Fsf-friends March 2003

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

22 participants
57 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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Re: ? Is the GPL completely misunderstood?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Apr '03

12 Apr '03

SUCH views only further the ideology of proprietorial software, while confusing the subject and furthering the man-works-for-money-alone idea. It also flies in the face of thousands of excellent programmers chosing the GPL as their licence of choice. Perhaps someone needs to be countering this. FN > --__--__-- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 23:07:00 -0800 (PST) > From: Sukrit D <sd_root(a)yahoo.com> > To: little_league(a)yahoogroups.com > Cc: Kanhaiya Dalmia <dalmiag(a)vsnl.net>, > Chennai ILUG <ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in> > Subject: [Ilugc] Is the GPL completely misunderstood? > > Is the GPL completely misunderstood? > > What is the GPL? > > The GPL, GNU General Public License, is a license > boilerplate that the FSF, Free Software Foundation, > has put forward to be adopted by software developers > that are creating software. The GPL has some > fundamental flaws that may actually make one wonder if > people using the GPL license really understand the > license. > > First, one must understand that the ideals behind the > GPL are that software should be 'free', meaning that > you should be able to buy it, modify it, redistribute > it, support it, etc. Many people, myself included, > didn't really understand the license agreement and it > is obvious that the FSF must get dozens of questions > like that because they hide behind a boilerplate link > to a page on their site. > > Therein lies one major hurdle. Another problem is that > many people are under the impression that if it is > GPL, the software should carry no cost. The FSF says > that nothing could be further from the truth, however, > the GPL ingeniously assures this because of its > distribution clause. The first person to buy an > application is generously allowed to distribute the > code and the source, removing any financial incentive > from original software author. > > Even the FSF has no idea how to build a business > around software that is released GPL. I posed that > question, and their response was fuzzy and vague. It > was suggested that I run a different division to fund > the software development division. As a business > owner, why run a division that is a cost center if it > isn't needed. > > With that in mind, lets consider a few scenarios > dealing with GPL software. The FSF clearly states that > someone can charge whatever amount they want for > software and the source code. So, you take a contract > with a company to develop software, do the right thing > and release it GPL. You sell it to your client for > $500, thinking, I spent dozens of hours writing this, > I'll put a reasonable cost on there so that I can > resell hundreds of them. > > Fair enough. > > But, what happens if I, as a client, buy your software > along with the source and decide, hey, this is good > stuff, let me sell it for $100 and flood the market. > What happens to your income? It is gone. Someone else > is making the money off your product -- your efforts. > Even better, I can decide to distribute the software > at no cost. And what you have to show for it is a > license that allows your clients to do precisely that. > Freedom. > > Lets analyze the flip side. Lets say that you decide > to write the software and charge the client for every > minute of your work. The client ends up with a > software product that cost them $40000. Now, you > decide that you want to resell that software. What > price do you put on it knowing that your next client > could decide to distribute it? If you cut the price > too much, the client that paid you to do the > development won't rehire you since you have given his > competitor the tools to compete more easily. Companies > generally dislike funding software development for > their competitors. > > How about an idea you have that will revolutionize the > world. Don't release that under GPL, there is no > intellectual property protection. Have some secret way > of doing something that is better than the way it is > currently being done? Might as well just get rid of > your competitive edge because the GPL will strip you > of any rights you might have to that. > > See, the GPL in its Marxist form is a fine thought, > but what does it really do? > > The GPL creates hundreds of software products that are > mimic's of their commercial counterpart, many of which > are poor imitations. Yes, I know, the market is new > and there are years of existing software development > to catch up with. But, most of these software > developers have a job and do this as a hobby or are > paid by a company to write software released under the > GPL. But what have we done? We've turned over > development to armchair developers. This isn't to say > that there aren't good software projects developed > under GPL, but they are in the minority. > > Without singling out any application, there is a > software package that makes it truly evident that the > programmers have no concept what the finished product > is