Fsf-friends May 2005

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

20 participants
43 discussions

by Manjush G.Menon

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

17 years, 5 months

[Fsf-friends] INDIA: Request to sign a petition favouring Free Software in the campus

by Frederick Noronha (FN)

Please sign this petition if you agree with it... it's an attempt to convince a prominent technological university in Bangalore (VTU) to be opened to the use of Free Software too. http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?VTU-FLOSS_Campaign Krishna Pagadala, San Jose, USA. I have benefitted highly from the Free Software movement and the Freedoms it has provided. Specifically the Freedom to learn from the source code has helped me in getting a high-technology job in the US. I wish that all students enjoy the all the Software Freedoms. Pramode C.E, IC Software: I would like to add that there are efforts under way to develop innovative hardware experimentation platforms using GNU/Linux to improve the quality of Physics (as well as Engineering) education; and the best part is that it's being done in India. Please visit http://www.nsc.res.in/~elab/phoenix/ to know more about the `Phoenix Project' being developed by Ajith Kumar at the Nuclear Science Centre, India. The wealth of high quality tools and the open nature of the platform is of immense value to young engineers and scientists raring to unleash their creativity; the lessons in freedom and sharing that students learn by using GNU/Linux will also go a long way in shaping their character as caring and responsible human beings. ashidhar b desai ,6th sem E&C, B.V.Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering & Technology Hubli,Karnataka,India ,FLOSS is an excellent alternative for the existing commercial softwares..Academics(colleges and univ) is the best way to promote and support "Free Software".It will be a great initiative if the univ adopts it(it will become an example for other univ & institutes). News about open source and gnu/linux stuff---Indian Inside . Lets get Liberated.LONG LIVE OPEN SOURCE. Praveen Arimbrathodiyil (National Instititute of Technology, Calicut) Fri Mar 11 17:34:50 IST 2005 We use GNU/Linux in our main Computer center. It saves a lot of money of the college as there is no licence fee to be paid for each users. Since the source code of the softwares are available many computer science students do projects based on Linux kernel and other such projects. The possibility of use of thin-clients (which our computer center use) reduces the cost of hardware dramatically. It has proved to be beneficial to our college and I urge you to chose Free Software for giving a better alternative for students. Debapriyo Sarkar. Final year student of BCA, Goa. As a student, I plead to every university, to adopt, encourage and spread the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). The benefits are clearly far-more significant than cost savings (which of course is a huge motivating factor). The quality of software reviewed and worked on by virtually the entire developer community of the world is definitely at least world-class if nothing else. It is possible to save on costs with $0 priced closed source software often termed as freeware, but the limited resources of the single developer or the couple of developers behind the software makes future of such software bleak. Compared to that, software released under an open source license, helps user as well as developer involvement to happen as deeply and transparent as no other licensing model can support. As the letter includes the following (stripped) statement "...Octave, which is simulation software written by University professors. This usually comes with the GNU/Linux Operating System." which clearly shows that professors of universities elsewhere have contributed to the solution of making quality software available to the students and colleges alike under a license that welcomes further contributions to improve the project virtually endlessly. As a personal experience, I often have used open source alternatives whenever acquiring the proprietary packages meant depending on the lab assistant to provide the CD for illegal copying or genuinely going out and shelling out all those huge wads of cash for functionality that was already at my disposal with added advantage of continuing development and a long-life (of the software). As universities use and recommend use of open source software,rate of development is bound to grow with more and more students using the same version of software both at college and home (no limited cheap "student" edition which are "cheap" imitations with myriad "limitations"). Also professors' contributions in the form of bug reports, bug fixes, new functionality patches and their work in increasing awareness about the benefits of using open source software would help improve quality of free software to an enormous extent. Vijay Kumar, Chennai, India. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html .P.Sujeevan,Project leader, S2S2, Kerala .Here at kerala at school level more than 50 of schools are still using GNU/Linux.Also SSLC IT practical examination has successfully done under the linux operating system.Some schools are still using the Linux terminal server systems.Next year aggressive work is planning to implement complete linux environment in schools.http://s2s2net.netfirms.com _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa \ __\/ \ India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org \/ ----------------------------------------------------- Writing with a difference, on issues that really make the difference.

