Fsf-friends January 2008

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

8 participants
21 discussions

Internet, tech skills growing quietly in Goa...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 Sep '24

02 Sep '24

INTERNET, TECH SKILLS GROWING QUIETLY IN GOA PANJIM, April 30: Goa's BSNL internet service provider is already providing some 3000 broadband connections in the state, and roughly another 24,000 people dial-up to get access the Net using this central government-run service. These figures emerged during an informal discussion at the monthly meeting of the India Linux Users Group (Goa), a network promoting Free Software and Open Source in the state. ILUG-Goa, which holds its meetings usually on the fourth Saturday of each month at the Goa Science Centre at Miramar, sees a range of tech issues -- usually directly related to Free Software and Open Source in Goa. During it's meet on April 29, a range of issues came up for discussion, from how to partition your hard-disk (to install GNU/Linux side-by-side with Windows), to software tools to ehance productivity, and various internet and broadband options available to users in diverse parts of Goa. For instance, there are some useful Free Software tools to monitor your bandwidth usage on BSNL's broadband. One such tool is available for free download at http://tinyurl.com/qgu9p Called the Data One Broadband Statistics, this is a screen-scraper written using Perl to download usage statistics of BSNL's Data One (www.bsnl.co.in/service/dataone.htm) broadband service and total it. Generally, BSNL (www.bsnl.co.in) allows only the Microsoft-based IE and has no monthly total. But trust Indian software talent to find a work-around. This solution comes from the Free Software/Open Source network in Chennai. Meanwhile, the Goa free software network stays connected and announces its event via http://iluggoaannounce.notlong.com There are no fees for joining, all are welcome, and encouraged to form parallel user-groups in diverse parts of the state. Meanwhile, the Fedora Core 5 Free Software distribution has just become available on DVD in Goa. Number of foreign magazines are also available. Members of ILUG-Goa such as engineer Bijon Shaha and software pro Arvind Yadav gave diverse views on techies-only distros like 'Gentoo'. Debopriyo 'DP' Sarkar pointed to a 'mindmap' of various Free Software distributions or 'distros' available, which was illustrated at linuxhelp.blogspot.com Earlier, there was a brief presentation on FreeMind. FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. It has the potential of playing the role of a high productivity tool. Operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster because of one-click "fold/unfold" and "follow link" operations. Other members raised a range of issues -- from how to get started in GNU/Linux, to playing around with tools like StumbleUpon, and how to encourage Free Software usage in schools and educational institutions. Remy Furtado of Rosary College, Navelim expressed an interest in working on the Free Software tool Moodle, ideal for distance education, as the Goa University moves to a pattern of semisterisation. Goa Engineering College's Prof George Easaw has done work on this platform, as have others. Reacting unofficially, BSNL officials said Goa now had six STMS 155 MBps connectivity, which was resulting in a speedy expansion of broadband to many parts of the state. But for broadband facilities to become available in village areas, at least 60 subscribers were needed to make operations viable. So far, broadband from BSNL is available in a growing number of areas in Goa: Panjim, Vasco (except Cortalim, but including Sada, Mangor, Bogmalo, Sancoale and other areas), Ponda, Bambolim, Merces, Dona Paula, Porvorim, Mapusa town, Calangute-Candolim, and Saligao, among others. Equipment has already been installed in Aldona exchange, and broadband facilities are expected to go functional -- ------------------------------------------------------------- | India Linux Users' Group, Goa | | Join the friendly user group | | Mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/join | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce | | http://www.iosn.net/country/india/organizations/ilug-goa/ | ------------------------------------------------------------- , , / \ .-. * SOFTWARE ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) (. .) * FREEDOM `-_---' `---_-' / V \ * SHARING `--|o` 'o|--' // \\ \ ` / /( )\ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ): :( '.^^_^^.' SHARE IT EQUITABLY :o_o: \_/ \_/ "-"

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Careers in FLOSS... (Dec 2003 issue of LFY)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Jun '24