supposed to do or what the program they are > mimicing actually does. It appears as if they have > gotten together to develop a product to mimic a > Microsoft product, pushed all of the buttons to see > what the results are, and tried to imitate the > actions. Push a button and see no visible result? Who > knows how that button is supposed to work. We'll leave > it in, but there's no code behind it. There is a lot > of software that mimic's Microsoft, and yet, time > after time, these are the same people that complain > about Microsoft and what they do wrong. Then, to top > it off, since they released it GPL, they ask for > donations. Wait? Can't Freedom have a price? > > These authors don't know that they can charge money > for their software and still release it GPL. Of > course, after the first client, it will get > redistributed at some nominal cost or free. Imagine, > the first person that needs a program will buy it and > then post it on the net for people to get without > cost. Almost no different than the Commercial software > market as it exists today. Ok, chalk up one licensed > user that paid for the software. Authors ask for > donations or have service contracts. Some applications > are decidedly cryptic just so you have to buy the > service contract or installation help. Why? Because > the author needs to make some money for their efforts > and have a financial reward that justifies the > continued development of the project. > > Most of the people writing GPL software probably have > never read the license. How can you expect them to? > Everyone is told to slap the boilerplate agreement at > the top because 'GPL good, other license bad,' but how > many people that use the license have actually read > it? > > The GPL has created a dearth of poorly conceived, > poorly maintained, poorly written software. There are > also quite a few good GPL applications. Suffice it to > say, that most of the applications that are good and > are GPL usually have corporate roots. I surmise that > most of the companies releasing software under the GPL > are not releasing their code under the GPL for the > right reasons. > > The people that slam Microsoft for all that it is are > the same ones mimicing Microsoft's applications. > Certain applications are designed specifically to look > like Microsoft, which is the sincerest form of > flattery. Yet, people slam Microsoft because they > don't innovate. Well, look at most of the GPL software > that mimic's what is out there already? Where is the > innovation in that? That's what I thought. > > I don't have a problem with the GPL -- it just doesn't > happen to be my license of choice. I evaluated the > licenses and felt that the GPL didn't protect me or my > clients well enough. Most of the code my company > produces is released under an Open Source license. > Open Source I don't mind. Draconian terms and > conditions that sacrifice my rights as an author, or > my clients rights, or make it easy for people to avoid > compensating me for my efforts is where I have a > problem. > > <Sarcasm> > Unlike most GPL software authors, I am not > independently wealthy. I don't have a trust fund > handing me money every month. I don't have a rich > family writing a check to keep me locked away in a > basement churning out code. I don't have a fellowship > with an educational institution or sponsorship from a > big corporation so that I jet around the world > espousing the ideals, writing and releasing code under > the GPL. > </Sarcasm> > > If you develop software that allows someone to make > millions of dollars from your efforts, why should you > not be entitled to some of that money? What if you > write the next killer ap, distribute it, someone else > finds a VC, gets capital, goes public, gets rich -- > all on your idea? Notoriety is fine, but your bank > doesn't accept that when you are paying your mortgage. > > > In short, I don't believe the GPL serves the software > development community in the best possible manner. By > virtue, it eliminates financial motivation from those > writing software and drives those development costs on > existing industry. You may volunteer your time, but > your employer ultimately finances your ability to have > the time to write that code. Who really carries the > true development cost of the software? > > If you want the dream of Linux on the desktop to take > off more quickly, take the time to explain how a > company developing GPL software can protect itself and > earn money to pay its programmers and support staff. > If you work for a company writing GPL software, take > some time to think where your salary ultimately comes > from. Help develop a business plan to allow companies > to develop software and release the products under an > Open Source license that ensures the viability of the > company. If you want > > Next time you write an application, give some thought > to your licensing. A good place to start reading the > different licenses is Open Source.Org. > > --Chris > > http://daviesinc.com/gpl.rxml > > __________________________________________________ > -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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LINK: Create your own mailing list
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

