Fsf-friends February 2003

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

17 participants
50 discussions

To open software within three years
by Manjush G.Menon 26 Sep '05

26 Sep '05

Original Message ----- From: "IT@School" <itschool(a)asianetindia.com> To: <manjushmenon(a)hotmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 5:08 PM Subject: Reply > Mr.Manjush G. Menon > We are not giving to depend totally on Ms. Products. Rather MS > Office is taught along with open office and Windows along with Linux > from this year. Arranging the resource persons for training an open > software, making available the software, the maintenance of a help desk > etc. are logistical issues which could not be immediately undertaken. > We plan switch out to open software within three years. > Executive Director > ---- Original Message ----- From: Manjush G. Menon To: itschool(a)asianetindia.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 5:46 PM Subject: Respected sir, From Manjush G. Menon, Sr.Programmer, Sofker Solutions Pvt Ltd, Kochi-18. To The Executive Director, 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project, SCERT Buildings, Poojapura, Thiruvananthapuram-12. Respected sir, SUB: In protest against the inclusion of products from multinational companies in the syllabus of 'IT @ SCHOOL' It's a very dissappointing fact that when the whole world is moving towards Free software, we at kerala are going behind a major MNC - Microsoft. I hereby register my protest in such an act from 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project team. Breaking of prototypes will definetly help us in finding economical and high quality products for our future generation. For students and programmers, the GNU Linux contains 'GNU Compiler Collections' which includes C, C++, FORTRAN, PERL, TCL etc. Also, for DTP and other publishing purposes, it includes GNU Office utilities like Abi-Word, gedit, and other worksheet utilities, all these with a nominal cost of Rs 700-800/-. The software as it is, is free and the cost is accounted towards the media (CD + Documentation) included. By this letter, I urge you to take this matter seriously and suggest necessary modifications in the action plan of 'IT @ SCHOOL' project. Wishing you all the best and wishing all 'Students @ SCHOOL' a bright future, Thanking you, Yours faithfully Manjush G. Menon. ______________________________________________________ Check out all the latest outrageous email attachments on the Outrageous Email Chart! - http://viral.lycos.co.uk

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PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 16 Sep '04

16 Sep '04

Thanks to George Lessard for posting this across. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva is pushing legislation to obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software. Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it. Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software industry by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding controlled by a few large companies. Open-source could take the expense out of software upgrades; which is important for a country like Peru that owes about $30 million in overdue software license fees. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press] (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3531007.htm)

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The Best Battleground for Linux?
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 28 Feb '03

28 Feb '03

The Best Battleground for Linux? Contributed by James Maguire, www.osOpinion.com, Part of the NewsFactor Network When dealing with applications like back-end accounting, it helps to be able to mold programs to an individual enterprise. Linux, with its open source approach, lends itself to this. Restaurant chain Papa John's (Nasdaq: PZZA) is an unlikely place for the great operating system war between Windows and Linux to play out. Papa John's motto, after all, is "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza." Pretty low-tech. But with 2,900 stores across the country, Papa John's has significant IT needs. In a recent major overhaul, the company replaced its vintage electronic cash registers with terminals that use Linux to link to back-end accounting. And Papa John's is not alone. Consider Regal Cinemas, which claims to be the world's largest motion picture exhibitor, with 5,663 screens in 36 states. The last time you bought an extra large popcorn with extra butter at a Regal theatre, that sale was transmitted to the chain's accounting department through a network running the Linux OS. Both businesses recently began using Linux for the same reasons as many other companies: The open source OS is markedly cheaper than Microsoft Windows; it requires less computing power to run; and its customizability means businesses can tweak it to fit their individual needs. A Third Battleground In fact, the market for customized business applications can be thought of as the third battleground between dominant Windows and upstart Linux. The first battleground is the server market. Estimates vary as to how much of the server market is run by Linux, but 20 percent is a commonly used figure. Linux has gained success in the server market because the individuals who run it, unlike average office workers, are comfortable dealing with the obscurities of programming code. If the kernel needs to be recompiled, that's no problem for the unusual breed of human known as the IT professional. The Second Battleground (The Tough One) The second battleground on which Linux and Windows are battling for market share in the desktop market. But unlike the customized business applications market or the server market, the desktop market is a tough sell for Linux. The problem? All of those Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) applications like Word and Excel that we know and love won't operate in the Linux environment without a lot of help, if at all. Even more than the Windows OS itself, those popular programs are the source of Microsoft's dominance on the desktop. An Open Third Market But the market for customized business applications, the Papa John's of the world, doesn't lean toward Microsoft as much the desktop market does. Without anchors like the Office suite, buyers are free to choose the best option without concern for previous proprietary standards. Microsoft, of course, will not quietly concede this lucrative market. But even if the software giant can lower its prices to fight back, it faces a critical disadvantage in the customized application market: the tweak factor. When dealing with applications like back-end accounting, it really helps to be able to mold the program to the individual enterprise. Linux, with its open source approach, lends itself to this. Since Microsoft does not release its code, its product cannot be custom tweaked for individual use. In the server and desktop market, this was a strength. The company guards the secret code, giving it a competitive advantage. This doesn't work in the customized business application market. What was once a strength is now a weakness. And Linux may step in to fill the gap. _______________________________________________________________________________ Posted by N.S. Soundara Rajan, Freelance IT journalist, Columnist "Deccan Herald", Spoken English Teacher & Knowledge networker ...connecting people to people, and people to knowledge

