Fsf-friends January 2007

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

28 participants
48 discussions

BBC to host Multi OS debate
by james mathew 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

BBC is currently seeking submissions from all you Microsoft Windows, Mac and [GNU/]Linux devotees "in 100 words or less, why you are such a supporter of your chosen operating system and what features you love about it". They will then select one user of each platform to go head to head in a debate that will be part of the BBC's Microsoft Vista launch coverage on January 30th. Read the full story on slashdot: http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/01/25/036227.shtml -- HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

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UPA starts 2007 with a shame bang...
by CK Raju 24 Jan '07

24 Jan '07

Friends, Sancharnet, the BSNL mail service provider is undergoing a transition, if its MD is to be believed. The new domain would be bsnl.in, which, is on Microsoft platform. The MD's reason for migration was that this would help supervise and regulate *spams* more effectively! Indian citizens can now imagine a US Cop sitting on top of every mail originating or landing on their private mailbox with censor powers. (Of late mails from our mailing lists are not reaching my mailbox. Perhaps they are spams.) Another perfect entry to hall of shame... Details at http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://mail.bsnl.in Invariably, all e-mail traffic involving the users in subcontinent would be at the mercy of expertise from Microsoft. And all enquiries on such traffic will henceforth be extended only after the consent of US security agencies. UPA Government seems to be putting the technologists of the entire nation to shame, submitting, so meekly, its political will before a foreign power. CK Raju Thrissur --------------------------------- Heres a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers

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Kerala's IT Draft Policy
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

====Sorry, I didn't get Vimal's earlier posting on the issue. Cheers Vimal. ===== "..2.10 The Government realizes that Free Software presents a truly unique opportunity in building a truly egalitarian knowledge society. The Government will take all efforts to develop Free Software and Free Knowledge and shall encourage and mandate the appropriate use of Free Software in all ICT initiatives..." Complete IT Draft policy at http://itforum.kerala.gov.in/discussion/index.htm ----- By far, the most sensible ever IT policy, one that keeps undesirable tendencies at bay. A policy that systematically removes barriers-to-entry for all, especially the underprivileged for participating in a knowledge society. Cheers to all our untiring FSF hactivists who worked behind this project. CK Raju Thrissur ===========

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Kerala's IT Draft Policy
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

"..2.10 The Government realizes that Free Software presents a truly unique opportunity in building a truly egalitarian knowledge society. The Government will take all efforts to develop Free Software and Free Knowledge and shall encourage and mandate the appropriate use of Free Software in all ICT initiatives..." Complete IT Draft policy at http://itforum.kerala.gov.in/discussion/content.php?topicid=1&subtitleid=7&… ----- By far, the most sensible ever IT policy, one that keeps undesirable tendencies at bay. A policy that systematically removes barriers-to-entry for all, especially the underprivileged for participating in a knowledge society. Cheers to all our untiring FSF hactivists who worked behind this project. CK Raju Thrissur

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Re: A veiwpoint about FSF's campaign
by Vihan Pandey 18 Jan '07

18 Jan '07

> http://blogs.gnome.org/view/ryanl/2006/12/30/0 > > This article *_indirectly_* speaks about the dominance > of Non-Free software right from the early years of > computing, and also recognizes the efforts of FSF to > make users realize, that Non-Free isn't any good. > Perhaps, it speaks about being "It works!" / "It > should work whatsoever" approach. Interesting view point, and yes it does speak ``about the dominance of Non-Free software" however its the same stuff about you need it keep proprietary drivers, firmware etc. in your distro - else it won't work everywhere and will loose popularity. i don't think this guy really gets why gnewsense or ututo are being pushed. You NEED the world to know you need a COMPLETELY Free(as in Freedom) Operating System(yes that includes a Free BIOS as well). Anything lesser just won't do, and till the time we do have a completely Free(as in Freedom) Operating System we have no choice but to use what's there - but that does not mean we forget the objective of building the system. The minute you say Ubuntu supports everything(including proprietary drivers) the user becomes happy - cool - but then what is the probability of him recognizing the importance of Freedom(if he is unaware of it)? During our freedom struggle resistance to British economic imperialism by encouraging swadeshi cloth(mainly khadi), and paper(though very inferior in quality) was one of the cornerstones of the struggle. People boycotted british goods - plain and simple, why don't we boycott imperialistic hardware? Is it so hard(even for a newbie) to purchase hardware after doing a ``little" bit of homework? Come on, if someone is going to buy a car - they do ask if you get all the necessary spare parts nearby or where's the nearest service center. i think that's what most people forget. Freedom is not restricted to only those who believe in it or are aware of it, it is for all including those who don't care about it. They MUST be made aware of it. And yes, i am very well aware that there are people who couldn't care less and are irritated when you talk about freedom, well you just have to tell them what happens when they don't care - if they ignore you - try again, if they make fun of you try again, if they fight you try harder - then you win. Its only a matter of time. Regards, - vihan