URL : http://lists.asiaosc.org [1]Promoting open source and free software in Asia [2]Asian Open Source Centre Promoting open source and free software in Asia AsiaOSC Mailing Lists Server Access the Mailing Lists For a full listing of the mailing lists that are hosted by this server, please click [3]here. Create your Lists AsiaOSC offers free mailing lists to open source / free software projects in Asia. If you are interested in creating a mailing list for your open source / free software project, please email [4]mailman-owner(a)lists.asiaosc.org with the following info : 1. Short name of list (e.g. OSS_Vietnam). 2. Short description (e.g. 'Open Source discussion in Vietnam'). 3. Long description (e.g. 'For anything related to open source and free software in Vietnam'). 4. Geographical distribution (Asia, worldwide, or countryname). 5. AsiaOSC registered username (click [5]here to register). Mailing lists are offered to you under these [6]terms and conditions. Please take note that someone from AsiaOSC will be a co-admin for every list. The admin from AsiaOSC will not exercise any admin previleges unless the list is abused. Please report problems to [7]mailman-owner(a)lists.asiaosc.org [8]MIMOS - [9]AsiaOSC AsiaOSC Mailing Lists Server References 1. http://www.asiaosc.org/ 2. http://www.asiaosc.org/ 3. http://lists.asiaosc.org/mailman/listinfo 4. mailto:mailman-owner@lists.asiaosc.org 5. http://www.asiaosc.org/user.php?op=register&module=NS-NewUser 6. http://www.asiaosc.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=legal&file=index 7. mailto:mailman-owner@lists.asiaosc.org 8. http://www.mimos.my/ 9. http://www.asiaosc.org/

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INDIA-BELGAUM: Day 1 - GNUBeLUg '03
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

This note is a somewhat delayed report from Ashutosh Naik <a7ash(a)yahoo.com> in Belgaum... Our ILUG-Goa team of eight just returned late last night from Belgaum (150 kms away), after a very interesting visit there. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Day 1 of GNUBeLUG was full of action. Remember, It was the first major event organised by ilug-belgaum. To begin with, the principal of GIT, Dr. D H Rao inaugurated the function by lighting the lamp. This was a really good way of starting the function because with one light, U can light another.. And that's the way the spirit of Free Software multiplies. The trend during the day was the GNu philosophy.. People were shocked to know that propreitory companies had taken their freedom for granted, And most definitely agreed that GNU/Linux was altleast worth a try..The Principles of Free, Open Source and Propreitory software were argued till length After the talk on GNU principles by myself, We had a brief Installation seesion, A talk on GNU/Linux in daily life by Gurpreet Singh, And finally a talk on Hacking Kernel Modules by a true hacker, Rahul Iyer. There were also loads of everyday questions answered by the panelists which included myself, Rohan, Bhaskar Ghose, Gurpreet Singh and Sanket Patil. Most of these questions were on switching to GNU/Linux and the configuration issues involved Finally the meet ended with a demo of the Indlinux v 0.37 project and a demo of Knoppix We do look forward to your company tommorrow.. which promises to be more action-packed as compared to today Tomm's Attractions : - Embedded Linux by Trevor Warren - Setting Up GNU/Linux as a WebServer - Dr. Bhat - GNU/Linux on the desktop - Arvind yadav - GNU/Linux in India - Frederick Noronha - Panel Discussions And much more You surely dont want to miss it !! Ashutosh Naik ilug-belgaum __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get 128 Bit SSL Encryption! http://us.click.yahoo.com/xaxhjB/hdqFAA/VygGAA/0XFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To Post a message, send it to: ilug-goa(a)yahoogroups.com To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: ilug-goa-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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Urgent: Call for Action !!!
by Arun M 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

Hi Freedom lovers, "Microsoft comes to Trivandrum..." dreaming of 'XPanding Horizons'. Venue: The South Park Hotel Date: 2-3rd April. 10.00 am - 5.30 pm Time to act and tell them Freedom Matters !! Lets join for a Demo. Happy Hacking, Arun. PS: If would like to help pls call me on 0471-2460250. We have just one day left. We welcome donations of blank media or GNU/Linux CDs to distribute.