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Re: [ilug_sm] Workshop on GNU/Linux in Kolhapur ... inviting speakers
by FN 28 Feb '03

28 Feb '03

If you have any suggestions, please contact The GNU/Linuxer <thegnuer(a)yahoo.de> FN On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, The GNU/Linuxer wrote: > Hello LUGgers, > As a few of you know, I am a Second Year Student of Computer Science & > Engg. at D.Y.Patil College of Engg & Tech., Kolhapur. Today I talked to > my HOD about holding a two-day [preferably] workshop in my college on > GNU/Linux. He has given me the green signal. It is a great oppotunity > for us to promote the use of FLOSS in the South Maharashtra region. I > want you to conduct the workshop. Please let me know who are available > for the workshop which will be conducted preferably on weekend. I have > thought about the topics which are likely to be covered in the workshop > which is as follows. Do tell me about necessary additions if any. > 1. Brief Intro to GNU/Linux - The GPL, FSF, etc. > 2. Basic Installation of a GNU/Linux system > 3. About the CLI - Basic commands > 4. System Admin. > 5. Networking in GNU/Linux > 6. Network Security & Net Admin. > 7. Programming Environment in GNU/Linux etc. > Please please come forward to this event. Believe me, it's going to > change the [mis]conceptions about GNU/Linux by a great deal. > I am eagerly looking forward to your response ... > Bhaskar Ghose -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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GNOME translation...
by FN 27 Feb '03