06 Jun '24

=========================================== LINUXForYou * Dec 2003 (Vol 1 No 10) In India Rs 50 (with CD) http://www.linuxforu.com Pages 102 * US$7.95 0 74470584957 =========================================== THIS ISSUE has probably reached your city. Saw it in Bangalore, and also got a complimentary copy from the LFY team at LinuxBangalore2003. But when I reached back to Goa on Dec 4, it wasn't in as yet. So it might take time to reach 'small town' India... FN REVIEWED: Mandrake 9.2 * PhProjekt * StarOffice 7.0 COMPUTERS AT TIS HAZARI, the session courts for the city of New Delhi, are being shifted over to Linux, courtesy the National Informatics Centre. - Rahul Chopra in this month's editorial. LINUX LEARNING CENTRE at Bangalore is offering courses in administration, security, development (internals and programming essentials, programming with Qt, device driver programming, MySQL & PHP), RHCE and Red Hat rapid track certification. www.linuxlearningcentre.com DotGNU RELEASES CD: It can now be used to implement application programs and Web services in C# and C applications under multiple operating systems, including GNU/Linux, FreeBSC, MacOS, MS Windows. The 219 MB release 0.1 CD is available as a free download at http://download.freedom.biz/dotgnu/dotgnu-0.1-cdrom.iso.gz.torrent e-Bridge calls itself "the new state-of-art training facility from eSpark Infotech is now open in the heart of Bangalore". It's offering embedded Linux courses (Linux fundamentals, programming Linux, embedded C & Linux, realtime C & Linux, Linux internals, device drivers, networking) and DSP courses (DSP fundamentals, TI/analog dev programming, audio/video, image processing, bio-medical systems). www.ebridgesolutions.net Linux.net provides a free e-mail service to those who want an e-mail address that ends in '@linux.net' MAJOR UPDATES and releases: OpenNA Linux 1.0, Gibraltar Firewall 1.0, Xandros Desktop 2.0, Onebase Linux 2.0, CUPS 1.120rc6. CAN YOU MAKE money with open source? Registration entails a "nominal fee" of Rs 5000 for a three-day conference. http://www.linuxasia2004.com/attendees/ February 11-13, 2004, New Delhi. SEND IN YOUR favourite slogans for a tee-shirt, and win five free copies of the shirt... LFYedit at efyindia.com MONEY CAN't buy respect, says Robert Adkins. Some of us might have met this guy at LB2003 in Bangalore. He's the CTO of Technetra Corp, and an advocate and implementer of FLOSS solutions for government. He can be contacted at radkins at technetra.com CAREERS WITH FLOSS: The number of students opting for courses in Open Source is growing steadily, even as industry experts predict a growing need for trained professionals in this expanding field. EXIT RED HAT, ENTER FEDORA: It's official now; the free (of cost) version of Red Hat Linux will not be available anymore. This has created a lot of FUD in an already unstable environment, thanks to the SCO episode. But is Red Hat closed for good? WEB-BASED COLLABORATION SOFTWARE: PHProjekt is an easy-to-install collaboration suite, which runs on the open source platform and databases. As the design of the system is developer-friendly, adding new features and components is a piece of cake. STAROFFICE: The latest version of Sun's office suite, StarOffice 7, may just be the right solution for the cost-conscious user. It loads faster than the earlier version, and sports some noticeable improvements. IN THE LFY CD THIS MONTH: Slackware (the "oldest Linux distro") and a range of GNU software for Windows users. FALLING BACK on backup systems. MAKING ADOPTION OF Linux in the enterprise easy. www.linux4e.com Business partners required: http://wwww.linux4e.com/partners ooWRITER HELPS YOU create your own templates and styles so that you can work with documents easily. Open Source is key to IBM's vision of computing. User empowerment is key to Microsoft's, writes Alolita Sharma USING DATABASE functions in Calc, a tutorial. (Wish there were more how-tos for the user in this mag! --FN) HALDIA DOCKS: it has a uniquely designed Linux installation with an active-active cluster set up, which is considered the best of its kind. This has ensured efficiency and cost-effectiveness. BASIC UNIX commands and concepts: an extract from *Running Linux* (Shroff Publishers, Pp 674 only Rs 425 in India). VxWorks and LynxOS are definitely the biggest embedded operating systems in use today. But slowly they are acknowledging the power of GNU/Linux and how it can help them maximise deployments. HELP LINUX GO INDIAN: By using various translation tools, you can join Language translation groups working across India to help translate GNU/Linux into your language. EXPERT INTRODUCTION: Multi-threaded programming under Linux. KICKSTART YOUR Linux installation (Part I): Installing Red Hat Linux on multiple machines one after another can be quite tedious. To avoid answering the same question over and over again, try the KickStart method, as it does not need any user intervention. WRITE CHEQUES. NOT JUST BOOKS: Niyam Bhushan on how anybody can turn thoughts into words, and words into wealth. NFS CLIENTS for Windows. OpenSSL PACKAGE offers a vast crypto library of algorithms WAIT QUEUES in Linux device drivers UNDERSTANDING recursive sub-routines INDIA-RELATED NEWS: HP launches GNU/Linux laptop Mandrake's latest distribution Oracle announces 10g for GNU/Linux Delixus offers India Linux CxProtect anti-virus mailing solution for mail-servers Trade management system from Network Programs Netweb Technologies unveils Tyrone MRO-Tek rolls out Network Management Systems Review of FLOSS at BangaloreIT.com =========================================== DISCLOSURE: This journalist (FN) writes a monthly column for LFY and gets paid for it. Promoting awareness about the content of LFY however is not part of the job, and is carried on with the intention spreading awareness about FLOSS among different GNU/Linux user groups in India. -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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OFFTOPIC: The house that social networking built
by Frederick Noronha [फ़र ेदरिक नोर ोनया] 30 Jan '08

