Fsf-friends April 2006

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

46 participants
48 discussions

by Frederick Noronha (FN)

Can someone help a friend in Belgaum? Networking skills? Is Anand Babu still in town? FN From: Nitin Bilgi <nbbbgm(a)rediffmail.com> Date: 13 Apr 2006 06:02:03 -0000 (11:32 IST) Hi Frederick. How r U? We are planning to conduct NETWORKING COURSE in Last week of APRIL/MAY can u suggest some Hardcore Networking prof. in GOA. offcourse Bhat and other and some from DLINK u know. pl send their contact email id and tel no's. Hope u will help us Thanking u NITIN BILGI

17 years, 5 months

Re: [OT][Fsf-friends] Lamers Stuff !!!

by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal

He may be a lamer, but I can say for sure, unless we expose such things, youngsters especially students will take him/ such people as an example to follow and forget about the real heros of computing (RMS, Denis Richie, Linus, ESR, and many more). I know so many students who think and assume Business Gate$ and even ankit fadia as their idol, and think of them as some great software engineers, IMHO they were/ are good business man, have been successfull in making money, if ankit ever was a hacker wannabe, ending up as a script kiddie but now a successfull business man. All that is necessary for a business man to succeed is for a hacker to do nothing. Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org ----- Original Message ----- From: Baishampayan Ghose <b.ghose(a)gnu.org.in> To: Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> Sent: à¨¸à©à¨®à¨µà¨¾à¨° 24 à¨à¨ªà¨°à©à¨² 2006 03:36:32 à¨¶à¨¾. IST Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Lamers Stuff !!! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Prabhat, > Well, dear. I don't think this is the right place to discuss these > topics here. This is FSF list and lets confine our discussions to IT, > Linux and OSS here. But if you have something to say, please visit > here ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/India-Force/ ) . People will > love to hear your views. Raju is right. We all know AF is a fraud. This is a fact and it has been established many times. Now what we can/should do to expose him is totally off-topic here. Regards, BG - -- Baishampayan Ghose <b.ghose(a)gnu.org.in> Free Software Foundation of India http://www.gnu.org.in/

17 years, 5 months

Breaking News !

by Prabhat Sandheliya

Hi guys, I am sure you remember, the story I posted few days back, on the mailing list about Ankit Fadia, "Ankit Fadia : The real picture " . There is a new twist in the story. :-) I sent this mail to various people, including one IT and Cyber Law expert, Deepti Chopra. She also felt that Mr Fadia is doing something fraud and misleading people. She talked to Certificate authority of India and questioned about the authenticity and credibility of the certificate. When I posted the original story to various people, I got many positive responses. I forwarded all those mails to Deepti and she passed them to the Certificate authority of India. Now the twist in the story. :-) Deepti just informed me that, she got positive reply from Certificate authority of India. They have issued a notice to Mr Fadia and CEO, Reliance Web World to stop the issuing certificates. Now we are also thinking about taking some legal action against Mr Fadia and Reliance Web World. Cheers to our victory over unethical business practice and fraud. :-) Do send me your suggestions and views. -- Prabhat Sandheliya --------------------------------------------------------------------- Promote Linux - Join mailing list : http://groups.google.com/group/lug-indore (Linux Users Group - Indore)

17 years, 5 months

Yet another list on FLOSS?

by Frederick Noronha (FN)

Dear FSF-India friends: BytesForAll has just launched a new mailing list, specifically focused on Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS, or FOSS). Details of the group are below. We invite all interested to join. Rather than replicating the many existing FLOSS networks, this one intends to have a specific agenda (i) build cross-border regional South Asian links among FLOSS campaigners, users and supporters (ii) share resources and building networks among those working on localisation of FLOSS, particularly on languages which have implications for more than one country in the region, or whose initiatives we can learn from (with a special emphasis on Urdu, Bengali, Nepali, the Devanagari script, smaller languages currently unsupported by FLOSS and/or proprietorial software, etc). In this way, we hope to complement, support and spread awareness about useful initiatives like IndicComputing, Ankur Bangla, and the MPP initiatives on Nepali localisation. On the Urdu front, in particular, links between Pakistan and north India (particularly) are needed on the FLOSS front. Your support and active participation is welcome! Many thanks to Fouad Riaz Bajwa <bajwa(a)fossfp.org> of Pakistan for his high energy levels and repeated prodding to BytesForAll for undertaking this initiative. INTRODUCING THE GROUP: A network to link Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS, or FOSS) advocates in South Asia, with an intention of building regional links and specially encouraging localisation efforts in this populous part of the planet which can really benefit from the power of free-as-in-freedom software. This is a sub-group of the wider BytesForAll Network. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_floss -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | http://fn-at-google.notlong.com Goa, India | fred(a)bytesforall.org Co-Founder, BytesForAll | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 -------------------------------------------------------------