27 Feb '03

Hi Christian, I came across a month-old page of stats from GNOME... of all places, via a LUG from Bangladesh. In India, a number of diverse efforts seem to be underway to localize GNU/Linux in the wide variety of regional and non-English languages we have here. It would be great if you could build closer links with groups working in this arena (particularly accessible through networks like the Indic-Computing forum on Sourceforge). I will share your stats with groups that could get further interested. Regards, FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 24 Jan 2003 01:55:22 +0100 From: Christian Rose <menthos(a)menthos.com> To: gnome-i18n(a)gnome.org Cc: release-team(a)gnome.org, desktop-devel-list(a)gnome.org Subject: GNOME 2.2 Translation Statistics and Rankings Here we go again. Last week I summarized the translation statistics and sent it out to gnome-i18n(a)gnome.org, and as a week has passed it's probably a good idea to do so again. The numbers (percentage of translated messages) are taken from our 2.1 core translation status page (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/status/gnome-2.1-core/) and then I have sorted the languages by level of completedness, and ranked them. There is also the level of support (using the http://www.gnome.org/i18n/ definitions of "supported") the languages would recieve if GNOME 2.2 was released now. Enjoy! Last week's Difference Ranking Lang. Percent Level of support ranking in ranking ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 lv 100.00 Supported 1 1 nl 100.00 Supported 8 +7 1 sv 100.00 Supported 1 4 cs 99.98 Supported 4 4 da 99.98 Supported 5 +1 4 de 99.98 Supported 5 +1 4 es 99.98 Supported 1 -3 8 sk 99.78 Supported 15 +7 9 el 99.53 Supported 7 -2 10 sl 99.05 Supported 21 +11 11 pt_BR 98.61 Supported 13 +2 12 no 98.56 Supported 9 -3 13 vi 97.11 Supported 17 +4 14 ca 95.84 Supported 20 +6 15 mn 95.35 Supported -- +43 16 fi 94.83 Supported 11 -5 17 fr 94.75 Supported 10 -7 18 ms 91.63 Supported 12 -6 19 pl 91.62 Supported 16 -3 20 zh_TW 91.43 Supported 19 -1 21 ko 90.21 Supported 14 -7 22 ru 89.61 Supported 23 +1 23 bg 89.02 Supported 18 -5 24 zh_CN 87.11 Supported 24 25 ro 85.47 Supported 30 +5 26 hu 84.72 Supported 22 -4 27 uk 84.00 Supported 29 +2 28 pt 77.83 Partially supported 25 -3 29 be 75.09 Partially supported 26 -3 30 ja 75.00 Partially supported 27 -3 31 he 71.87 Partially supported 28 -3 32 tr 70.18 Partially supported 31 -1 33 it 64.28 Partially supported 32 -1 34 et 55.26 Partially supported 34 35 gl 46.98 Unsupported 33 -2 36 az 40.85 Unsupported 35 -1 37 am 39.08 Unsupported 36 -1 38 hi 37.98 Unsupported 37 -1 39 mk 36.82 Unsupported 38 -1 40 ar 36.02 Unsupported 39 -1 41 wa 33.00 Unsupported 40 -1 42 lt 32.33 Unsupported 41 -1 43 eu 30.20 Unsupported 42 -1 44 nn 27.50 Unsupported 43 -1 45 ta 25.12 Unsupported 44 -1 46 sq 24.00 Unsupported 45 -1 47 fa 4.32 Unsupported 46 -1 48 ga 3.64 Unsupported 47 -1 49 sp 2.38 Unsupported 48 -1 50 sr 2.38 Unsupported 49 -1 51 bs 2.31 Unsupported 50 -1 52 en_GB 1.48 Unsupported 51 -1 53 th 1.01 Unsupported 52 -1 54 bn 0.61 Unsupported -- +4 55 hr 0.47 Unsupported 53 -2 56 ia 0.32 Unsupported 54 -2 57 en@ipa 0.29 Unsupported 55 -2 58 cy 0.20 Unsupported 56 -2 59 es_ES 0.01 Unsupported 57 -2 So let's summarize. We have two new languages this week, Mongolian (mn) and Bengali (bn). Bengali enters the list at 54th place (Unsupported), but Mongolian makes the impossible possible and enters the list at a whopping 15th place (Supported). Sanlig Badral, Ochirbat Batzaya, Tegshbayar, Bayarsaihan and the other guys in the Mongolian team have certainly made an impressive start by jumping right in in the top crowd with over 95% translated messages! The Mongolian team started their work on GNOME translations less than a month ago, and in that short period of time they've managed to translate no less than 11455 messages. Incredible! We now have 27 supported languages (>80%), whereas we had only 23 last week. Out of those, 3 are at exactly 100% (also 3 last week). We have 7 partially supported languages (50%<x<80%), whereas we had 9 last week. The reduction here is most likely due to the increase of supported languages. Keep 'em coming... :-) Christian PS. If anyone wonders about language codes, you'll find them all explained on http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html. DS. -- _____ _ _ _ | ___| __ ___ __| | ___ _ __(_) ___| | __ Freelance Journo, Goa India | |_ | '__/ _ \/ _` |/ _ \ '__| |/ __| |/ / http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | _|| | | __/ (_| | __/ | | | (__| < http://www.bytesforall.org |_| |_| \___|\__,_|\___|_| |_|\___|_|\_\ http://opennews.indianissues.org -- Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783 Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference

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BusinessWeek on Linux
by Raj Mathur 26 Feb '03

26 Feb '03

[Cross-posted] The BusinessWeek Online of March 3, 2003 has a large section devoted to Linux: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/03_09/B382203linux.htm Contents: The Linux Uprising How a ragtag band of software geeks is threatening Sun and Microsoft--and turning the computer world upside down Pecked by Penguins So far, Microsoft's attempts to counter the Linux threat have come up short Commentary: Tech Outfits Should Take Notes Online Extra: The Big Guys Latch Onto Linux As the startups struggle or burn out, heavyweights such as IBM, Dell, Oracle, and HP are moving quickly to dominate this new market Online Extra: Red Flags for Red Hat Though the Linux sales-and-support outfit has seen strong recent growth, some analysts think the stock is overvalued Online Extra: Next from Open Source: Killer Apps? Now, programmers are going beyond operating systems to build business software products based on open code Online Extra: Before Linux Is on Every Desktop... ...It's more likely to keep making greater strides in single-use areas, such as cash registers, than in consumers' PCs Online Extra: Sun: It's Not "Linux or Nothing" CEO Scott McNealy answers those who say the free OS threatens his Unix-based products: "A vote for Linux is a vote for Unix" Online Extra: "Programmers Are Like Artists" Linux expert Bruce Perens on the motives of people who work on open-source software -- and the communities it creates -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ It is the mind that moves