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Kerala's draft IT policy released with lots of incentives for Free Software
by Vimal Joseph 18 Jan '07

18 Jan '07

Kerala's draft IT policy released http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/18/stories/2007011801800700.htm `Aim is to make entire State an IT destination' http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/18/stories/2007011808910400.htm Awareness programmes on copyright planned http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/18/stories/2007011820060400.htm The Draft policy is available for discussion at www.itforum.kerala.gov.in ~vimal

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Re: [Fsf Education] A veiwpoint about FSF's campaign
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

----- Roshan <d_rosh2001(a)yahoo.co.in> wrote: > http://blogs.gnome.org/view/ryanl/2006/12/30/0 > > This article *_indirectly_* speaks about the dominance > of Non-Free software right from the early years of > computing, and also recognizes the efforts of FSF to > make users realize, that Non-Free isn't any good. > Perhaps, it speaks about being "It works!" / "It > should work whatsoever" approach. > > -- > FSF-India Fellow Associate > http://www.gnu.org.in > So whats new is in this new article! Let me put it this way too, economics dictate the terms, and i can atleast predict the future where creating and maintaining any sufficienty complex proprietary software system is going to be very very expensive in comparison to free(dom) software. A time will come, when in comparison to past, when we would have used few free software with maybe a completely proprietary operating system, to a completely free(dom) operating software with maybe some marginal, unimportant and optional binary only blobs. And those binary only blobs would be cheaper to maintain for short time periods for the short sighted companies. And regarding one example of a binary only blob in case of Atheros based wifi card that atheros declined to open up (for madwifi GPLed drivers), now there is a community supported GPLed replacement (though still in beta). Its only a matter of time. Maybe others in list can site more such examples. And regarding binary only windoz blobs (lets say device driver in windoz), i have seen/ heard many horror stories where the manufacturer stopped providing driver support for newer versions of windoz, for perfectly working hardware devices, which are now more or less useless in newer versions of windoz. Webcams/ TV tuner cards/ 3d cards/ win modems etc etc.. I too have a 3dfx voodoo card in an old but good faithful machine that may not work in newer version of windowz, the manufacturing company is already dead and I cant see any binary blob to help me out on windoz in case I install anything better than windoz 2000-2(98). Regarding the above sites blog, i would consider it as a **transition only** phase. -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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A veiwpoint about FSF's campaign
by Roshan 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

http://blogs.gnome.org/view/ryanl/2006/12/30/0 This article *_indirectly_* speaks about the dominance of Non-Free software right from the early years of computing, and also recognizes the efforts of FSF to make users realize, that Non-Free isn't any good. Perhaps, it speaks about being "It works!" / "It should work whatsoever" approach. -- FSF-India Fellow Associate http://www.gnu.org.in __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/

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Join the DRM Elimination Crew now !
by പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) is a technology that affects all users of computers, media players, mobile phones and other devices. "'Your devices don't trust you!' is the basic message of DRM. In fact they trust you so little that they will not even tell you that they put you under surveillance," says Joachim Jakobs, FSFE's media coordinator. [1]<http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000157.html> "If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed," says Peter Lee, an executive at Disney. [2]<http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4342418> "DRM technologies are based on the principle that a third party has more influence over your devices than you, and that their interests will override yours when they come in conflict. That is even true where your interest is perfectly legitimate and legal, and possibly also for your own data," explains Georg Greve, FSFE's president. [3]<http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q4/000157.html> Join the campaign to eliminate DRM http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign Also act against the amendmend to Indian Copyright law for DRM http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign/Proposed-Amenments Cheers Praveen -- "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

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Kartik Mistry: Events to watch out for!
by Frederick Noronha 16 Jan '07

16 Jan '07

http://kartikmistry.org/blog/?p=293 Events to watch out! January 15 Lots of things happening in the coming days. Watch out for Creative Commons launch of India [1] at IITB on 26th January and GNUnify 2007 [2] on next two days. And SELF conference [3] at HBCSE on 2nd February! For those who are in or near Bangalore, the first Indian Python Conference [4] is happening at full pace! [1] http://www.cc-india.org/?p=22 [2] http://gnunify.symbiosiscomputers.com/ [3] http://www.selfplatform.org/en/agenda [4] http://bangpypers.org/ -- FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please) http://fn.goa-india.org http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com

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Fsf-friends January 2007