17 years, 5 months

[Fwd: [ILUG-BOM] Digital Certificates]

by Nagarjuna

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ILUG-BOM] Digital Certificates Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 23:25:29 +0530 From: Saswata Banerjee & Associates <scrapo(a)saswatabanerjee.com> Reply-To: GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India <linuxers(a)mm.glug-bom.org> To: GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India <linuxers(a)mm.glug-bom.org> Hi Everyone, I attended a lecture at Indian Merchants Chambers yesterday on the new government rule called MCA-21. The new rule provides that all document sumbitted to the Ministry of Company Affaires now needs to be given in digital form only. They will no longer accept physical documents. Further, each of these documents will have to have a digital signature of the persons who were earlier required to sign the physical documents. This is the first step to moving all governement documents to digital form and save huge time and cost of users now wasted in standing in line and submitting documents to the government. The next will be Tax authorities, followed by Excise and Customs. Land Records are expected to be next thereafter. There are 7 companies in India who are authorised to issue digital certificates recorgnised under the Information Technology Act. TCS is one who was present at the seminar and demonstrated the use of the digital certificates. For those who have not used them, these are stored by TCS on USB Tokens, which look like USB Pen drives but are read-only 32KB drives with processors built in. You are supposed to insert in the token in the UCB port and then ask the Online-Form to pick up the digital certificate from the token and add it to the document to submit to the government. These certificates are based on 128 bit encryption and PKI. TCS assured me that it is designed to work both on Linux and Mac in addition to Windows and that they are including the relevant drivers with the token. However, the additional software tools they are providing for automating digital signatures on other documents will work only on Windows. I would like to know if any of you have used the Digital Siganture / Digital Certificates that is being issued under MCA-21 and can confirm that it works properly on Linux. The other providers of Digital Certificates includes MTNL. While TCS is charging Rs. 2075 for a 1 year valid certificate, MTNL is charging Rs. 350. They are sending it to you on email !! Ofcourse, they are doing this only at Malabar Hill Exchange and you have to go personally to their office and they will verify that you are the person whose name is on the form and your address, photo, etc. I do not know much on Digital Certificates. However with this becoming a major part of commercial and business transactions, I hope what the government is doing does not work only on Windows. If necessary, we (or perhaps FSF) will need to initiate a dialog with the government. In the next year, it is estimated that just government requirment will result in over 1 million digital certificates being issued. I think the actual figure will be close to 5 million as more government depatments like Income Tax, Sales Tax, Excise and Customs departments move to "digital documents only" mode. (Just imagine - if every shop keeper needs to file his sales tax returns online and needs a digital certificate to be able to upload the return to the government). It would be very important for us to ensure that Linux gets supported in the process. Regards Saswata -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers . -- -- Dr. Nagarjuna G. Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Mumbai India. V.N. Purav Marg, Mankhurd, Mumbai, INDIA 400088 http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/Data/Objects/n/nagarjun/viewObject

17 years, 5 months

Re: [Fsf-friends] FSF is incomplete w/o FIF (or something equivalent)