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GNULinuxInIndia o Feb 26, 2003
by FN 26 Feb '03

26 Feb '03

e88~~\ 888b | 888 | / 888 888 ,e, d888 |Y88b | 888 | L 888 888-~88e e88~\888 " /~~~8e 8888 __ | Y88b | 888 | I 888 888 888 d888 888 888 88b 8888 | | Y88b | 888 | N 888 888 888 8888 888 888 e88~-888 Y888 | | Y88b| Y88 | U 888 888 888 Y888 888 888 C888 888 "88__/ | Y888 "8__/ X 888 888 888 "88_/888 888 "88_-888 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Formerly LinuxInIndia * Compiled by: Frederick Noronha * Feb 26,2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. GNU/LINUX... IN EDUCATION: Vinayak <vinayak_hegde(a)softhome.net> an APGDST student at the NCST in Juhu from the Mumbai LUG <linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in> lists reasons why GNU/Linux makes sense in education: o GNU/Linux is the best operating system when it comes to education. students can tinker with the internal of the system and get to learn a lot in the process. o Easy to fix. Commercial support price is not exorbitant. You are not tied down to a particular vendor.... o Most Reputed Institutes and R&D organisations (IIT, IISc some RECs, TIFR, C-DAC, NASA etc) use GNU/Linux. o Open Standards compliant. o Almost Virus-free. o Most technologies and standards are first implemted in GNU/Linux and then elseware. (examples being first OS to be ported to Intel Itanium architecture) o Unimaginably scalable (Runs from anything from wristwatches and PDAs to cluster supercomputers and mainframes). o Now backed by major corporations such as IBM and Oracle. o Very customisable as source code is available. o Last but not the least free (as in "free beer" :D ). So extremely cost-effective. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. GNUunify ALL INDIA FREE SOFTWARE FESTIVAL: The Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research(SICSR), under its annual Unify festival, organized the first ever Free Software Festival in India on Feb 15-16, 2003. For a report of the event contact Kanti Jadia (j_kanti(a)rediffmail.com) URL's for reference o http://www.gnunify.org o http://www.symbiosiscomputer.com o http://www.iitb.ac.in o http://www.vjti.ac.in o http://www.plug.org.in o http://www.ilug-bom.org.in/ o http://www.simputer.org o http://www.mit.gov.in Perhaps one could also add: gnu.org.in -- the home page of the Free Software Foundation (India) -- and http://www.linux-india.org (LinuxIndia). .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. FINALLY, SOMETHING IN INDIAN LANGUAGES: IndLinux Hindi v0.37 (milan) released: Guntupalli Karunakar <karunakar(a)freedomink.org> that indefitagable campaigner for Indic solutions in GNU/Linux, came up with this announcement on Feb 20. IndLinux Hindi v0.37 (milan) is released Download it from http://www.indlinux.org/downloads/index.php or directly from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/indlinux/IndLinux-Hindi-0.37.tar.gz?down… Read release, installation and usage notes at http://www.indlinux.org/doc/IndLinux-Hindi-0.37-README.txt More about the IndLinux team at http://www.indlinux.org .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. NEWS FROM EASTERN INDIA: Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay <sankarshanm(a)softhome.net> sent in some interesting udpates. o Nirmalya Lahiri and Sankarshan himself have managed to get up and running the LTSP at a local privately run college [Sarsuna College] with 50 PCs. This college for all practical administrative purposes has shifted to the OSS platform, with major IT related administrative functions being carried out with least increase in cost and major value addition. Staff orientation was also without major hitches and the system is up and running for the past 6 months. o Both have also developed and put in place a DSS/MIS for a government aided college at BudgeBudge that takes care of related executive decision making ability. o A consortium model library model capable of being scaled up to handle central libraries is in the pipeline for implementation at universities. o Rohan Sen <rohansen(a)myrealbox.com> has developed a prototype fully functional, scalable and robust payroll program that is currently smoothly running at Surendranath College, another Govt aided college at Kolkata. o Currently a self learning Knowledge Base is being developed using the latest release of Oracle and Content Management Systems. Thank you for your kind words for this modest newsletter Sankarshan! FN .