Fsf-friends August 2003

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NEWS: Cheaper Linux makes rapid strides in India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 17 Aug '03

17 Aug '03

Cheaper Linux makes rapid strides in India By Sumeet Chatterjee, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) Linux, a low-cost and lesser-known operating system with growing corporate use and backing by cash-strapped state governments, has caught on in India, diluting the monopoly of the mighty Microsoft. With a penguin as its mascot, Linux can be bought for a few hundred rupees or downloaded free from the Internet and the same software can be copied across dozens or hundreds of computers, unlike its proprietary counterparts such as Microsoft's Windows. One can also modify the software programme code to suit individual needs. While Microsoft say Windows is far ahead in terms of security and user convenience, supporters of the open source software, which no one owns, highlight its cost advantage and flexibility for a developing economy like India. According to a study conducted by Red Hat India, a Linux vendor, the Linux operating system will be installed in 200,000 desktop personal computers in India by December 2003. "Deployed on a large scale, Linux will save India a large amount of money," said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). He added that the open source movement was making rapid strides in India with the developer community evincing interest in the platform. "But looking ahead, I don't think it is going to be an either/or kind of situation. Both Microsoft's Windows and Linux will have their own markets in the country and the future of the Indian computing system will be a mix of the two," Karnik told IANS. According to an official study, only 16 percent of the central government offices currently use Linux as a platform but this is expected to grow manifold in the coming years. A number of states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra are either implementing or proposing to launch e-government projects using Linux operating system as the platform. "One reason for the growth of Linux in the last 18 to 24 months in India is that every company - particularly small and medium-sized - wants to cut costs," says Atul Chitnis, an advisor to the Bangalore Linux Users' Group and chief technology officer of Exocore Consulting. Enthused by Linux's cost advantage, the central government has unveiled a Linux India Initiative, which will include encouragement of free software solutions at the educational level. The Karnataka state government has decided to use Linux for its ambitious Mahiti Sindhu programme, which seeks to computerise 1,000 primary schools in different parts of the state. "It definitely has a very bright future. Over time, it is bound to dominate both Microsoft and Sun," said Vivek Kulkarni, secretary in the Karnataka government's IT ministry. "It is cost effective and except for the lack of Linux programmers, there is really no other problem in it being used in e-governance projects," he said. The treasury department of the Madhya Pradesh government has spent Rs.400 million for installation of computers with Linux software in their offices. The state government has also spent nearly Rs.200 million to install 6,000 computer systems in schools across the state with the Linux software as part of its Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission. West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd., the state's nodal IT body, has also formed a Linux cell to support various official IT projects in and outside the state. On the corporate front, global tech giant IBM is likely to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka government to set up a Linux software development centre at Hubli. Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software company, is reportedly planning to set up a Linux lab in its Delhi facility. The Linux movement in India is being helped by thousands of volunteer programmers who are pushing for the source code to be available freely to anyone who wants to tweak it to suit his or her own needs. Nasscom says that the rapid proliferation of Linux in worldwide markets, among large enterprises, is finding an echo in the Indian market as well. "Linux has a lot to offer to business users - stability, completeness, and support. These are three major issues for any corporation that needs to depend on its computers," said Chitnis of the Bangalore Linux Users' Group. Chitnis said that Linux, with its intrinsic strength as an easily customisable operating system, could well be used to spark off an Indian language software revolution in the country that envelopes and percolates down to the grass-root levels. --Indo-Asian News Service

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Low-cost [GNU]Linux gaining on Microsoft in India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Aug '03