30 Jan '08

Kindly share with your architect friends too. FN The house that social networking built By Elsa Wenzel, News.com Published on ZDNet News: Jan 25, 2008 4:00:00 AM Tags: Elsa Wenzel, Digital media, Social Networking, Web, Network, Africa, Settlement, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Laptop Computer, Open Architecture Network, Sinclair, Now House, Web 2.0, Open Source, Internet Forget about showy "starchitecture" from the likes of Frank Gehry. Architect Cameron Sinclair sees the future of his field in the slums, where the United Nations projects that one-third of the world's population will dwell by 2030. Sinclair insists that nothing short of a design revolution is needed to construct innovative housing solutions from the ground up. The Open Architecture Network, a Web site he co-founded that applies the principles behind open-source software to the construction of the material world, is working toward that sweeping global goal. The project is an offshoot of Architecture for Humanity, founded in 1999 by Sinclair and his wife, Kate Stohr. The nonprofit has worked to provide affordable housing in the tsunami-trampled Indian Ocean region and post-Hurricane Katrina U.S. Gulf Coast, as well as HIV clinics and soccer fields in sub-Saharan Africa. Its call to arms serves as the title of Architecture for Humanity's 2006 book Design Like You Give a Damn. That cry reached influential ears in the tech world when, in 2006, Sinclair won the coveted TED Prize, from whose spoils Sinclair and others at Architecture for Humanity launched the Open Architecture Network last March. It enables designers anywhere to share blueprints under Creative Commons licenses. The network, which has more than 9,100 members, is currently hosting the AMD Open Architecture Challenge, a design contest for technology centers in remote parts of Ecuador, Kenya, and Nepal. Behind the contest is the overarching aim of AMD's 50x15 program to expand Internet access to half of the world's population. CNET News.com caught up with Sinclair at his San Francisco office last week before he headed to Davos, Switzerland, to speak at the World Economic Forum. Q: How have things changed since the TED Prize? Sinclair: What's interesting about the TED prize is, good and bad, that everyone thinks that you're now loaded. Bono got it. Clinton got it. It doesn't bring money, but what it does bring is incredible resources. For instance, Sun Microsystems donated not just their services and technology but also a team of engineers, super geeks, who built the back end of the Open Architecture Network. And also AMD provided us with hosting. Open Architecture Network With this new technology, open source, and the Creative Commons, it cleared the vision of what we were doing so we could explain to people why we used technology or what the role of the architect is. What are some highlights from recent trips you've made? How was Africa, what happened there? Sinclair: We do a lot of work here in the Gulf Coast and also on Native American reservations. Internationally, the big thing has been the Open Architecture Challenge. We have three sites on three different continents and I've recently been to all three. It's not just like you go in and look at land and then survey it. It's actually spending a lot of time with communities...We were in the slums of Kenya prior to the election when it was very tense. We went right to the heart of the Nakuru slum, which is fascinating because on paper it just looked like any other settlement. They'd had a huge influx of Somali refugees, a recent, strong Muslim community, and it was in the industrial area, so they were dealing with the effects of post-industrial land, problems with drinking water. What's possible with the Open Architecture Network that would not happen without the Internet? Sinclair: Architecture for Humanity would not have existed without the Internet. We've been very fortunate because our focus has been what the Internet is supposed to do, which is the exchange of ideas and information not for financial gain but for social gain. On my laptop were about 2,000 projects--cool, innovative stuff that could change the world--and they just sat on my laptop. Someone said, "Why don't you just put them on a server somewhere?" Originally, the network was going to be a repository of proven ideas. But as we began building it with the engineers, we realized here was an opportunity to create a project management system so that designers could implement projects on a really cost-effective basis. Our FedEx bills have dropped massively. We don't send anything; it's all on the network. Our overhead is less than 8 percent and the rest goes into the construction and design of the buildings. It's not just a bunch of gray-haired white guys in academic institutions. We're talking about architects on the network representing 104 nations, so if you're looking for an Afghan architect, chances are they're on the network. It enables localized innovation with a top-down approach. When you travel, how do you show people the site? Sinclair: I put it on my laptop, but the big question is connectivity. Only 20 percent of the world is online. In Africa and South America it's much, much less, 6 percent in South America and like 3 percent in Africa. There's 1.6 billion people living in areas that are going to be flooded as a result of global warming. Most of these are in unplanned settlements. That's a lot of work to be done. I keep telling people, most of the planet that's not online doesn't want to go to Facebook. They don't want to see the streaming Britney Spears court date or Steve Jobs live. Seriously, what they want to do is look at the tools that improve their lives. When you talk about tools people in the developing world have that we don't, "leapfrogging" technologies, what are some that look really cool? Sinclair: There are two in South Africa that I really love. One is the Hippo (water) roller (a barrel-shaped container designed to transport water in rural areas where water has traditionally had to be carried laboriously atop the head). The real genius, and it sounds kind of silly--as well as rolling it, it also flattens the road. The other one I actually used a couple of years ago when there was a blackout in New York City. I had a Freeplay wind-up radio. There was a crowd of 50 people around me listening to the news. I had my coffee and my radio cranked up, sitting on the street corner in New York, and people were like, "Where did you get that?" And I'm like, "Africa." In terms of housing, a lot of it is about using simple materials, bamboo and rice bale construction, an advancement of straw bale--using interesting materials such as hemp and also hybrid materials. What designs look really fresh to you? And how much of what the network deals with might be considered sustainable design? Sinclair: A couple are dealing with informal settlements, housing in the margins. How do you create dignified housing where there's no land? Someone's working on a $700 house. The Now House is a World War II retrofitted home that's carbon-neutral...There's a spinach-powered house, there's a grow-your-own clinic, a clinic you eat. All of these projects have to be sustainable. Let's talk about the geeks, the tech community. What kind of feedback do you get from them? Sinclair: What's been really great is that we have folks at Sun and AMD, engineers who are calling us and saying, "Hey, I want to work on this." The Open Architecture Network has been in beta right now for the last year. Over the next year we're looking to add a whole bunch of resources, materials, and libraries. Tech people are saying, "Hey, I'm looking to develop a carbon calculator." We're working with Autodesk Freewheel, the first Web application that allows you to see CAD drawings rendered live, working to integrate it within the next few months so you can run Web meetings and comment on the drawings live. What do you think about the Web 2.0 trend? Sinclair: It's a label. The people who make the most money will make the Web 2.0 apps that appeal to the most people--but on the fringes there are people that can actually do some amazing stuff of a collaborative nature. We're still waiting for Web 2.0 to catch up to the way we work on a day-to-day basis...We use all that stuff, Google Apps, Google Earth. What's nice is we actually e-mail the people who make Google Apps every time we see something wrong. So do the Google people get back to you? Sinclair: Yeah, really rapidly. It's amazing. For the 3D modeling and 2D conception drawings, we are their key constituency. If they had to go to a for-profit it would be very costly to develop their R&D. What does SketchUp or Autodesk look like in an emerging market? Well, we're doing it. We'd say, what is the computing power it takes to do this? We ask bizarre questions because most of the clients we have are using low-power thin clients, things like that. What do you think about efforts such as One Laptop Per Child? Sinclair: I want to hack it, I want to break it. I want to turn it into one laptop per innovation. If you gave me one, I'd take it to the streets of Kenya or India and I'd give them to the most innovative people working in the slums, the guy who's making flip-flops out of recycled plastic bottles. Then you just install some sort of CAD program on there and teach them how to use it so their innovations could be shared. What's the power of improving their living standards if you've got that going on? Maybe version 2.0 should have the tagline "It's not just for kids" or "One Laptop Per Adult." How will big environmental changes--in terms of global warming, ecological and manmade disasters, even the high price of energy--affect your work? Sinclair: Someone was joking that I'm the luckiest architect on the planet because there's no shortage of clients. There's 1.6 billion people living in areas that are going to be flooded as a result of global warming. Most of these are in unplanned settlements. That's a lot of work to be done. Can I make a $1,000 house? Can I make solar power affordable for someone in the slums of Angola? Is it feasible, and if it is, how can you make it aesthetically beautiful? It's convincing the heads of corporations who fund these initiatives but are saying, "Take the design out." We've kind of bucked that trend and proven you actually do have to design something that's beautiful. What's the bad side of an open-source community? Sinclair: The biggest challenge is that we're in the business of constructing things, so there's a health and safety aspect. If it's completely open source and someone takes a design and another design and doesn't follow the legal information included in the design, then what are the ramifications of doing that? Can you see this model working for other fields? Sinclair: Industrial design is an obvious one. And what if you had cancer researchers collaborating in an open-source manner and didn't have competitive studies? Instead of billions of dollars wasted, maybe you'll cure cancer...Or education, figuring out open-source curriculums so you're getting multipronged history. Do you ever talk with people in other fields who are interested in something like the Open Architecture Network? Sinclair: I've talked to a lot of doctors who do AIDS-related projects in Africa. It's their biggest challenge trying to share information with each other. When you say "open source," the people who make money from it get worried, so there's a lot riding against open principles. But Linux and Drupal can do it. That's the beauty of the world we live in. You don't need one big giant to control everything. Is the site still just in English? Sinclair: It's a big problem. We just need to find volunteer translators. Really important are Chinese, Hindi, Swahili--right there I've just named 3 billion people, half the planet. Do you run into resistance when you travel? Sinclair: We've had death threats, all sorts of things because we were shaking up the apple cart, trying to make people more self-sufficient. Death threats coming from...? Sinclair: All over the place. We've done some gender violence projects, whether it be pimps in Calcutta or bandits or people who are controlling corrupt officials, they're going to be upset. We're an easy target seen as protecting or giving empowerment to a community that has been disenfranchised for many years. We don't believe in making placards. It's a waste of wood. We'd rather build houses. (c)2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6227610.html -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490 The Goa books blog: http://goabooks.wordpress.com Goa1556 (alt.publishing.goa): http://goa1556.goa-india.org