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. GNU/LINUX... AND PCQ: Below is a listing of GNU/Linux software featuring in recent issues of Indian mainstream PC mag, PCQuest. (We do wish PCQuest would focus more on GNU/Linux... and stop mixing up terms like Free Software and 'freeware'). July 2001 * The latest Linux distribution from Red Hat Feb 2002 * Shusha and Shivaji fonts for Linux. March 2002 * A file-splitting utility for GNU/Linux (Indianware) May 2002 * Simple tool to split large files into smaller files. June 2002 * Sniffer and protocol analyzer... by Rohit Sharma July 2002 * GNU/Linux section of indiwiz.com in PDF format July 2002 * Bulk mailer written in Perl for GNU/Linux Aug 2002 * Cyberoam, providing Internet via cable Oct 2002 * Indix: project to develop Indian lang support for GNU/Linux. With modified X-windows, development toolkits and a terminal emulator program Nov 2002 * Indix. oprint converts Indic text to PostScript .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. LAP -- TAKING GNU/LINUX TO EDUCATION: Raju Mathur <raju(a)linux-delhi.org> credits the "unflagging efforts" of Prateek Khanna and Dhruv Gami for helping to get up and running the Linux Access Project (LAP) home page. See http://lap.linux-delhi.org/ They are using a Wiki (TWiki) as the collaborative tool, so feel free to create an account for yourself and add content and comments. LAP, the GNU/Linux Access Project is an initiative for popularising Linux in education. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. NEWS FROM THE TAMIL FRONT: vvenkataramanan <venkat(a)tamillinux.org> informs us about having written a new font download tool (BASH shell script). This downloads all frequently used Tamil fonts (TSCII, TAB, TAM, Vikatan, Kumudam, Kalki, Murasu-Anjal compatible WebTamil fonts, etc.). With this he plans to address the following problems for Tamil linux users; o Downloading fonts to read various pages one by one. o Installing truetype fonts and making it available to X Says VV: "It uses GNU wget to ftp download all fonts at one go from my employer's ftp server (real fast), use ttmkfdir to create font scales and update fontpath with chkfontpath utility. (I have tested this in few machines running RH and Mandrake, I will be glad if someone tests it in SuSE and Debian and more). I plan to add few more ftp servers where I will maintain fontpools (any volunteers for space?)" Some more quotes: "The idea came out of Ximian Red Carpet for GNOME (http://www.ximian.com). I wanted to write some unified downloader/installer for everything tamil (fonts, keymans, akaram editor, Unicode editor, Vasee's TamilTeX package, Sivaraj's console tools, atleast one Tamil Linux Howto. This will make the life of anyone willing to migrate to tamil desktop simple. First step though is to make it work with fonts fully. It draws heavy inspiration from similar utility by Sebastino Vigna for Microsoft's free webfonts and some similar tools for Debian." It is available for download from ftp://ftp.tamillinux.org/apps/TamilFontsGet.sh and the documentation is at http://www.tamillinux.org/fonts.html .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. CHANGES AT TAMILLINUX.ORG SITE: Venkat also announces some "long pending" changes to the tamillinux.org site - listing some latest developments in Mandrake 9.0rc1, GTK2 VP modules of Dinesh, Vasee's kimaps, the Tamil Linux Howto, etc. .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. MAGAZINE COMPLETELY IN FREE SOFTWARE: V. Sasi Kumar <vsasi(a)vsnl.com> shares that the Laboratory in Informatics for the Liberal Arts (LILA) of the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya has brought out a magazine named LILA devoted to futuristic computing. Says he: "They say that, to their knowledge, this is the first magazine in India to be manufactured completely in Free Software, and also the first to be brought out under the Free Documentation Licence. They propose to have Free Software as its major theme, with other aspects of contemporary trends in computing also included. No price is mentioned on the magazine. Hope it is 'free' as in 'free beer'! ;-)" Check out: hindivishwa.org Email: hindiuniv(a)nda.vsnl.net.in .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. USING GNU/LINUX? Let your loyalty show... register at http://counter.li.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are welcome. Contact at fred at bytesforall dot org --COPYLEFT 2003, GPL. May be freely circulated provided entire text is retained. FN --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Contacts in Chennai, and other issues
by FN 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