by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal

This is a very good idea, though i do hope some one can point on the legal issues/ validity of FIF. There are a lot of inteligent people and if it is possible to document ideas and somehow before the patent hogs get to patent them or even think of them. Sounds good. But ofcourse I do hope someone from legal background will comment on this. Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA ----- Original Message ----- From: sandeep Kumar <blackray(a)indiainfo.com> To: FSF India Friends <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> Sent: à¨µà©à¨°à¨µà¨¾à¨° 20 à¨à¨ªà¨°à©à¨² 2006 09:04:54 à¨¶à¨¾. IST Subject: [Fsf-friends] FSF is incomplete w/o FIF (or something equivalent) Hi, Past couple of days, I interacted with RMS over this and in the process not only found about existence? of FSF India chapter, but also that I hadn't been the only one who got the wrong idea about association of OpenSource movement with RMS. FIF - Free Ideas Foundation, a forum where people can register their ideas, whether usable directly or in future, whether to do with computers or any other fields. People/Organisations can pick these ideas and develop product out of it, but can't practice the monopoly called patents. As a benefit for the consumer, this will present the options for better implementations and improvisations of same idea. But as far as I look at this FIF, it comprises of computer s/w and h/w related ideas, but not limited to these only. A little background behind this can be seen on http://idiotkid.blogspot.com/2006/04/opensource-is-incomplete-w_11439031574… and http://www.geocities.com/shimple0/techcorner.html Nagarjuna had asked me to introduce myself on this list, as other lists are kinda dead. I have been working as consultant for s/w companies as well as teaching at Pune University Computer Science Department as visiting faculty. Details more than this you can check out via "[Professional Details]" link on my homepage. May be my views are what has been discussed here in past, but I believe each time we come across same question, if environment/conditions have changed, we are likely to get different and each time more refined and closer answer. Sandeep ----- Want to know more about me? Check out http://www.geocities.com/shimple0

17 years, 5 months

FSF is incomplete w/o FIF (or something equivalent)

by sandeep Kumar

Hi, Past couple of days, I interacted with RMS over this and in the process not only found about existence? of FSF India chapter, but also that I hadn't been the only one who got the wrong idea about association of OpenSource movement with RMS. FIF - Free Ideas Foundation, a forum where people can register their ideas, whether usable directly or in future, whether to do with computers or any other fields. People/Organisations can pick these ideas and develop product out of it, but can't practice the monopoly called patents. As a benefit for the consumer, this will present the options for better implementations and improvisations of same idea. But as far as I look at this FIF, it comprises of computer s/w and h/w related ideas, but not limited to these only. A little background behind this can be seen on http://idiotkid.blogspot.com/2006/04/opensource-is-incomplete-w_11439031574… and http://www.geocities.com/shimple0/techcorner.html Nagarjuna had asked me to introduce myself on this list, as other lists are kinda dead. I have been working as consultant for s/w companies as well as teaching at Pune University Computer Science Department as visiting faculty. Details more than this you can check out via "[Professional Details]" link on my homepage. May be my views are what has been discussed here in past, but I believe each time we come across same question, if environment/conditions have changed, we are likely to get different and each time more refined and closer answer. Sandeep ----- Want to know more about me? Check out http://www.geocities.com/shimple0 -- ______________________________________________ IndiaInfo Mail - the free e-mail service with a difference! www.indiainfo.com Check out our value-added Premium features, such as an extra 20MB for mail storage, POP3, e-mail forwarding, and ads-free mailboxes!

17 years, 5 months

Transferability of Copyright

by Annamalai Gurusami

Hi All, I have been perusing the Indian Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov.in In that website copyright is talked about as some sort of author's special rights. If that is the real purpose of the copyright act, then why does it allow the transfer of copyright from one person (or organisation) to another? Does it make sense to ask for an amendment to make the copyright non-transferable? IANAL, hence this question. Any thoughts on this? Some of the +ve effects of such clause would be, 1. The authors would always be in control. The publishers can license the work from the authors. 2. If the author dies, the copyrighted work gets to public domain. Or inherited by his/her family. 3. No author can be forced or pressurized to transfer copyright. For example, if you want us to publish your paper you have to transfer the copyright to us. (http://cr.yp.to/writing/ieee.html). All your comments are welcome. Thank you. This is also reproduced here. http://missingrainbow.wordpress.com/2006/04/19/transferability-of-copyright/ Rgds, anna -- "Three women cannot deliver 1 baby in three months" - analogy on R&D time planning

