Fsf-friends February 2004

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

27 participants
48 discussions

Bangla LINUX in Compass 2004
by linux junkies 18 Feb '04

18 Feb '04

Yesterday was the last day of COMPASS 2004. After three disappointing days last two days has been encouraging to the Linux fanatics like me. ILUG-CAL presented linux to this COMPASS. I must appreciate Mr.Indranil Dasgupta and Mr Shankarshan Mukhopadhya, who answered the open house. Though participation was very disappointing. The range of question was very vivid. From one user asking the web address where he can download these free stuffs to the other user asking whether he can use his old ttf (true type font) Bengali fonts in this free OS platform. Most of the queries were whether users could run so-called popular proprietary s/w in GNU/LINUX. Both of them handled these queries efficiently. My heartiest thanks to them. Most interesting part was their presentation on Ankur Bangla Project. ( You can see details about it at www.bengalinux.org ). They presented Ankur Bangla Live CD 1.0. It is a fascinating idea to make a OS with Bangali messages. People will love to work with a s/w that they can instruct in his mother tongue (though it will still work in binary). The basic idea of popularizing GNU/Linux will get a booster dose, at least in Bengal through this project. L10n(localization) of the OS is very much needed to popularize Free s/w. Various bengali OTF(Open type Fonts) in UNICODE was also very much needed for easy portability. The editors are quite good. They have all powerful features that a modern text editor needs, even a interesting bengali dictionary to check spellings . Bangla Sahityer Sankalan (Collection of Bengali Literature) is also very unique. The Full Ankur Bangla Linux distribution is due in April 2004. They are also undertaking Oriya localization project. It is nice to hear that 15 community centers in USA is using this Live CD to train US born bengali children in their mother tongue. These children took birth in a country habituated with computer. So its a nice idea to teach them bengali through computers. This live CD might be first big step forward to popularize GNU/Linux in Bengal also. We can approach West Bengal Government to adapt this Bengali Linux instead of proprietary s/w in their basic computer education starting from school. May this live CD, not be a collectors item of proprietary s/w users. I expect this CD to pave a path of using free s/w and LINUX OS in West Bengal. One very good friend of mine made a good point here. We must make conscious effort to let people know that there exist a Free Live Bangla OS CD, otherwise there is no point in making such a good job. It will just be wasted. A grass root level workforce must be there to popularize GNU/Linux itself, otherwise all their valuable efforts will be in vain. I found a little boy in this COMPASS saying Their configuration lack enough memory to run P IV efficiently, after seeing a h/w vendors offer paper. This was fabulous. It shows how much we are coming of age. But this little boy must also be taught to use FREE GNU/Linux and s/w so that he will not use pirated proprietary s/w. He should be taught that here he can put his talent to modify the s/w itself according to his need. Most of the LUGs have been involved in projects that take the free s/w movement ahead. It is very much needed. But they lack the urge to popularize it in grass root level. But Believe me, this is important. There is no point in inventing space ships if common people are not made aware of their existence. Common people must be heard, they must be informed, due attention must be given to them to solve their basic problems in GNU/Linux. They must not thing Linux is very much geeks OS. They must feel easy while using LINUX daily in their PC. May the freedom, knowledge and the Ankur Bangla Live CD 1.0 be with you You can download this from http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/bengalinux/ankurbangla-ld_1.0.… regards avijit patra linuxjunkies foundation www.linuxjunkies.org/forum Yahoo! India Insurance Special: Be informed on the best policies, services, tools and more.

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Re: [Free-gis] Reinventing the wheel
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 17 Feb '04

17 Feb '04

----- Original Message ----- From: "V. Sasi Kumar" <vsasi(a)hotpop.com> > The Dept. of Science and Technology, Government of India, is planning to > invest in developing further their GIS called Gram that runs on Windows. > They are also planning to develop support for local level planning, > which included a decision support system. Much of what they are thinking > of is possibly available in the Free GIS GRASS. I think FSF should point > this out to the DST and garner support for further developing GRASS, if > required, for local level development purposes. An extract from DST's > report is given below: > This is perhaps the tragedy that has been afflicting the project(s) since inception. i feel that it'd be better if their particular needs are identified and then FSFI does provide a comprehensive case for GRASS. thanks for bringing this to the notice of the members. -sankarshan --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 02/06/2004

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GNU/Linux @ Compass 2004
by linux junkies 16 Feb '04