17 years, 7 months

Free Software Free Society Thiruvananthapuram Declaration

by Sasi Kumar

The Free Software Free Society Conference held at Thiruvananthapuram during May 28-29 adopted a declaration that called upon the social and political institutions to eliminate systems that hinder the development of the gnowledge society (see www.gnowledge.org). The full text of the declaration is available at fsfs.hipatia.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page. V. Sasi Kumar

17 years, 9 months

Free Software,Free Society

by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati

hello friends, Greetings from FSFS conference here in God's Own Country Kerala.The events of this morning are blogged here. Currently three parallel tracks on different topics are going on and shall write more on it later today. http://arky.in/node/29 Cheers --arky -- .-. {\('v')/} (\_/) ____________________`( )'_____ ( =(^Y^)= (_rakesh_ambati@yahoo^^" "^^ ____\_(m___m)_________).com FSUG-Bangalore (http://bangalore.gnu.org.in) FreeSchools Project (http://freeschools.bluesprint.com)

17 years, 9 months

Cabinet Approves New Map Policy

by Shekhar Krishnan

Dear All: Strangely, I've not seen this discussed on any of the usual mailing lists so far (or maybe I missed it). Apologies for cross-posting. See also our Mumbai Free Map project on http://www.crit.org.in/projects/gis Best Shekhar ______ Cabinet approves new map policy Defence and open series to be released Though as a rule the use of maps is governed by a system of registration, there will now be no such requirement for maps up to a scale of 1:1 million. Special Correspondent The Hindu, Chennai 20 May 2005 http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052003771200.htm NEW DELHI: : The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a new policy, which provides for the release of two series of maps — defence and open. This is to ensure free flow of spatial information for developmental activities and address security concerns. The defence series maps (DSMs) are for the exclusive use of the defence forces and authorised government departments. The open series maps (OSMs) will be available to the public, private and public agencies and non-governmental organisations involved in planning and development of irrigation projects, roads, bridges and hospitals. The Defence Ministry will determine the policy on the use of DSMs, while the Survey of India (SOI), under the Science and Technology Ministry, will be responsible for the policy on OSMs. The S&T Ministry will have to take one-time permission from the Defence Ministry before releasing a map in the open series. The user-agency will be free to add value and share it, provided the changes are communicated to the SOI. The OSMs can be produced to any scale. Though, as a rule, the use of maps is governed by a system of registration, there will be no such requirement for maps up to a scale of 1:1 million. Registered private agencies, carrying SOI accreditation, will be permitted to do surveys for preparing maps in all parts using the public domain datum. Redundant features Announcing the decision,Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said technological changes around the world rendered many features of the existing map policy redundant and anachronistic. An official release said its continuance tended to impede free flow of spatial information and engendered high opportunity costs for a developing economy. At the same time, all spatial data available in the public domain had potential security hazards. The new policy would address all these concerns. Later, addressing a press conference, S&T Minister, Kapil Sibal, said the SOI would begin releasing the new OSMs in a few months, after the Defence Ministry decided on the extent of the geographical areas that could be opened up for generation of maps without compromising security concerns. At present, 60 per cent of the geographical area was under restriction. It was expected that the new policy would drastically reduce this. The SOI would soon begin updating the maps. The OSMs would have all essential parameters such as the latitude, longitude, gradients and contours. _____ Shekhar Krishnan CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) B-43, Shravasti Goregaon-Malad Link Road Malad (West), Mumbai 400064 India http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar

17 years, 9 months

Keep publicly-funded content free and open...