17 years, 5 months

Fwd: [cslug] Fwd: [ilugd] Fwd: [Fsf-friends] Ankit Fadia : The real picture

by yogesh

On 4/6/06, Gaurav Mishra <gauravtechie(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Prabhat Sandheliya <prabhat.news(a)gmail.com> > Date: Apr 5, 2006 3:30 PM > Subject: [Fsf-friends] Ankit Fadia : The real picture > To: Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > > > Yesterday (03-04-2006)I attended a seminar by a so-called "Hacking Guru" > Ankit Fadia, at DAVV, Indore (MP) auditorium. I just want to share my > feelings with you. > > The Seminar was a complete failure, though it was attended by about well > over 100 people, but was a complete disaster. > > The very first thing by which I was offended badly was using the sacred word > "Hacking" to demonstrate something we, the hackers, call cracking. The > seminar topic was "Ethical Hacking", now I want to ask Mr Fadia, what is > unethical about hacking ? Hacking is very positive word and there in no need > to put "Ethical" before it. By the way his seminar topic should be "Ethical > Cracking". > > If you really want to become a hacker, please read an article by a real > hacker, Eric Steven Raymond (ESR). The man who changed the history by > writing a paper "Cathedral and Bazaar". please read the article here : > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html< http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/hacker-howto.html> > > The people who can not differentiate between hacking and cracking, should > read an article by the GOD of hackers Richad M Stallman (RMS), the man who > started GNU movement all by himself. The gcc (compiler), gdb (debugger), > emacs (editor) are some of the most popular softwares in the world written > by him. Please read the article here : > http://www.outpost9.com/reference/jargon/jargon_69.html > > The things Fadia demonstrated were ancient techniques used by crackers to > break into some one's machine. Now a days even 10 year olds can download > these tools from Internet to control others' machines. Can we call them > hackers ?? If he calls it hacking, I doubt if he understands the term even > "Cracking", leave hacking altogether. This childish behavior is called > script kiddie. > > IP spoofing, SQL Injection, password cracking softwares, Trojan horse > programs, these are the tools of cyber criminals. So I wonder what is the > significance of the term "Ethical" here ?? > > In the entire session I kept waiting for some program or utility, written by > himself. But I don't thing he had something like this to share with > audience. The entire session was demonstration of third party utilities, and > the saddest thing was no mention of the name of any author of any utility. > He didn't care to give some credits to the utility developers. What a shame > !!! > > Mr Fadia, I real hacker always respect the creativity of others, and before > using their work proper credits are given, this is the hacker's attitude. > It's not like that, you download something from Internet, use it and forget > the person, who made it. That's pretty mean. > > Second most annoying thing was that he calls himself a "hacker" and was > using a Windows XP operating system ???? > > I have been in to computers for the past 10 years and I never come across > any real hacker who uses Windows. I met Brian(Apache creator), Andy Cleen, > Alon cox, Rusty (all networking gods), RMS (the GOD himself) but all of them > were using some or other form of Unix or Linux. > > Come on, MR Fadia, Windows is the worst OS in the world, full of security > holes, so what is the point to break into a Windows machine ???? What do > you want to prove ???? > > He only once mentioned Linux, just to tell how you can use it's live CD to > boot a Windows machine and cracke the password. > > Actually, before attending the seminar, I Googled a lot about Fadia and his > work. But what I could find was self acclaiming statement by Fadia about > himself and his future and just crap, crap and crap by technology illiterate > Indian news papers' reports. > > I just want to share my findings with you. > > Vulnerabilities patches by Fadia = 0 (He may know how to break > in, but doesn't know how to fix up) > Bugtraq id's by Fadia = 0 > Hacking / Security tool by fadia = 0 (He simply Goolge and > download the tools from Internet, that's not cracking. Actual cracker > is the > programmer, but Fadia never ever gives due credits. Now that's not hacking, > that's > stealing) > Any open source software by Fadia = 0 (He is afraid of suggesting > Linux to people, 'coz it's secure) > Any Linux or Windows software security patch = 0 > Any recommendation or recognition by Real Hacker Community = 0 (They > laugh at him. He is just a kid) > Software / Cryptography patents by Fadia = 0 > Algorithms by Fadia = 0 > Any official citation by FBI/CIA/CBI for Fadia = 0 (They don't even > bother about any explanation) > Any confirmation of his self-claims = 0 (Nobody, expect > him knows, if they are real) > Any confirmation of him decrypting Osama's message = 0 > (Hahahahahahahaha) > Any original technical tutorial or book by Fadia = 0 (He simply copy > the things and never he never ever gives due credits to the > > original authors.) > Any originality in his tutes or books = 0 (Hahahahahahaha) > Skill level of Fadia = Only God > knows !!! > > > I tried to read a few books by him, but to my wonder some part of his books > are nothing but simple "copy and paste" material from well known sites for > Windows registry editing. Please visit www.winguides.com and compare the > material with his first book. Oh God ! this is the clear violation of > intellectual property rights of the website. Please inform the webmaster. I > have done it already. > > I was astonished by the course he came to promote here, "Ethical hacker > certified by Ankit Fadia" ! He sill is child in hacking field, and he is > giving the certificates for hacking ????? And worst thing, Reliance web > world is promoting it. What a shame !!! Have all gone mad ? Can't they see > ? > > Unfortunately, question and answer round was cut from the seminar, that's > also because of Fadia arrived there one hour late. Well, that's India's > celebrity style statement. Otherwise, I would have asked all these questions > to him there only. > > Anyways, I went to him at the end of the seminar, and asked if Windows is so > vulnerable, can he suggest audience to use Linux rather than Windows. And > the reply came was straight "NO". What a shame ??? > > I understood the reason, why he said no. The reason is same why Microsoft > does not patch up it's OS. Plain economics. If you make system secure with > Linux who is going to ask for people like Fadia, so called "security expert" > ??? > > I want to make an appeal to all of you, please make all of your friends > aware of these facts. Let one should not get undeserved advantage. I also > want to appeal news papers, please do not make a hero out of nothing. Stop > polluting the honest media by prejudiced reports. > > And at the end I want to tell Mr Fadia, that I don't have any personal > problem with you or your achievements, but please behave properly in hacking > community. We hackers are very positive people we never ever try to harm > anybody, until he comes to our or our philosophy's way. Please stop calling > your self a hacker, if does not understand the hacker culture. > > And for god sake, stop behaving like a child, now you are in college, so > GROW UP !!! > > > Prabhat. > > PS : I am sending this mail to Mr Fadia, Reliance web world, most of Linux > > mailing lists and all of my friends. Please post your comments.lug-indore(a)googlegroups.com > hi prabhat, Thanks for taking initiative. let me add some more. I attended his seminar yesterday at I2IT,pune . This time also he didnt get time for questions-answers .In his seminar, he defined 'hackers' - good people who work with security guy for ethical purpose and 'crackers' - computer criminals who steals passwords, does financial harms, etc. Now, his seminar was full of password cracking tools. he taught there - How to do attacks on site with hiding their identity. how can we use trojans to harm to remote computer. howto send forged emails. how can one deface website and how can he order jewelry for free with love demo. My claim - Is this comes under ethical hacking or cracking as per your definition? do public really need to be taught these things to secure their machines? and why dont you encourage them to use secure browsers like opera, mozilla? if he says many websites/proprietary softwares steals users information, why not ask them to move to open source world? why you do not tell them that most secure way of using internet is to use net as non-root user in linux box? :-\ people here are talking about ankit fadia like hes the next jesus because he is young and wrote a book. whats so hard about that? , you can compile the information from the internet ,rewrite it and throw in some remarks about this you understand, then make it read nice and you have a book. he said he wrote his first book in 15 days. my claim - I could have done same in 2 days. ;-) if u think he is quite young , then compare him with all those 12-13 years old kids from US who wrote big viruses/worms that caused billions of dollars damage to US. he does not talk about stack manipulation, reversing os hooks , kernel data structures. he does not owe any security research. He just keeps knowledge abt how hackers hack. Is that make him big hacker? and if he is so big hacker, why doesnt defcon , blackhat meetings entertain him? In his doordarshan interview, he told that he is working for many multinational security companies and can not revel their names for security reasons. =)) =)) My claim - I am working for a single multinational security company that is on the top of all your fucking companies and can not revel their names for the same. :-D ankit's own opinion abt his book(copy-pasted from http://neworder.box.sk/forum.php?did=edge317&thread=23811 ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not at all the youngest hacker in the world and definitely not even the youngest writer in the world, neither do I have any desire to become so. The media has been responsible for giving me titles, which I am no way going to accept. I do not know everything there is to know about computer security and believe that every single individual registered at Neworder can definitely teach me a lot.... My first book is strictly meant for newbies who are starting out in the hacking scene. It does not talk about much advanced stuff and may not be useful to seasoned computer security experts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ for more analysis - read all postings http://neworder.box.sk/forum.php?did=edge317 So... he says his book is for newbies... for those of you whoever found his book facinating, you are newbie. There is a lot to learn about hacking. From hindustan times ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Americans had tried almost everything, but they just couldn't crack an encrypted message they came across while investigating the 9/11 attacks. Finally, they approached a 17-year-old boy in Delhi about whom The New York Times had done a feature. Over the next 10 days, Ankit Fadia hunkered down in his room in Delhi and came up with the key to crack the message. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- so what was NIST,NCSC and NSA were doing at that time? they created cryptography standards, algorithms and they need ankit to recognize their own algorithms implemented. cryptography is one of the most complex mathematics division!! NSA is the largest employer of mathematicians in the world !!! And what was ankit doing when NIST announced 'call for algorithm' for AES? and how does classified intelligence agency in which he works allow him to disclose that he decrypted laden's men's message? my claim - this agency came to me first for decryption. but I was involved in secret project of NASA that time. =)) Actually Osama has not been tracked till now. The question comes, why U.S. government did not continue to take help of Ankit till osama is physically captured?? If u search on the google for ankit fadia, this will be the first link. http://www.rediff.com/search/2002/apr/18ankit.htm His claim is that he found in chat conversation that pakistani hackers are going to hack some indian site and he reported it to US spy organisation and that spy organisation warned that site. So what is he doing when 50-60 indian sites are hacked by paki group daily? Here is the AIC(Anti India Crew - paki hacker group) explanation about above rediff article on the defaced website http://www.zone-h.org/defaced/2002/04/26/bhelapp.bhelhyd.co.in/ and even if somebody heard hacking chat conversation and reported to that site, is that make him big hacker? and why didnt he accept challenge of AIC when AIC has announced that it would be defacing the website of the Central Board of Excise and Customs , www.cbec.gov.in within two days and challenged Ankit Fadia to prevent the defacement? http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/04/30/stories/2002043002271300.htm let me give it a final shot. his own website ankitfadia.com was hacked.(it seems that he sold this domain to some search engine company these days.) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/141313.cms he says he could not do anything as it was dos attack. In his rediff article he told he uploaded site with anti-cracking software and stopped site from being hacked. then how did dos attack finished his own site? even his company website - e2-labs.com was defaced. check http://zone-h.org/en/news/read/id=3861/ Then why is he so popular?? because Indian people dont verify information. Media likes to create hype. can you recall uri gellar? some days ago, ankit said he is going to open food restaurant in pune. media stated - running restaurant is just a trick. he is doing some secret projects. =)) =)) now do you still believe he is good hacker? he said he receives 150-200 fan mails a day. lets all linux users in India mail him 1 harsh mail a day. -- yogesh chavan cslug and plug member pune