16 Feb '04

COMPASS 2004, organised by Computer Association of Eastern India is One of the biggest IT show in India (from 13 th Feb to 17 Feb in Kolkata). We, the members of LINUXjunkies.org have found some interesting facts on GNU/Linux in this IT show. 1. There are only two participants have GNU/Linux installed on their PC.Everybody else are using Windows XP mostly. Whether they are PC vendors, or dealing with Monitors or Music systems, everybody are using Windows XP or Windows 98. Only "aamar PC", the bengal's own branded pc has all of their pcs redhat 9 pre-installed. And another vendor, i just can't remember name, has a Debian preinstalled on it's HCL Beanstalk machine. 2. When we enquired about the GNU/Linux compatible Printers, we have none. All the vendors said that printers have nothing to do with OS. but when we insisted, they said that why we were bothering about OS. Some of them offered us Windows for Free if we get printers from them. 3. Some vendors are offering refurbished pcs, with the price tag of Rs. 5000 to 9000, with Windows 98/XP pre-installed. When we asked them about the GNU/Linux, they said that we don't need to use GNU/Linux as they are giving us Windows for Free ( Pre-installed ).i.e why you use GNU/Linux if you could get Windows for Free ! 4.Chabria Infotech, one of the biggest s/w vendors of Kolkata, has a display board at their stall. The board says " Linux available here" with the logo of all major linux distros. But when we enquired, we came to know that they donot have any of linux distros right there at their stall. We have to order and it will take at least 5 to 7 days to get the CDs. One interesting thing was, when we asked for the price,they said the OEM (!) version of all distro will cost Rs 500 and Original (!) Full pack will cost around Rs 3500. 5. When we asked for any games on GNU/Linux, the game vendors said that they don't have anything for GNU/Linux. Well, this the overall picture of GNU/Linux at Compass 2004. Any comments??? regards aloke majumder LINUXjunkies Foundation www.linuxjunkies.org/forum ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Insurance Special: Be informed on the best policies, services, tools and more. Go to: http://in.insurance.yahoo.com/licspecial/index.html

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Leapfrogging the divide
by Ramanraj K 15 Feb '04

15 Feb '04

Today's ET has carried a report on the Akshaya computer literacy mission titled "Leapfrogging the divide" in the The Knowledge Society section. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/497224.cms But, the article did not mention about any use of free software in the project.

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Memorandum to CSIR
by Ramanraj K 13 Feb '04

13 Feb '04

Last month, it was decided to draft a memorandum to request CSIR to use Free Software and philosophy. I have posted a memorandum to the fsf-discuss list, which includes ideas and suggestions from V. Sasi Kumar, Mahesh T. Pai, and other members of this list. Please join the thread at fsf-discuss and share your views.

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UGC
by Mahesh T. Pai 13 Feb '04

13 Feb '04

Any body interested? http://www.ugc.ac.in/hisp.htm -- +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M., 'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road, Ernakulam, Cochin-682018, Kerala, India. http://paivakil.port5.com +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+

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Re: GNU Gyan
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

Keep up the good work, Kunal. Do join the fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in network if you aren't already part of it. FN On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, kunal bharati wrote: > hello friends, > As Kartik has started with his course discussion, I > would like to add something more :) > > last month Juan Carlos visited our college, he is a > founder(not sure) of Hipatia(www.hipatia.info) which > is somewhat related to Free Software Foundation. > > With his ideas and support we have planned to start an > institute called "GNU Gyan Institute" > > All the courses will be related to Free Software > Technologies. > Till now some courses like GNU/Linux, PHP/MySQL and > Perl are fixed to be taught > I have recommended Python too. > > If anyone is interested in the course can contact me, > my number is displayed on the homepage > > i would like to know which books are good for the > course so that we can have it in our library > > thanx, > kunal > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online. > http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- February 2004 | Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa | Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | http://www.bytesforall.org 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | Email fred at bytesforall.org 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | Writing with a difference 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | ... on what really 29 | makes *the* difference. -------------------------------------------------------------------

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T-Shirt graphic sources?
by Rajkumar S 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

Dear arun, Did you get the T-Shirt pic's sources from our designer friend? btw, I find it bit ironic that FSF India decided to distribute some thing with out the sources. It's high time to correct it! raj

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Re: help wanted
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