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[OT] Made a blog
by shirish 28 Jan '08

28 Jan '08

Hi all, Made a blog about free software & what I like. Its a work in progress. I'm sure of something, not sure of others. Please go through the couple of posts I made at http://freesoftwareacademia.blogspot.com/ of course the name isn't about free software in academia but I also hope to write something about it as well in the coming days. Feel free to comment, flame & whatever u think is right. -- Regards, Shirish Agarwal This email is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ 065C 6D79 A68C E7EA 52B3 8D70 950D 53FB 729A 8B17

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A Field Guide to Free Software Supporters
by Praveen A 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

A Field Guide to Free Software Supporters Hearing the terms "free software" or "open source," you might imagine that they referred to a single school of thought. Even "free and open source software" (FOSS) suggests only two different outlooks: Free software, which values political and philosophical freedom, and open source, whose main interest is enhanced software quality. Full story http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3723131_1 An interesting analysis of different schools of thought. Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Linux @ Gun Shot
by Omshiva prakash 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

This is what came in my mind when I started training a new bunch of trainees in my company. They have started learning Linux now and we have plans to continue training people are new to Linux and have never worked on computer as geeks. Its a challenge which we have taken up to build the man power required for the company. Also adding newbies FOSS community. http://platonic.techfiz.info/2008/01/21/linux-gun-shot/ Its all about filling in confidence to explore a new world of possibilities. What can bring attention of a newbie to learn more about a technology? How we can make him/her hack into the in depth features of a technology to crack the master's test? At the end at least we want him/her to be a jack of the technology to let him/her face the challenges which he/she may encounter in future. Many people who peep into Open Source world know that its "hot" and many might not have got a chance to understand what is it all about. There are job opportunities, which demands little smartness from a newbie. I got a chance to spend some time with around 20 fresh college graduates who are looking forward to make a great carrier in Open Source and learning Linux from scratch. Many of them have not looked into any "Operating System" or "Personal Computer" as administrators and it has been just used it as a machine to accomplish some of their projects forced by the educational system of our country. Few others have used it as an entertainment box, for playing games, music, videos etc. There is another bunch which is forced by this era to use computers to type in the resumes to grab new job opportunities available in the IT industry. There have been lots of efforts put in to mold new techs in to better administrators from their user or power user status at work place. But always it lacked the zeal required to fill in the hackers attitude and passion for Open Source into their heart. This might be due to more theory which was poured into their mind instead of practical exposure which is a very essential part of a system administrator's training life cycle. We are working towards creating opportunities for those who are almost new to computers or at least new to Open Source. They need to be comfortable with the operating system and they must explore the "FREEDOM" of Free and Open Source software to gain the initial confidence and interest required to work as administrators. If a newbie finds the work as a monotonous process of remembering commands and repetitive, he/she might not think of sailing in this sea for quite a long time. Linux wants newbies to create their own shields against the Gun shots of upcoming challenges, attacks, vulnerabilities and growth of technologies. Hence you never find the work to be boring. Working with Linux has never been found to be monotonous and repetitive for me so far and its always an adventure. Bringing technology close to someone needs patience, self confidence on the technology, skills required to be one of those who are with us to learn it and little bit humor to fill in fun at the learning desk. Its always fun to explore what can be done with a gadget or a software, presenting what you feel about it to your audience will always be a challenge. A newbie finds it easy to explore the voyage during hands on training. Let him/her be free to try out new things and build a strong foundation with your guidance. Practice makes them perfect, show them how to climb to top. -- -- "A well-directed imagination is the source of great deeds" -- With Best Regards, Omshivaprakash.H.L WebPage : http://platonic.techfiz.info Phone: 91- 9902026518 / 9343726518