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INDIA-BELGAUM: Day 1 - GNUBeLUg '03 (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

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SITEWATCH: FreeMed
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Mar '03

29 Mar '03

URL : http://freemedsoftware.com About Contact Software Support Links Demo [1]About | [2]Contact | [3]Demo | [4]Links | [5]Software | [6]Support Site created by [7]jeff � 2003 by the FreeMED Software Foundation References 1. http://freemedsoftware.com/about.php 2. http://freemedsoftware.com/contact.php 3. http://freemedsoftware.com/demo.php 4. http://freemedsoftware.com/links.php 5. http://freemedsoftware.com/software.php 6. http://freemedsoftware.com/support.php 7. mailto:jeff@ourexchange.net

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LINK: Debian desktop user's guide... (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Mar '03

28 Mar '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TekMate <tekmate(a)nospam.hotmail.com> Subject: Debian Desktop User's Guide Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:40:40 CST The Debian Desktop User's Guide is a project to bring up-to-date and effective documentation to new Debian users. This document is based on the Progeny user's guide. This guide is planned to be released in conjunction with Sarge. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with some of the sections check the proposal and changelog for more information. http://cafecomputer.com/guide/users-guide.en.html -- ===== Yet another Linux FAQ 2.2 http://www.cafecomputer.com/faqindex.htm ########################################################################## # Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: cola(a)stump.algebra.com # # PLEASE remember a short description of the software and the LOCATION. # # This group is archived at http://stump.algebra.com/~cola/ # ##########################################################################

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COMMENT: Why India looks to GNU/Linux with hope and anticipation..
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