by Frederick Noronha

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, May 28: Publicly-funded content must be openly available, and sharing knowledge only enhances its richness, Italian senator Fiorello Cortiana told a four-nation international conference held in the Kerala capital this morning. Eminent economist and former Venezuela minister for planning and development Dr Filipe Perez-Marti agreed, and stressed that participation, solidarity and wisdom would be the key three words that characterise a new global situation. Amidst praise for Kerala for organising this first ever south-to-south contact in the world of free software and free knowledge, speakers from Latin America (Venezuela, and Brazil), Italy and India explored ways of understanding their respective situations and possibilities for collaboration across the oceans. The Latin Americans were keen to hear about Kerala's attempts to look at take Free Software solutions to schools, through their IT@School project which aims to train about 200 master trainers, who will then train at least one teacher from each school in the state in the use of free software. Free Software Foundation of India director Prof G Nagarjuna stressed how India was able to fight-back attempts to make software a patentable item. He said help for this endeavour had come from enlightened politicians, the peoples' science movement, media and others. Latin American delegates spoke of how their firms including the Venezualan oil giant had opted for free software, both for more control over their work and avoid possibilities of sabotage in a crucial sector of the economy. Government of Brazil special advisor in the ministry of communications Antonio Bezerra de Albquerque Neto said Brazil was keen to build links with countries like India and China, and stressed that Free Software is a key means of in building a fairer society. SPACE executive secretary Satish Babucalled this a fairly unique event and said Kerala had a good chance of building itself as a global destination of Free Software. SPACE chairperson Prof K R Srivathsan termed Free Software a natural way for the scientific community to play around with. Former musician turned Free Software activist Juan Carlos Gentile said he hoped this first-ever meet of its kind would lead to many things to come. Kerala IT secretary PH Kurian said ideas of sharing knowledge were not alien to India, and cited the case of Gautam Buddha who used the people's language to spread his message. Kerala began this four-nation meet on Saturday morning, and it aims to take the ideas of free software to different realms of society, which can gain from the power of sharing knowledge and culture. SPACE, the Thiruvananthapuram-based Society for the Promotion of Alternative Computing and Environment, is co-organiser of this event with the global NGO Hipatia (www.hipatia.net) and the Free Software Foundation-India (www.fsf.org.in). Organisers say that the international free software movement has shown a new way of knowledge creation and social ownership. They're keen to explore how the free software model can be applied to fields as diverse as governance, digital inclusion, development and culture. (ENDS) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

17 years, 9 months

Free Software,Free Society

by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati

Hi List, Am blogging the 'Free Software,Free Society' Conference from the Technopark in Trivandrum in kerala.Hope this will help those who couldn't make it. http://arky.in/ Cheers --arky -- .-. {\('v')/} (\_/) ____________________`( )'_____ ( =(^Y^)= (_rakesh_ambati@yahoo^^" "^^ ____\_(m___m)_________).com FSUG-Bangalore (http://bangalore.gnu.org.in) FreeSchools Project (http://freeschools.bluesprint.com)

17 years, 9 months

Report from Kerala...

by Frederick Noronha

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8319 India's Upcoming Free Software, Free Society Conference Free software advocates and IT delegates from around the world will be in Kerala, India, this week in the hopes of building free software collaborations for the future. Free software offers its users various freedoms. In India, free software enthusiasts are working on a new one--the freedom to build bridges to potential partners half-way across the globe who are facing similar developmental concerns or challenges. To help facilitate this bridge-building process, the Free Software Foundation of India is organising a four-country conference to be held May 28-29, 2005. The Free Software, Free Society conference brings together hackers from an unlikely set of nations, people who don't speak the same language but who do see much in the idea that knowledge is most powerful when it is shared freely. Arun M, arun(a)gnu.org.in, one of the key organisers of this event, said, "The Free Software movement has shown a new way of knowledge creation based on collaboration and social ownership. This conference explores the possibilities of applying the Free Software model in addressing broader questions such as governance, digital inclusion, development and culture." Free Software, Free Society is being organised by the Free Software Foundation of India, along with Italy's Hipatia project, the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) in Kerala and the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IITM-K). The conference will be held at Technopark, a technology and software promotion centre in the state-capital of India's southernmost state of Kerala.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