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FOSSMeet@NITC 2008
by Kishore Asok 23 Jan '08

23 Jan '08

Hi, We are pleased to inform you that National Institute of Technology, Calicut will be hosting its annual free and open source software conference, namely FOSS Meet @ NITC 2008, on 21st, 22nd and 23rd of March 2008. This time the focus of the event is to get more students actively involved in FOSS. As usual, there will be talks, BOFs, workshops etc. - details of which will soon be put up on our website – http://www.fossmeet.in/nitc . In addition to that, this year, we are starting a contest called FOSSDev, to promote student participation in and contribution to FOSS. Basically, a team wishing to participate has to find a mentor who will help them contribute to a project of the participant's choice. FOSSDev is a year long event. There will be three "checkpoints" at which progress will be evaluated and prizes will be given accordingly. Total prize money is Rs. 23,500. You can read more about FOSSDev at http://fossmeet.in/nitc/fossdev . This meet is organized by the GNU/Linux Users Group Calicut(GLUGC) in association with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Student Branch NIT Calicut [IEEE], Computer Society of India, Calicut Chapter [CSI], Computer Science and Engineering Association [CSEA] and all the volunteers from various walks of life. See what these people have to say about their previous FOSS Meet@NITCexperiences - http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Calicut/NIT/FOSS_Meet/07 , http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Calicut/NIT/FOSS_Meet/06 and http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Calicut/NIT/FOSS_Meet/05 for some comments from previous participants. Looking forward to meeting you at FOSSMeet@NITC. Note: Please register yourself on the website as soon as possible. Regards, The Core Team FOSSMeet@NITC2008

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [ifsa] The Free Software hardliner, the corporation, and the shotgun wedding
by Praveen A 22 Jan '08

22 Jan '08

2008/1/21, Ringo Kamens <2600denver(a)gmail.com>: > I don't think it's an issue of strategy or stages. Purely speaking, if > we sacrifice our ideals then we will accomplish our goals faster. For > instance, it would take much less effort for somebody who wants an > anarchist or socialist revolution to go in and kill every important > member of government. The problem is that they are sacrificing their > values. If somebody really wants equality, respect, etc. then they > can't go around doing violent acts. What happens after the government > collapses? The masses haven't learned from the past and the new > government will be just as bad as the previous one. If a revolution is > caused by mass participation, the end result lasts longer and is > better. This is the same with free software. If you say that closed > source software is exploitive, if you say that it is wrong, then don't > use it. Period. I say capitalism is wrong yet I buy some things. It's > an issue of survival, but that same argument can't really be applied > to your choice of software. > Comrade Ringo Kamens Excellent points Ringo. Thanks for sharing this. You can look at a glimpse of how we did it in Kerala what result we got here http://www.fsdaily.com/Beginner/Teachers_becoming_Free_Software_advocates_a… Teachers are now advocates of Free Software, they are ready for sacrifices for Freedom because they are taught to value Freedom over convenience. The case in point is about printer drivers, many of the commonly used printers (for example canon ip1000) does not have a Free driver but one teacher responded to it like this, "Of course there is some problems in Printer Driver but it can be solved in the new versions" If we want Freedom and software that works at the same time, you can't reach there by starting at non-free software. But if you insist on freedom you will get it. See what happened with java and flash for example. We said gratis is not enough, we need libre and now we have those. Instead if we wer content with non-free but gratis java and flash we would not have the Free tools now. Same can be said about the graphics drivers. When companies like Dell start offering Intel graphics card because they work out of the box with Free Software NVIDIA and ATI will feel the heat and would follow. ATI already released their specs for some graphics cards. Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [ifsa] The Free Software hardliner, the corporation, and the shotgun wedding
by Praveen A 22 Jan '08

22 Jan '08

2008/1/21, john saylor <js0000(a)gmail.com>: > i would definitely concur that freedom is important. and it's much > more easier to make a computer run than to convince someone of the > value of freedom [esp when it contravenes capitalism]. > > but shouldn't we support getting free[-ish] software in the middle > schools? maybe one of those students will take it further. it's not > perfect, it goes against a statement of st. ignucious, a good point. > free software is more than switching a computer from windows to > ubuntu. no doubt. > > is it better to take no steps? > The point RMS makes is people supporting the two stage approach never tries to do the stage 2. If everyone does only the stage 1, who will do the stage 2? "Well, this two stage solution might work well, if it were properly tried, but when people propose this, almost always they go and work on stage one. In fact, I've come to recognise that this two stage solution idea is really an excuse to work on stage one and ignore stage two." The problem is there are a lot of people and doing stage one where as not many people doing stage one. And hence there are so many of "linux" users out there who never come to know about GNU or Freedom and are not taught to appreciate the importance of Freedom. The result is, we get a weak community and it is so easy for them to lose the Freedom. When someone show them something is better they have no second thoughts about switching back. Free Software movement was started to protect user Freedom and teaching people how important it is to be able to collaborate. Free software never was a movement to overthrow Microsoft and put Adobe, Nvidia or ATI there. I know it is tough and I have also done stage one without stage two. But we need people like RMS to remind us why we started it and what will happen if we forget it. You know what when one student sent me a mail saying. ... i had said "We have had enough of philosophy, now we want more technical sessions".. That time i was not much bothered about the philosophy.. now i'm. I find this one user finding the value Freedom more worth than the hundreds of people who use "linux" because I gave then CDs or helped fix their problems. If we had listen to them and stopped at stage one, we would have never been able to build such a great community there. We need more people to do stage two because there are a great number of people who have crossed stage one but can never make it to stage two because they don't see anyone teaching them importance of Freedom. See http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Bangalore/BMSCE for more about what we have been doing there. -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Google Highly Open Participation Contest
by CK Raju, Thrissur 21 Jan '08

