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Re: [Fsf-friends] Help needed: Anyone from kotayam,kerala?
by Raj Shekhar 20 Aug '03

20 Aug '03

> Is any body willing to help > Dr. Ikbal (Vice chancellor, University of kerala) > in installing Gnu/Linux. He is interested in the concepts > of free software and now wishes to try it. The organization where I work had made an eye opener about Open source software. They send it out to people telling them about its advantages. Can you send me his complete postal address or his email address where I can contact him? The website of our organization is plusthought.org -- Regards, Raj Shekhar http://geocities.com/lunatech3007/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Help needed: Anyone from kotayam,kerala?
by Vijay Kumar B. 20 Aug '03

20 Aug '03

Dear Arun, > Why not ? That is atleast far better than using totally propreitary > systems which does not come with any source at all right ? according to the Open Source Definition and the definition of free software given by the Free Software movement, both are one and the same. But its all about what the people in each of these two movements say about the software. For a person in the Open Source movement, the reason for the using the software would be - "It's of high quality. It's cheap." For a person in the Free Software movement, the reason for using the software is - "It gives me the freedom to share the software with my friends. It gives me the freedom to modify the program to my needs. It gives me the freedom to distribute modified versions of the program." And the fact that "many" free softwares are of high quality is actually a consequence of these freedoms. This has mislead many people in the open source movement to use a combination of free software and proprietary software, just because they are of high quality. If my memory is correct, Bruce Perens left the OSI saying "We need to talk more about freedom." If we concentrate on the "consequence" we will slowly loose all our freedoms, and come back to square one! - Vijay Non-free* software sucks. - RMS * 'free' as in freedom. --------------------------------------------- This message was sent from RECTMAIL. http://www.rect.edu/ or http://rangoli.rect.ernet.in/

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NEWS: SGI to focus on Linux-based computing solutions
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 19 Aug '03

19 Aug '03

SGI to focus on Linux-based computing solutions >From Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) U.S.-based Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) said Tuesday it would continue to focus on developing cutting edge computing solutions on the Linux operating system platform. "We have enabled Linux to break into the high performance arena," said Warren Pratt, executive vice president and chief operating officer of California headquartered Silicon Graphics Inc. "We are now committed to continue moving Linux forward by enabling real solutions for real problems. We will help customers use Linux to solve the biggest problems facing them," he told a press conference here Tuesday. Linux can be bought for a few hundred rupees or downloaded free from the Internet and the same software can be copied across dozens or hundreds of computers. One can also modify the software programme code of Linux to suit individual needs, unlike its proprietary counterparts such as Microsoft's Windows. While Microsoft say Windows is far ahead in terms of security and user convenience, supporters of the open source software, which no one owns, highlight its cost advantage and flexibility for a developing economy like India. Pratt said SGI was the first to make "serious product announcements" based on Linux operating system. The technologies that SGI used in the creation of its Linux product family have enabled the open source system to scale new heights, he added. The official said Linux has great scope to move forward rapidly in India since the country has one of the largest open source community as well as the world's second largest pool of scientific manpower. "This is further boosted by the fact that the government is encouraging the adoption of open source solutions for the country," Pratt said. According to an official study, only 16 percent of the central government offices currently use Linux as a platform but this is expected to grow manifold in the coming years. A number of states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra are either implementing or proposing to launch e-government projects using Linux operating system as the platform. The Indian operations of SGI are headquartered at Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, with branch offices located at Bangalore and Mumbai. --Indo-Asian News Service

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[Fsf-friends] TCO of GNU/Linux vis-a-vis Microsoft (read by Indian officials)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 19 Aug '03