17 years, 9 months

(no subject)

by pravi.a＠gmail.com

Teenager Develops User Friendly GNU Linux OS [3903_matter.jpg] Obstacles such as financial constraints, very minimum PC resources, did not in any way deter the grit of Kerala-based, 15-year old Sarath Lakshman from developing SLYNUX- a highly user-friendly GNU/Linux operating system designed for beginners. A completely self-taught person, who has never stepped into a computer-learning institute in his lifetime, his tale is one of guts and more guts. Speaking to CXOtoday, Lakshman recollected, "I had first heard about GNU/Linux when I was a computer (Windows user) from standard eight. However, I was advised by tech-savvy people that only experts could use it. This inspired me to collect a Linux distro. I collected Redhat 9.0- the only Linux distro known and available in my locality and installed it in my system (128MB Ram and Celeron 1Ghz processor). "That was my first brush with Linux; its basic features impressed me though the OS was not user friendly as I could not understand the program names, commands since I was a fresher to Linux. This paved the seed of a user friendly Linux in my mind," added Lakshman. The main feature of this operating system is that, any person who is familiar with Microsoft Windows OS can handle this operating system very easily. The desktop of this operating system is arranged so as to make it friendly to the user. It comes with a wide range of application programs, which are pre-installed. It can be run completely from CD without installation with options of installing a hard disk. Speaking further he said, "I have written many shell scripts, though I have not counted the same. I have done little C++ compilations and codings too with some kernel modifications too. (The base of every GNU/Linux is shell scripts)." SLYNUX is a live Linux distribution, which includes content of about 2GB made available by using transparent compression. This is a debian based GNU/Linux developed from Knoppix (credit of most features of this Distro goes to knoppix). 256 MB Ram is recommended to run SLYNUX Live CD for good performance. Describing the challenges he faced, Lakshman stated, "The first problem I faced was lack of Internet facility. I currently use a BSNL dial up connection with about 44 Kbps speed since I cannot afford a broadband connection. Because of this, I could use the Web only for browsing purposes. All resources related to GNU/Linux are available for download, especially source codes, which were of huge sizes (around 20MB, 50MB, 600MB etc)." The second problem was lack of help. "At the place, which I reside there are no Linux users until now. But in places like Ernakulum and Trivandrum, in Kerala, Linux is gaining momentum. I later met an IT consultant at the Kerala legislative assembly who helped me a lot by giving me some GNU/Linux distros, (especially knoppix 3.6.)," said Lakshman. Describing his struggle further he said, "Thirdly, the PC (Intel Celeron 1Gnz, 810E motherboard), I currently use is unfit for development activities and many Linux distros cannot support my configuration for graphics. This resulted in long hours for cloop compression (a process in SLYNUX development, which used to take about 2 hours for compression every time. A good configuration system would have take me only about 8 to 10 minutes." Lakshman rues the fact that he does not even posses a Web space for hosting his site. He has currently hosted it in a free domain. He insists that [1]SLYNUX is especially for newbies of Linux. "Using SLYNUX every Windows user can migrate to the GNU/Linux. Meanwhile, SLYNUX 1.1, 2.0 can also be used by enterprise users as I plan to shortly release SLYNUX 3.0 with kernel 2.6.8.1 and other Apache server tools, MySQL etc. (MySQL is already there with SLYNUX.)," stated Lakshman. A science and technology enthusiast from the age of 10, Lakshman has just appeared for the SSLC (Kerala state syllabus) public examination and waiting for the results. His other achievements include developing an e-periodic table with basic knowledge of Visual Basic programming when he was studying in the ninth grade. The Executive Director, IT@School, Thiruvananthapuram demanded the copy right of the software to include it in the X standard resource CD to supply to all High schools in Kerala. Speaking about the road ahead, he has no clue about how to go about marketing his product, though he hopes to be approached by genuine companies who would be interested in marketing his product, although in the same breath he states he does not have a profit motive, (he follows the philosophy of free software). While it is indisputable, that India does possess the talent, brains, and the determination, efforts such as these often go unnoticed due to lack of a strategic marketing plan and direction. Meanwhile, any takers for SLYNUX? References 1. http://www.slynux.co.nr/

17 years, 10 months

Sign the petition to force VTU to use FOSS

by Thejesh GN

Here is your last chance to sign the petition since we are thinking of winding it up on June 5th. Please read and sign the petition at http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?VTU-FLOSS_Campaign below is the signature by RMS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 80. From Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org <http://gnu.org>>: Schools of all levels should insist on Free Software, because proprietary software prohibits learning and builds dependency. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

17 years, 10 months

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Fsf-friends May 2005