17 years, 5 months

Interview Peter Brown, the executive director of the Free Software Foundation

by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A)

Bringing free software to the masses Ingrid Marson <mailroomuk(a)zdnet.com> ZDNet UK April 13, 2006, 13:15 BST Peter Brown, the executive director of the Free Software Foundation, hopes to 'get the message of free software outside the hacker world You'd think it would be easy to research the right-hand man of a free software icon, given the mass of information about the free software movement on the Internet. But a search for "Peter Brown" — the executive director of the Free Software Foundation — and "free software" produces only 14,000 hits on Google and little information about his past. So when we visited the Foundation's headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts it was a surprise to discover a clean-cut, suited English man from Oxford, who was quite so different from FSF founder Richard Stallman with his impressive beard and baggy clothes. Their backgrounds are also totally different. While Stallman is a programmer, having almost single-handedly developed the original version of applications such as Emacs and the GNU C Compiler, Brown has a background in business and finance, and only dabbled with coding when he was in his teens. But despite these differences, the two men share the same goal — in basic terms freedom around software, but more specifically to give people the freedom to run software for any purpose, to study and adapt that software, passing on the improvements to the public and to freely redistribute copies of the software. Both men are responsible for the overall direction of the Free Software Foundation and seem to offer complementary skills, with Brown coming across as more of a pragmatist than Stallman, whose idealism and drive to fulfil his goals has led him to spend his life telling people across the world about free software. ZDNet UK met with Brown last week to learn more about some of the Foundation's upcoming projects, how the FSF is run and funded, and what he feels makes the organisation so special. Read the full interview http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,39020463,39263218,00.htm Photos: Inside the Free Software Foundation http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39263220-1,00.htm -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

17 years, 5 months

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Fsf-friends April 2006