WHY INDIA LOOKS TO GNU/LINUX WITH HOPE AND ANTICIPATION.... By Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan venky1 at vsnl dot com www.indlinux.org Today, I am going to talk about why GNU/Linux is god's gift to India. To my mind, GNU/Linux represents one of the finest opportunities for taking the benefits of this wonderful technology to the masses. From the standpoint of cultural, political and economic freedom, there are enormous reasons why the GNU/Linux operating system is relevant to India's future in the digital age. That's the reason why my friend Prakash Advani and I started IndLinux.org to localize GNU/Linux to Indian languages. I am therefore happy to announce that we are launching the first release of IndLinux Hindi, called Milan at this event. Milan represents the culmination of three years of work and we plan to localize GNU/Linux in Marathi, Gujarathi and other Indian languages soon to spark off a revolution in computing in Indian languages. This talk is divided into two parts. In the first part, I aim to visualize the future of computing in India and in the second part, I talk about what free software can do for the future of India. >From a research standpoint, my interest is in the history of technology and in the impact of technology on society. Based on past history of technology, I predict that there will be a hundred million computers in India. To work backwords from this number, let me draw an analogy with a technology that is fairly recent so that you can relate to what I am saying. The domestic software industry today reminds me of the TV industry around 6-7 years ago. Around six years ago, most of the TV channels were either in English or in Hindi. How does that compare to the domestic IT scenario in India? Today, almost all applications and operating systems are in English, a language spoken by a mere five percent of India. Even if you run Indian langauge software, it is usually within an environment that is predominanatly in English. Compare this with the situation around six years ago when regional languages were broadcast in two-hour slots on channels that were mostly in English or Hindi. How things have changed! In the last six years, the explosion of regional channels has been absolutely incredible. Today, each of India's regional languages has at least two TV channels. At one point in time one could never have imagined an elitist channel like Star TV broadcasting in Hindi. Now, they are looking beyond Hindi to other Indian languages. Who had heard of channels like Zee or Asianet or Lashkara six-ten years ago? Who could have vizualised 60 million TV sets in India? This reminds me of an old saying in the technology industry. Old hands in this industry say that in the near term we always overestimate its impact and in the long term, we always underestimate it. The reason for the explosion in TV channels is simply because that's where the markets lay and a similar thing is going to happen to the computing industry in India. Many countries for example, do not have populations that add up to a single language in India. A few years ago, when I was in Hungary, I saw that most operating systems were in the Magyar script. Think about it! A mere 14 million people speak the Magyar language, yet they have an operating system of their own. Yet the third largest spoken language in the world-Hindi, which is spoken by 402 million people-has no operating system! How can we call India an IT superpower when we do not even have an operating system in our largest language? When Prakash and I looked at the situation, we thought it was absolutely crazy. If you look deep into the computer, the only language it understands is the binary language that consists of zeroes and ones. It is India that developed the concept of the zero and gave it to the world. And we cannot even develop an operating system of our own! We wanted to create an operating system for India and when we looked around, there was only one choice-GNU/Linux because we could not modify proprietary operating systems. If I wanted to translate "file" into the Hindi equivalent, I had no freedom to do that. The GNU/Linux operating system was a natural choice because it gave us the freedom to add interfaces in any language we chose. Now, take a look at the top twelve Indian languages Language Spoken by Hindi 402 Bengali 83 Telugu 78.7 Marathi 74.5 Tamil 63.2 Urdu 51.8 Gujarati 48.5 Kannada 39 Malayalam 36.2 Oriya 33.5 Punjabi 27.9 Assamese 15.6 Each of these languages are spoken by populations larger than the population of Hungary! The first freedom I mentioned was cultural freedom. From a cultural standpoint, GNU/Linux was an attractive alternative because when lingusitic groups come together to localize GNU/Linux in a transparent manner, localization can be done in a manner that is far more culturally sensitive than any centrally controlled process. For example, should "file" be called a "file" in Hindi because the word is now part of the popular lexicon among Hindi speakers or should it be called something else? Who should decide this? Should a software company decide this or should local linguistic groups decide this? Apart from this, there are even deeper cultural issues that are so deeply embedded in computers that we are not even aware of it. For example, the whole metaphor of "desktops" and "files and folders" evolved from the work of Ben Schneiderman who argued that the interface of the computer must reflect the real world around us. In rural India, where most people have never owned a desk and are used to squatting on the floor, "desktops" and "files and folders" clearly do not reflect their reality. Yet, rural India is where 70 percent of India lives. Therefore, an enormous amount of research needs to be done to invent appropriate user-interface metaphors for India and GNU/Linux is an ideal platform to do this. The second freedom I mentioned was political freedom. We all know that we are in the digital age and one of the most fundamental platforms of the digital age is the operating system. Therefore, any sovereign nation has to make vigorous efforts to control this platform. From a political standpoint, GNU/Linux is one of the most attractive platforms for a sovereign India, because of its openness. The third freedom is economic freedom. In developing countries like India, the per capita income is around $410. If the cost of operating systems and application software itself add up to this number, it is impossible for the vast majority of India to afford this technology. In countries like the US, where per-capita incomes are around $30,000, it may be affordable but not in India. What India therefore needs is software that's priced in rupees and not in dollars and GNU/Linux fits the bill since it is available free. Therefore, it is clear that there are compelling reasons for the adoption of free software. At IndLinux.org, we are committed to keeping our software free - free as in freedom of speech, free as in free beer and free as in free chai! We want to empower every Indian with this technology and believe that this effort is fundamental to India's future. I therefore invite you all to visit our web site at www.IndLinux.org and volunteer to localize Linux to Indian languages. I look forward to working with all of you to take this wonderful technology to the Indian masses. Thank you and Jai Hind! -0- This talk was delivered recently by "Venky" Hariharan at the February 2002 GNUnify festival in Pune, central India. (ENDS)

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Fsf-friends March 2003