PST) Subject: [arab-linux] I found this and thought this might be of interest Aberdeen Group says Linux/UNIX is as vulnerable as Windows Turning up the heat up another notch on a long-simmering debate, the Aberdeen Group has published a study comparing the security of Linux/UNIX systems with that of the Microsoft Windows family of products "Contrary to popular misperception, Microsoft does not have the worst track record when it comes to security vulnerabilities. Also contrary to popular wisdom, UNIX- and Linux-based systems are just as vulnerable to viruses, Trojan horses, and worms," Aberdeen's report states. Based on CERT advisories for 2001 and 2002, Aberdeen reached the following conclusions: "Virus and Trojan horse advisories affecting Microsoft products peaked at six in 2001, which then bottomed out at zero for the first 10 months of 2002 Virus and Trojan horse advisories affecting UNIX, Linux, and open source software products went from one in 2001 to two for the first 10 months of 2002 Advisories affecting network equipment products jumped from two in 2001 to six for the first 10 months of 2002 Firewalls and other security products were affected by just two advisories in 2001, but have been linked to seven advisories for the first 10 months of 2002." The report also points out that Apple is becoming vulnerable, "now that it is fielding an operating system [OS X] with embedded Internet protocols and UNIX utilities." Windows vs. Linux/UNIX vulnerabilities Aberdeen Group report, vol. 1, no. 35, is dated Nov 12, 2002, and it's a brief but interesting read. I can't post a direct link since you have to subscribe to see the report. But it doesn't cost anything, so I recommend that you go to the Aberdeen site, register, and then take a look at the entire report Some people will dismiss the report as Microsoft-sponsored hot air, but the raw data is there for everyone to see in CERT's Advisories and Incident Notes, giving legitimacy to The Aberdeen Group's conclusion that open source operating systems in general, the new Mac OS X, and critical security programs themselves, aren't as safe as many proponents suggest The underlying data is worth a close look. No new Windows platform virus or Trojan CERT advisories were issued in the period of January 2002 through October 2002. CERT's confirmed vulnerabilities list shows that the threat level is growing faster for Linux/UNIX platforms than for Windows. This could be a statistical anomaly due to the much larger number of Linux/UNIX versions (although there are actually fewer versions available now, as there has been consolidation in both the Linux and UNIX markets in recent years). So the number of threats is growing while the number of Linux/UNIX versions is shrinking Perhaps this is an indication that UNIX is becoming less genetically diverse and therefore is more vulnerable to attack because the market isn't so fragmented. One Microsoft virus would attack a lot of systems, but it used to take a slightly different virus for every version of Linux/UNIX. That's not always the case anymore Rating vulnerabilities The open source community sometimes claims that vulnerabilities are "more serious" in Windows, but I don't know of an objective way to measure that. And lacking a generally accepted method, all we are left with are the raw numbers. Microsoft rates vulnerabilities when it publishes a patch, but we need a comparable way to rate Linux/UNIX bugs if we're going to compare the seriousness of the patches released for these platforms It's useful to look at incidents as well as confirmed vulnerabilities (advisories). Although this isn't exactly the same as measuring how serious a vulnerability is, it provides a good way for those in the security business to judge how many attacks are taking place, or at least how many are being reported According to the Aberdeen report, "In 1995 the incidents reported by CERT numbered 2,412. However, incidents tracked by CERT skyrocketed from 21,756 in 2000 to 52,658 in 2001, and then to 73,359 for the first nine months of 2002. Clearly, the trend in incidents and advisories is going up, and at an alarming rate." However, we should always take incident statistics with a grain of salt. After all, vulnerabilities are easy to count, but who knows how many attacks go unreported Microsoft has recently announced a new policy for rating vulnerabilities. The company says this was due to customer complaints about far too many "critical" warnings, which compelled administrators to patch vulnerabilities even when the critical rating was not warranted by the actual risk According to Microsoft's director of security assistance, Steve Lipner, the new rating system will expand the old Critical-Moderate-Low reporting scale to include Important, which will fall between Critical and Moderate Most of the old Critical vulnerabilities will now be labeled Important, including threats that could lead to system penetration and file compromise. The Critical rating will be reserved for Internet threats (e.g., major disasters of the Code Red variety) A new two-tier security bulletin system with a less technical bulletin service will also be hosted at http://www.microsoft.com/security/ to supplement the current one, which many users found simply too technical A recent eWeek report brings yet another aspect of this subject to the forefront by pointing out that White House Cybersecurity Tsar, Richard Clark, has called for mandatory vulnerability reporting to a central federal government office. This would require any security firm discovering a new vulnerability to report it with the goal of forcing vendors to respond more quickly to new threats Others feel this may lead to premature disclosure of vulnerabilities, which happened in the past when the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center attempted to coordinate reports with various vendors The newly organized (Sept. 26, 2002) Organization for Internet Safety is also developing a proposed set of guidelines for timely and safe reporting of vulnerabilities. OIS founders include Microsoft, @stake, Symantec, Caldera, Network Associates, BindView, and Oracle, so there may be some muscle behind these guidelines Final word We will probably always be comparing apples and oranges when we try to see how the number and severity of vulnerabilities found in the major competing platforms match up. But this really doesn't matter in the real world. The bottom line is that if a vulnerability leads to intrusions on your network, it's a problem, and it doesn't matter whether the vulnerability was a "high" risk or a "low" risk, only whether it cost you time and money to deal with it Most of us are supporting legacy systems and always will be. Only new companies have the luxury of selecting a platform based only on security, performance, and initial cost. That's further limited to only new companies that have an expert IT staff in place to advise the company founders before they buy a single computer. It's far more likely that a platform decision will be based on the experience of the founders, the vendor who gets there first with the best proposal, or, most likely of all, which platform runs a line-of-business application that the company needs The Aberdeen Report concludes that the reduction in Microsoft vulnerabilities is the result of the company's much-touted new security initiative. It may be too early to determine that, but it is a relief to see that no major viruses have besieged Windows in 2002 As for Microsoft's new security labeling system, I think it is useful. It makes sense to reserve the Critical rating for those dangerous global threats that can spread around the world quickly and temporarily threaten the integrity of corporate systems ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Have a great day ~~Manjush

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Fsf-friends January 2003