21 Jan '08

http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/ Limited projects, limited tasks, limited scope. However, Content Management Systems (Drupal, Joomla, Plone and Silverstripe) all allow localisation efforts in Indian languages. So also the case with Moodle - for education purposes. Students, please hurry... CK Raju

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [ifsa] The Free Software hardliner, the corporation, and the shotgun wedding
by Praveen A 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

2008/1/20, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt(a)gmail.com>: > IMHO, the fight for freedom is a numbers game. The higher the locked down > installbase, the more power goes to the dark side. > > At the public middle school that I am moving to Free Software, the teachers > just don't care about freedom. But they do care about educating children. > IMHO, we must be humble and serve the needs of the end users first. We need > to convince them that Free Software will do what THEY want it to do. So > now, all of the student-facing computers at this public school are Free > Software computers, unless you don't consider PClinuxOS or Ubuntu to be Free > Software. There are still some non-Free software components on those boxes, > but we are working steadily to get them off. Rome was not built in a day. > It will take patience and perseverance. > Lets see what RMS has to say about it. "Many people suggest a two stage solution. They say, first, let's teach people to use Free Software, and then, once they're using it, we'll teach people to appreciate the freedom. Well, this two stage solution might work well, if it were properly tried, but when people propose this, almost always they go and work on stage one. In fact, I've come to recognise that this two stage solution idea is really an excuse to work on stage one and ignore stage two. Stage two is what I work on. So if you really believe in a two stage solution, come join me and work on stage two because the problem is that so much of our community has focussed on stage one, and so much of our community has talked about practical benefits while ignoring freedom, that in fact, at this point, if you start using the GNU/Linux system, you may not hear anyone talk about freedom for years. In other words, our community has not just begun to forget about the goal of freedom, it has almost completely forgotten. With the result that now it is a struggle to teach people in our own community about the freedom which is the reason why we built this community. Of all the operating systems in history, all except one were developed for commercial reasons or technical reasons. GNU was developed for the sake of freedom. The users need to know this. And I would like to ask you to join in helping to teach them this. This is why I dedicate myself now to spreading these ideas of freedom. There are more than a million contributors to Free Software now. The community doesn't need me that much as a programmer, and besides, I'm getting older, I probably can't do it as well as I used to. But there are not a million people teaching the users to appreciate the value of freedom and the value of specifically the freedom to cooperate in a community. This is where we urgently need more people. " http://www.fsfeurope.org/documents/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html#we-urgently-ne… Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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The Free Software hardliner, the corporation, and the shotgun wedding
by Praveen A 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

We called it Free Software at first. It wasn't until we started calling it Open Source that the punditry line counts began creeping up higher than the code line counts. We had this baby and we were proud of it, and the deep rooted insecurity born of being the ridiculed and utterly misunderstood underdogs made us require the approval of business and Grandma Bessie before we could ourselves be satisfied. Well, now we've got it, and in some ways Open Source is not better off because of it. Thanks to the cavorting evangelists in the Ubuntu community who were converted on the strength of a cheaply-gotten sense of technical superiority over their peers who still use Windows 98, "Free" is now a dirty word since it stands so often in the way of converting more people, faster. Free Software wasn't originally meant to be a cult with a membership statistics monkey on its back; the idea was, like, to be "Free." Full story http://www.linux.com/feature/124564 -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Qt released under GPLv3
by Praveen A 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

"I first read the GNU Manifesto from the Free Software Foundation back in 1987 and it forever shaped the way I viewed software. We at Trolltech are proud to continue serving the free software community by allowing software developers to choose which GPL version they want to use." Eirik Chambe-Eng, co-founder of Trolltech http://trolltech.com/company/newsroom/announcements/press.2008-01-18.160159… Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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[campaign] My Fair Copyright for Canada Principles
by Praveen A 19 Jan '08

19 Jan '08

My Fair Copyright for Canada Principles http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2572/125/ With the continued interest in Canadian copyright reform - the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group has grown to over 38,000 members and the local chapters across the country are gaining significant momentum - the most frequently asked question I receive is "what do you think fair copyright reform looks like?" In other words, we know that tens of thousands of Canadians oppose a Canadian DMCA, but what kind of reform would or should they support? 1) Take the Copyright Pledge. 2) Anti-circumvention provisions should be directly linked to copyright infringement. 3) No ban on devices that can be used to circumvent a TPM. 4) Expand the fair dealing provision by establishing "flexible fair dealing." 5) Establish a legal safe harbour for Internet intermediaries supported by a "notice and notice" takedown system. 6) Modernize the backup copy provision. 7) Rationalize the statutory damages provision. 8) Include actual distribution in the making available right. Can we have a campaign similar to this in India? Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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FSF-I Ratna Award
by CK Raju, Thrissur 18 Jan '08

18 Jan '08

Friends, The person/group behind the move of providing all the Judges of India with a Laptop pre-loaded with Free Software deserves a FSF-I Ratna Award. Do we have any idea as to the brainchild of this project ? CK Raju

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Linuxchix Bangalore meeting
by Vikram Vincent 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