16 Aug '03

The usual misunderstanding between the kernel ("Linux, created by Finland's Linus Torvalds...") and the operating system. But some pointers do come up. FN Low-cost Linux gaining on Microsoft in India Reuters Bangalore, August 11 Vijay Shekhar, who runs a team of 60 people sending scores to cricket-crazy fans through India's booming cellphone networks, feared that using cheap Linux software for his business could cause problems. Instead, Shekhar says he loves the Linux operating system after paying only a tenth of the Rs 4,00,000 cost of the competing Windows package from Microsoft Corp. About 10 per cent of India's personal computers will be sold with Linux rather than Microsoft operating systems by March, 2004, says Linux distributor Red Hat Inc, up from nothing in January. Besides the plain switch of desktop operating systems to Linux, analysts say the bigger worry for Microsoft is the growing use of Linux among India's pool of an estimated 400,000 software developers, many of whom churn out code for giants such as General Motors and American Express. Linux could use India as a back door into the lucrative global business software market as Indian programmers, hunting for low-cost programming tools, use it as their basic system and introduce it to customers. Indian programmers are at the epicentre of a global boom in outsourcing of business software programming, back office and call centre services. India now has 60 per cent of the offshore IT services market, which consultant Gartner estimates is worth $16 billion. "India is a key battleground for Microsoft as it tries to get a pool of developers loyal to its computing platform," said Partha Iyengar, director at market researcher Gartner India. But analysts say it will be tough for Linux to take a stranglehold in the key software of big firms. Microsoft cites the ease of use, security and support as key factors that give Windows dominance of personal computers and servers, while Linux still has a small percentage of the global market. Once a fringe interest for programmers and professors, Linux, created by Finland's Linus Torvalds, now has a market share of about 20 per cent of servers -- the workhorse computers that feed websites, email and other data to desktop PCs. "Commercial users have moved from a stage of pilot runs and experiments to doing serious business on Linux systems," said S Sabyasachi, analyst at industry researcher IDC India. Linux advocates say open-source software is ideal for India, whose population of more than one billion means labour is cheap but personal computers are a lot less affordable. New versions of Windows often require newer computers with more memory and speed. GOVERNMENT BACKING Linux already drives the National Stock Exchange, where day traders have taken the top slot from the Bombay Exchange. Linux is also the favourite of the national agency making supercomputers and Bombay's Breach Candy Hospital. "Linux is so reliable that it helps our department give an impression we have all the time in the world," said Dilip Desai, IT manager of the seaside hospital which serves affluent clients. Linux enthusiasts are upbeat. "We are not seeing large replacements of Microsoft's software with Linux, but it is happening in bits and pieces," said Atul Chitnis, a senior adviser to the Bangalore Linux Users' Group. Linux users say a four-day visit to India last November by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who announced $400 million in local investments, drew attention to Linux. The cash-strapped federal government has launched a "Linux India Initiative" to use the system in schools and state agencies. "Open source fits perfectly with India's needs," said S Ramakrishnan, director at India's IT ministry. Seventy per cent of India's 1.05 billion people live in rural areas, and the nation has only eight million PCs. Companies like Red Hat, which sell standardized versions of Linux, are thrilled. "We see an immense opportunity here," said Sachin Dabir, who heads enterprise sales at Red Hat in India Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_335799,00030001.htm

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Wealth of corporate secrets on the Web...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

WEALTH OF CORPORATE SECRETS ON THE WEB Many documents posted online may contain sensitive corporate or personal information, according to AT&T researcher Simon Byers, who was able to unearth hidden information from thousands of Microsoft Word documents posted on the Web using an ordinary search engine and a random selection of keywords. Byers targeted Word documents because they're so common, but he stressed that other document formats, such as Adobe PDF, may contain similar hidden information. After downloading the Word files, Byer used the free software tools "antiword" and "catdoc" to convert them to plain text. Then, using a simple script he wrote, Byers was able to locate text that had been deleted from the original Word files, including people's names and other personal identifiers, e-mail headers, network paths and text from related documents. "The worst is erased text. This has bitten people surprisingly often," says Bruce Schneier, a security expert with Counterpane. Microsoft Office UK marketing manager Neil Laver says the company is working on ways to better ensure sensitive information is not inadvertently leaked in files. The next version of Office 2003 will include tools that will allow users to remove personal information from documents as well as new "information rights management" software that will enable an author to determine who can read or forward a document. Meanwhile, Schneier recommends converting documents to plain ASCII before publishing online: "I don't know of any programs that effectively clean out the extra text." (New Scientist 15 Aug 2003) http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994057

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Happy birthday Debian...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

*********************************************** Debian is 10 tomorrow Saturday sees the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Debian project - over 1,100 registered free software developers, over 12,000 binaries and the distribution is still going strong. There are parties taking place all over the world, with the UK event taking place in Cambridge. It's all back to Steve McIntyre's place - but it looks like accommodation on his floor may be limited, so it might be a good idea to book a local bed and breakfast establishment... http://the.earth.li/~huggie/cgi-bin/moin/Debian10thBirthday _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ LinuxUser mailing list LinuxUser(a)www.linux.org.uk http://www.linux.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/linuxuser

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[Fsf-friends] CBSE and AICTE promoting MicroSoft (from india-e-gov list) (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 07:17:58 +0530 From: Atul Asthana @ Home <atulasthana(a)gmx.net> Subject: CBSE and AICTE promoting Micro$oft A lesson in how to sell your product and make it the defacto standard. When countries like Pakistan have officially decided to use Linux and open source softwares for all governmental organisations, we in India are officially promoting M$. Take the case of basic education. The CBSE syllabus officially wants the students to learn and use M$ products. for facts goto www.cbse.nic.in and check for syllabus of computer science, information practices. Similar is the case with AICTE. Hats off to our country, we really know how to splurge money for the wrong reason. I am looking for people who will help in pressurising CBSE and AICTE to change the syllabus to generic applications viz Learn a spreadsheet NOT SPECIFICALLY M$ EXCEL and so on. Any volunteers may please contact me off the list at atul(a)cheerful.com The open source tools are so similar, that a student (and at that age, the learning time is very short) will not feel any difficulty. _______________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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Announcement: Release of Calpp Beta Version 1
by Ramanraj K 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