Hi Montosh, Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.Permit me to forward your mail to the LIH (LinuxIndiaHelp) and FSF-India mailing lists since I'm don't have the answers to your tech queries. Stay in touch, FN On Tue, 10 Feb 2004, null script wrote: > Can u provide a list of common soft/internal modems which will work in > the following distros ==> Red Hat 8/9 stock,Mandrake 8.2/9.1 (single CD > version i.e no kernel source),Free BSD 2.5,Knoppix/Lify and Fedora > core.Me and many of my friends have these distros installed on our > systems but we are forced to surf the net from windows due to the non > avalibity of drivers on GNU/Linux.The following is the list of soft/int > modems we have. > > Motorola SM56 Voice fax > Motorola SM56 Speakerphone > Conextant (Rockwell chipset) > Dax int modems > Intex int modems > Ham int modem found on a Compac system > > I know the ideal answer would be get a hard/ext modem,but pls > understand that this is not possible.I am sure many ppl would like to > find the same but cannot. > > Also can u suggest some tips & tweaks to make the system work > faster.Most of us have old systems 2 to 4 yrs old like K6-2,K6-3,PIIs > with a avg of 128Mb ram per system.All the newer distros really crawl on > most of the systems.I know the answer would be to upgrade the > systems,but not possible.One hack is to use a light and fast manager > like Flubox and Icewm but we miss the eye candy that Gnome and Kde > provide. Kindly help!! > > I was also very moved by your article "Sharing Dreams ... Seeking Help" > LFY Dec 2003.I want to know if anybody is ready to go ahead and share > their broad band/fat pipes in India and make new software like > GCC,JAVA,latest Kernel sources etc locally present.It is indeed very sad > that in India we do not have a single local mirror of any distro or > GNU/free software.China and Pak have them but why not India???.Pak even > has the local mirror of packetstrom http://packetstormsecurity.org.pk/ > why not us. Every day we hear that India is poised to become the next > super power in software but how?? when we even do not have proper flow > of information and ideas amongst the common user. > > Why don't the big company's donate their old computers to NGOS and > educational bodies. Wipe the data from its Hdd and install any of > GNU/LINUX on it.Rather that just 'junk' them. Thousands of under > prevliged children can benefit from it.I cant understand what's stoping > them? > > Ppl who have a latest and greatest systems P4's and AMD -XP's can also > help the community by just giving some CPU time for a good cause.They > can compile the various popular software for different 'arch' like > i586,K6-3 with all the optimization.And load it on the net for the ppl > who have old and slow systems to download and use.I for one would very > greatful and really appericate the speed boost which such a gesture > would do for me.I am sure many users will appericate such a site or > users group.I know from bitter experience that compiling some huge > package is a nightmare on a slow system.I tried to compile the 2.6 > kernel on Mandrake 9.1 it took some 6 hrs on my system and still did > not work.On a P4 2.4 it took 10 mins. and worked!!! I was foolish enough > to try to install gnome 2.4 from the source on my red hat 9.0,after 3 > days and 3 almost sleepless nights still no luck.I would have been ever > grateful if I could just DL the RPM and install it. > > Just some of my thoughts, hope to find some good news.Thanks for all > the good work u are doing. All the best. > > Montosh Bisht > > > "Hack into The Light" > > > _____________________________________________________________ > Linux.Net -->Open Source to everyone > Powered by Linare Corporation > http://www.linare.com/ > -- Frederick Noronha : http://fredericknoronha.blogware.com Freelance Journalist : Ph 0091.832.2409490 Cell 0 9822 122436 --------------------------------------------------------------- Join these e-mail lists on the Internet: Goanet: http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet-news BytesForAll: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers GNULinuxInIndia: http://www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=linuxinindia

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Indian mirror
by H S Rai 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

Yesterday at 11:23pm +0530 Mahesh T. Pai wrote: > H S Rai said on Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 09:32:10PM +0530,: > > > But, IITM is not listed on www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/ and there is > > Is that the CD vendors' page? I get this page from: www.debian.org -> CD ISO Image (Getting debian) -> fetch full CD images on this page there is list of all ftp/http mirror. As I was to download debian, so after going through this list I was left with no option to use some mirror outside India. > > not even any other Indian mirror is listed. In that case normal > > user get poor impression. > > Sure. But the file is there in mirrors_full. -- H.S.Rai http://www.grex.org/~hsrai | Registered Linux User # 223684 http://counter.li.org/cgi-bin/runscript/display-person.cgi?user=223684

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Fsf-friends February 2004