Hello, LinuxChix is a community for women who like Linux<http://www.getgnulinux.org/>and Free Software <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>("free as in freedom"), and for women and men who want to support women in computing. The membership ranges from novices to experienced users, and includes professional and amateur programmers, system administrators and technical writers. The local chapter http://linuxchix.org.in will be having its Bangalore meeting on Date:19th(Saturday) January, 2008 Time:15:00hrs Venue: Christ College, Bangalore, Block 2, (one of the classrooms or kiosk or where ever comfortable) This meeting is being co-organised by the Computer Science department of Christ College(Autonomous), Bangalore. Please do attend. -- Vikram Vincent Christ College(Autonomous), Bangalore +919448810822

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Excellence is not an public measurement
by Omshiva prakash 13 Jan '08

13 Jan '08

This is an anecdote that was shared by a person who is my God father. A beautiful attitude in life. Read it. you will recognize why? Here it is : A gentleman was once visiting a temple under construction. In the temple premises, he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he saw, just a few meters away, another identical idol was lying. Surprised he asked the sculptor, do you need two statutes of the same idol. No said the sculptor. We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage. The gentleman examined the statue. No apparent damage was visible. Where the damage is? asked the gentleman. There is a scratch on the nose of the idol. Where are you going to keep the idol? The sculptor replied that it will be installed on a pillar 20 feet high. When the idol will be 20 feet away from the eyes of the beholder, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose? The gentleman asked. The sculptor looked at the gentleman, smiled and said, "The God knows it and I know it ". The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Excellence is a drive from Inside not Outside. Cheers!!!!!!!!! By TrouseredApe, http://www.trouseredape.com Bala (TrouseredApe): this anecdote applies to the open source movement -- -- -- "A well-directed imagination is the source of great deeds" -- With Best Regards, Omshivaprakash.H.L WebPage : http://platonic.techfiz.info Phone: 91- 9902026518 / 9343726518

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The Origins of FSF India
by Frederick Noronha [फ़र ेदरिक नोर ोनया] 11 Jan '08