Dear Friends, Calpp Beta Version 1 has been released and can be downloaded from gborg at ftp://gborg.postgresql.org/pub/calpp/stable/calpp_1.0.0.tar.gz Calpp: Computer Aided Legal Procedures and Proceedings Calpp aids in defining legal procedures and executing those procedures as proceedings. Calpp uses Postgresql and PHP to create Calpp powered legal systems. Calpp relies on three tables: procedures -> steps -> particulars to store all details about its procedures, and correspondingly three tables: proceedings -> events -> assertions to store all details about the proceeding. Calpp may also be used in any field where the rules can be listed for execution and application. Calpp powered medicine, Calpp powered surgical procedures, Calpp powered irrigation systems, Calpp powered schools, Calpp powered research and development, Calpp powered story telling and many more Calpp powered systems can be devised for practical use. Calpp is simple, sturdy and stable. The Calpp project is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Calpp has several features including: * Legal procedures are logically and accurately stored and executed as proceedings * All details of the procedures and proceedings can be indexed and viewed from a variety of angles. * A set of data validation, conversion and manipulation functions are available for easy use in proceedings. * Calpp makes rules explicit and we can see what is going on at a glance. * Password authentication to access This beta release has the minimal set of features required to maintain and run most legal procedures and proceedings with the aid of computers. The word proceedings is used here to mean every use of the law, and any clear set of rules. It concerns all of us. A least complex solution to suit the most complex nature of law has been attempted here. No legal procedures in force are provided for now, but it can be used to create procedures and run them as proceedings. Your interest and participation in the calpp project will shape both Calpp and the way we choose to live. Regards, K. Ramanraj. 2003-08-15

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[Fsf-friends] [ot][jobs][commercial] admin who understands gnu-linux + routing + switching @ l3/l4
by Trevor Warren 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

Hiyee folks, Following is the requirement. >> 3-4 Years of experience in the Industry >> NO FRESHERS >> Hardcore GNU - Linux Knowledge >> Knowledge of Cisco IOS and capability to work with CISCO/BAY/3COM Routers and configure them for the network >> Knowlede of L3/L4 switching capability and previous experience/exposure on the same. >> Most Important is the capability to Interface with the customer and help iron out Technical/Techo-commercial Issues >> Experience on the ISP front will be an added advantage. >> RHCE Will be an added advantage. Those interested can get in touch with me on twarren(a)redhat.com at the earliest. Thanks for the help vivek. Trevor ===== ( >- -< ) /~\ __ Gnu/Linux, Its all about Choice __ /~\ | \) / trevorwarren(a)softhome.net \ (/ | |_|_ \ PreSales-Technical Engineer Red Hat / _|_| \___________________________________/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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For FSF..
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Aug '03

06 Aug '03

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'Chinese' CPU for Linux PCs
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 06 Aug '03

06 Aug '03

Hong Kong firm offers 'Chinese' CPU for Linux PCs By Peter Clarke Semiconductor Business News HONG KONG -- Culturecom Holdings Ltd., a publisher of Chinese language "fighting" comics that migrated into information technology in the 1990s, has begun selling its V-Dragon microprocessor for use in Chinese PCs. Culturecom, which listed on Hong Kong's stock exchange, professes links to Transmeta Corp. and IBM Corp. A report on Culturecom's Web site when the first reports surfaced said transactions in its shares were suspended on July 23 pending an announcement on a cooperation effort with eForce Group and Transmeta to exploit the Linux-based Midori operating system. The V-Dragon CPU incorporates support for Chinese-language characters, according to the company. It was unveiled at an event held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, the company said. The company said it signed agreements for the sale of about 100,000 V-Dragon CPUs, and letters of intent related to the sale of an additional 200,000 V-Dragon CPUs on the first day of the trade show. According to Culturecom's Web site, the V-Dragon was developed with help from IBM and has been designed to run the Midori variant of the Linux operating system. In addition, the V-Dragon CPU was specifically developed to meet criteria established by the Chinese government as part of a standard information technology environment for China, Culturecom said. "This V-Dragon Midori Linux embedded architecture is a leading system of its kind in the China market and is in line with the Chinese government's IT policy. Culturecom is confident it will make a significant impact on market share with this new development," Frank Cheung, chairman of Culturecom, said in a statement. Speakers at the trade show opening ceremony included: Zheng Minzheng, director general of the department of electronics and information product administration in the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry; C.D. Tam, CEO of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp.; and Alexander Poon, chairman of The Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Asia.

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NEWS: GNU's twentieth birthday on savannah...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 03 Aug '03

03 Aug '03

------------------------------ From: "Vijay Kumar B." <ec10052(a)rect.ernet.in> Subject: [glug-t] GNU's Birthday on savannah. Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 12:38:28 GMT There is a project on savannah that calls itself "20th anniversary of the GNU Project". And here is what it says. "Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the GNU Project. Organize various events all over the world from 27th September 2003(when the initial announcement went out) until 5th January (when RMS quit his MIT job and actually started working on GNU)." So what are we waiting for. Lets do it guys! Pour in your suggestions. - Vijay Non-free* software sucks. - RMS * 'free' as in freedom.

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Fsf-friends August 2003