Jaya, my friends at the Free Software Forum-India are committed to working towards Indian language solutions. I'll send across your query to them. FN On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, C.P. Jayalakshmi wrote: > Hi Fred, > > I was wondering if you know of people whom I can meet and network on Linux > and other Open Source networking partners, especially for use in the > NGO/development sector. > > Are you aware that Bellanet has been one of the key technical partners in > the development and management of D-Groups, a collaboration platform > written in open source softwares ( XML and Post Nuke). There are over a 100 > lists that are now operating under the d-groups platform. > > We were keen to make such capability available in local languages, say > Hindi or Tamil or Chinese, and we would be keen to partner with agencies > that are involved in it. > > May be you can make a request posting in your list , and give us your > references and contacts. > > Thanks for taking out the time. > > Regards, > > Jaya > > PS. I certainly wanted to meet with Prof. Ashok Jhunjunwala, do you have > his contact email, phone, etc? > > > > > C.P. Jayalakshmi > Senior Program Specialist > Bellanet International Secretariat > 250 Albert St. 5th Floor > Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6M1 Canada > (PO Box 8500, Ottawa ON K1G 3H9 Canada) > Tel: (613) 236-6163 X 2526 Fax: (613)-238-7230 > Email: jchittoor(a)bellanet.org Web: www.bellanet.org > -- _____ _ _ _ | ___| __ ___ __| | ___ _ __(_) ___| | __ Freelance Journo, Goa India | |_ | '__/ _ \/ _` |/ _ \ '__| |/ __| |/ / http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | _|| | | __/ (_| | __/ | | | (__| < http://www.bytesforall.org |_| |_| \___|\__,_|\___|_| |_|\___|_|\_\ http://opennews.indianissues.org -- Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783 Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference

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Natl conf on 'Open Source software
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

From: Sayamindu Dasgupta <unmadindu(a)Softhome.net> To: "Nagarjuna G." <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> Cc: FN <fred(a)bytesforall.org>, fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in, fsf-wg(a)gnu.org.in Date: 22 Feb 2003 11:46:06 +0530 On Fri, 2003-02-21 at 13:17, Nagarjuna G. wrote: > > This event doesn't recognize the free software movement at all. They > didn't invite any free software speaker, nor did they use the term > anywhere. If the hackers of Bangalore are alert possibly a note could > be distributed to the participants about the free software position. > This kind of events are likely to grow more in number. This I feel is > a parasitic activity, feeding on free software movement without any > acknolwedgement. We should write release a press note on this. > > Nagarjuna > > I agree here. We are finding less and less reference to Free Software each day. This is a very dangerous situation, as people tend to forget the underlying passion that has sustained the movement - the passion for Freedom. Unless something is done fast, I see India going the Mexico way. -sdg- -- Sayamindu Dasgupta [ http://www.peacefulaction.org/sayamindu/ ] hi, the main cause of lesser references to the FSF probably lies in market economics, check out any IT market survey and the hot ticket there is Linux. what is happening is that the cult brand effect is diluting the philosphy behind the entire GNU/Linux initiative. And a focal of the FSF should be to relocate this philosophical inertia. Come to think of it, people are interested in getting their work done, fast and efficiently. But what is the harm if efficiency and effectiveness is married with a little bit of altruism. the issue that 'information and knowledge is required to be free' needs to be addressed. Not fanatic evangalism, but reasoned approach to the issue can help bring the idea and the philosophy to the forefront. The passion for freedom is one of the basic urges of man, each man tends to be free. and when he finds that his freedom is in shackles, his aims thwarted, he braves all odds to overcome the crisis. the passionate espousal of the freedom keeps FSF vibrant and it is time that some tweaking is done to it. regards sankarshan --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.456 / Virus Database: 256 - Release Date: 2/18/03

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Bill Gates home town had to choose GNU/Linux
by KG Kumar 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

The 40,000 pages of paperwork generated by the construction of Bill Gates super-mansion brought a storage crisis to the town of Modena. GNU/Linux, not Windows, came to the rescue. See: http://www.aaxnet.com/news/L981010.html -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Fsf-friends February 2003