11 Jan '08

The Origins of FSF India C V Radhakrishnan started a one-man unit for typesetting documents, and grew it into a company that now employs 150 people and is today rated No.1 by Elsevier Science for typesetting their journals. Radhakrishnan also played an important role in establishing FSF India, and his firm, River Valley Technologies, uses only Free Software. V. Sasi Kumar of the Centre for Earth Science Studies talked to him about the journey with Free Software this far. LFY: We understand that your company River Valley Technologies is doing business using TeX. How did you happen to become acquainted with TeX? I started learning TeX to escape from the hardships of a motor neuron disease that afflicted me when I was 25. I was working at the Kariyavattom campus of the University of Kerala. In the evenings, students used to come to me for help in preparing documents including papers, theses and reports. It was at that time that Professor K.S.S. Nambooripad of the Department of Mathematics came back from the United States with a set of floppy disks containing TeX/LaTeX, which he encouraged his students to learn about TeX. Prof Nambooripad also encouraged me to learn the TeX language since it would fit well into my scheme of things. A detailed account of this is provided at http://www.tug.org/interviews/interview-files/river-valley.html LFY: When was this? This was in the late eighties. LFY: How did you happen to start River Valley Technologies? TeX interested me. Since I had abundant free time, I learnt this classic text-processing language, and also started exploring the possibilities of making a living out of it. Surprisingly, I had a very large quantum of text-processing work from the university, which I couldn't handle single-handed. On the other hand, I was not organised enough to run a full-fledged company on a commercial scale, nor had the entrepreneurial skills to do so. However, when the pressure of work and the demand for services escalated, I decided to open up a company along with my two younger brothers (Rajendran and Rajagopal). Thus River Valley Technologies came into existence on the premises of the Software Technology Part (STP) in Trivandrum on the New Year of 1994. LFY: Were you using Free Software at that time? No, I did not know about Free Software at that time. We had a few computers that ran on DOS, and were networked with Novell Netware. We knew about UNIX, which was a much more powerful operating system, but we didn't have the resources to buy UNIX. LFY: Then how did you come to use Free Software? That was a sheer accident. A young man who used to supply our hardware, once told me that there was something called Linux, which was very similar to UNIX, but was equally good. He also gave me a CD with Linux. We experimented with it. Those were the formative days of Linux and it was very difficult to even install the system. But we eventually did succeed, and replaced DOS and Novell Netware with Linux. From that time onwards, we have never looked back, nor have we used a proprietary operating system. LFY: Do you remember which distribution it was? Was it the one distributed by 'PC QUEST'? The first distribution I tried was provided by my 'hardware friend' -- it was Slackware. Our company's complete switch-over to Linux took place with the release of Red Hat Linux 4.0. LFT: At that time did you know about the philosophy of Free Software, or were you just using it as another kind of UNIX? I did not know about the philosophy of Free Software at that time. The only Free Software I knew was TeX. The term 'free' meant only 'gratis' to me in those days. It was much later that we learned about freedom in software. LFY: Then how did you come to learn about the philosophy of Free Software? There were two factors that familiarised us with the freedom aspect of Free Software. The first one was the inauguration of the Indian TeX User Group at Trivandrum in 1998, which brought us closer to many Free Software communities in other parts of the globe. Our acquaintance with several activists like Karl Berry of the TeX Users Group and Sebastian Rahtz of the UK TeX users Group was instrumental in getting familiarised with the Free Software philosophy. Second, during the incorporation of FreeDevelopers.Net, a commercial company based in Washington with proposed branches all over the world, there was a very serious discussion about the Free Software philosophy and its fitness for commercial activities. Rajagopal (River Valley), Anil and Rajkumar (Linuxense), Arun (Space-Kerala) and I -- who were instrumental in the formation of the Trivandrum GNU/Linux Users Group -- were also very active in the FreeDevelopers.Net, of which Richard Stallman was the chief ethical officer. Needless to say, we gathered enough and more information about all the aspects of Free Software, including its ethical stance. LFY: Your group decided to start an Indian Free Software Foundation. How did this happen? That was primarily because of the apparent success of FreeDevelopers.Net in the initial phase and the proximity of Richard Stallman to clear any theoretical doubts. The Indian branch of FreeDevelopers.Net was registered as a commercial company in India under the Companies Act, and indeed, it was successful in winning a few projects from organisations that favoured Free Software. While we enjoyed the backing of these organisations in the form of projects, we thought it would promote the cause of Free Software if we had an Indian chapter of the Free Software Foundation. The idea was deliberated at length with the board of FreeDevelopers.Net and as you can imagine, it gained immediate acceptance. LFY: How did you happen to invite RMS to inaugurate FSF India? That was the organic and natural sequel of the events described in my answer to the previous question. LFY: Are you still involved in propagating Free Software? Do you still have links with FSFI? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that we do fund and maintain http://sarovar.org, an Indian portal for hosting Free Software projects. We also fund several other projects of the TeX User Group like LuaTeX, which is the newest incarnation of Knuth's TeX that is going to replace the default TeX compiler very soon; the TeX Gyre project, which is an ambitious font project of the Polish TeX Users Group, which has contributed fourteen LaTeX packages to the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network and still maintain those packages, etc. However, I am not as active as I was a few years ago. The very reason that brought me into TeX and the Free Software world -- perennial muscular dystrophy -- has started pulling me back from active life. My mobility is extremely limited; I spent most of my time at home. Of course, the Internet comes to my rescue. LFY: As a person using Free Software for a decade, do you see any future for it in business? Yes, indeed! I think people can hardly avoid free Software, whether it is in business or personal computing. In this context, it is worth mentioning a recent development in the text-processing world. As you may be aware, most text processing companies use 3B2, a proprietary typesetting for academic journal typesetting. A company named Arbortext recently acquired Advent (which owned 3B2). People were a bit scared, but Arbortext reassured users saying that they would support and continue 3B2. But within six months, Arbortext was acquired by another CAD/CAM company. The new owners were silent about the continuance of the 3B2 system. People are really scared now, and the belief that proprietary systems are more reliable than Free/open stuff has vapourised. Some companies have already started development centres for TeX in India, which is good news for TeXies and some have repented for not using free alternatives. I have had a few requests for consulting too, but declined owning to my own tight schedules. This incident has opened the eyes of many to the hazards of depending on proprietary software in business. LFY: Can you tell us something about your company? how many people work there? Are you getting sufficient work? River Valley Technologies is one of the nine suppliers to Elsevier Science, the world's largest academic journal publishers. We have been recently adjudged the No 1 supplier by Elsevier -- for quality, technology and meeting schedules. It is a credit to free software and a fitting answer to people who claim that only proprietary software can bring success to companies engaged in commercial-grade production. The Institute of Physics Publishing, Cambridge University Press, and Nature Publishing Group are some other clients, listed in the decreasing order of the size of their accounts with us. We are reasonably popular in the text-processing industry, where TeX is used. And therefore, we do not have any dearth of work. We have a team of over 150 people now and plan to expand our operations to Vietnam with the help of Han The Thanh, who is the primary author of pdfTeX and part of our company ### -- Copyright 2007 V Sasi Kumar. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution, No-derivative 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ V Sasi Kumar is a scientist at the Centre for Earth Science Studies, and is also a member of the Free Software Foundation, India. LINUX FOR YOU, www.linuxforu.com DECEMBER 2007 issue, pp 34-35. -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490 Links from Goa: http://goalinks.livejournal.com/

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Aaron Seigo talking bluntly about KDE 4
by Praveen A 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

It is not just about KDE, it is applicable to any Free Software project and some points will help us when we here the same questions asked. http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Fwd: [ifsa] Great story on the Asus EEE PC
by Praveen A 05 Jan '08

05 Jan '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> Date: २००८ जनवरी ५ ११:०४ Subject: [ifsa] Great story on the Asus EEE PC To: Digital Freedom Global Activists <independentfreesoftwareactivists at binaryfreedom.info> hi, This is a really great story about how the Asus EEE PC is commoditizing Microsoft's lunch. Unfortunately, it appears that paid Microsoft consultantsare already trying to bury it as "inaccurate", but it's of course highly accurate. This is a great opportunity to help keep a good story afloat on digg. http://digg.com/linux_unix/The_Most_Hated_Company_In_the_PC_Industry see ya -- Christian Einfeldt, Producer, The Digital Tipping Point -- IndependentFreeSoftwareActivists mailing list IndependentFreeSoftwareActivists(a)binaryfreedom.info http://www.binaryfreedom.info/mailman/listinfo/independentfreesoftwareactiv… List rules: http://www.binaryfreedom.info/?q=node/48 BinaryFreedom social cause: http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/dcm.html -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Emacs.net?
by Praveen A 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

"There are two kinds of emacs users: those who start up emacs in a top-level window and use M-x shell to do shell work, and those who live in tcsh/ksh/bash and crank up emacs -nw to take over their console/terminal window. "I was always in the former camp, and I believe that's the design point for Doug (Purdy)'s project. If you look up and down our hallway, all other remaining emacs users are in that former camp as well." Microsoft "Chief Modeling Officer" Don Box Full story http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1069 It is interesting to see Microsoft now realising the power of many tools which we take fro granted in Unix or GNU/Linux. Shell - > Microsoft Power Shell Glade -> Avalon (XML to describe UI) and now Emacs? Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Fsf-friends January 2008