19 Aug '03

Any comments on this? It was recently circulated via the e-gov-india India-egov(a)yahoogroups.com mailing list. FN ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 11:47:30 +0530 From: "Nandkumar Saravade" <nsara31(a)hotmail.com> Subject: Article on Total Cost of Ownership of Linux vis-a-vis Microsoft Hi all Quoted below is an interesting article on a study done on TCO of Linux v. Microsoft. The original article is available at http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22012.html. Nandkumar Saravade Windows vs. Linux: TCO Feud Rages On By James Maguire NewsFactor Network August 1, 2003 "If you've got somebody who's smart and can config it, then [Linux is] a beautiful desktop and runs well," says Meta Group analyst Thomas Murphy. "But for the average business owner, [it] does not have that kind of simple nature that you have in Windows." If you fear the end is near for the entertaining debate over whether the Windows or Linux desktop is ultimately less expensive, you can relax. There are enough variables to keep the feud raging for the foreseeable future. The OSes themselves are vastly different, in terms of how they come to market, how they are developed, and the number of applications written for them. And their environments are also many and varied -- from large enterprises with operations carried on by armies of clerical workers to small companies with sophisticated data analyses performed by highly specialized staff. Reconciling all of these elements to identify either operating system as the one that offers lower TCO for all situations is impossible. Linux offers a lower TCO in some situations -- a lot lower, according to Aberdeen Group analyst Bill Claybrook. Yet, in other scenarios, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is a more cost-effective option, he noted. The final answer "depends on what you want to do with it," Claybrook told NewsFactor. What Do You Use? Deciding which OS is the most cost-effective depends largely on what applications a company needs, Claybrook explained. If a business's software is limited to applications that are similar to Word, Excel or Powerpoint, "they can probably get by with Linux," he said. But if a business requires a more advanced range of programs, it will need Windows. "The more applications you have, the harder it's going to be -- the more expensive it's going to be -- " to switch to Linux, Gartner analyst Michael Silver told NewsFactor. "We're talking about something that can be very complex." Who Are Your Employees? For a study that compares the Windows and Linux desktops, Silver divided employees into two groups: "structured task users," who do clerical-style work on a repetitive basis, and "knowledge workers," who analyze data conceptually. Knowledge workers use more -- and more complex -- applications, making it more expensive for them to use Linux. The Gartner study shows TCO profiles based on a hardware life of three years. For a structured worker using Linux, the figure is US$5,305. This figure falls to $4,402 for "locked" Linux -- that is, the worker does not have root access. For structured workers using WinXP, the study calculates the cost at $5,148. For knowledge workers, Linux TCO is $6,101, and locked Linux is $5,062. For WinXP, this figure is $5,908. However, these costs do not include the cost of application development -- a business may need specific programs written for it. The study notes that these costs vary so widely from business to business that it is difficult to create an accurate theoretical model -- but it outlines a possible range. For structured workers, costs would vary from $1,151 to $3,454 per worker; knowledge worker migration would cost between $4,087 and $9,044. The Cost Of Complexity In business, complexity often equals cost, and Linux is a more complex OS to configure on the desktop, Meta Group analyst Thomas Murphy told NewsFactor. "If you've got somebody who's smart and can config it, then it's a beautiful desktop and runs well. But for the average business owner, [Linux] does not have that kind of simple nature that you have in Windows." Yet Linux set-up and service should not be seen as a major problem for companies considering the OS, Claybrook said. Although there are only a limited handful of Linux desktop vendors, "the people selling it are certainly going to service it." Future TCO The cost of ownership of a desktop system is, of course, not fixed: As market forces play out over time, prices can change dramatically. This may affect Linux much more than Windows, because the open-source OS has multiple vendors. Enterprises are economically motivated to switch to Linux for reasons other than the OS itself, however. "It's because they have a choice of more than one vendor," Claybrook noted, "and that competition makes it attractive to buyers." Even though there are costs associated with migration, Forrester analyst Stacey Quandt told NewsFactor, "more companies and government organizations are viewing the Linux desktop as a means to reduce IT spending and free themselves from the control of a single software vendor -- Microsoft." Although there is interest among enterprises in choosing Linux, "it's going to be interesting to see how much of that is turned into real action," Silver noted. Even the 2 percent figure used to describe the number of desktop users running Linux is "too high for the enterprise," he said. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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IT education in Kerala schools and GNU/LInux
by Sajith V K 19 Aug '03

19 Aug '03

"Freedom matters" Hi, I believe a clarification is needed for the mail from Mahesh T pai about IT Text books of kerala schools. The text book is divided in to two sections, Windows and GNU/Linux. Windows section explains how to work in windows world and GNU/Linux explains how to work in GNU/Linux world. Microsoft Office is given in the windows section whereas Openoffice is given in GNU/Linux section and so on. The students,Teachers or School can choose either windows or GNU/Linux according to the facilities available. So it a choice of the schools.(Now its our duty to reach schools and bring them to GNU/Liunux world) >The Kochi Free Software User's group had submitted a memorandum >against similar moves by the Kerala Govt. The memo was partly >successful. The authorities was totally unwilling to include GNU/Linux in the text book. Its not a single memorandum which made the change. A lot of work by several persons is there behind the change. A lot of persons and groups have contributed to the effort, the memorandum by FSUG Cochin is one among them. > the syllabus itself is not changed. But the >text books have been re-written - I said - REWRITTEN, to include >references to GNU/LINUX. GNU/LINUX, and nothing else. No references to >applications like GIMP, or the concepts of free software. The concepts of free software is included in the text. Text book of 8th std have two "boxes" dealing with the concept about free software, and includes "boxes" about RMS and Linus trovalds. The students are asked to collect information about free softwares as the part of "activities" GIMP will be included in 10th std text book. In 8th std Xpaint is used for basic Graphic works. I too agrees that our work is not 100% success. There are issues yet to address But in the current situation in kerala its a big success. >They are now including OpenOffice.org in the Xth std textbooks. Openoffice is included from the 8th std itself. The basic introduction is provided in 8th std, more features are given in 9th and some more in 10th. >I find that the text book committee is more interested in creating >something >like one of those 'for dummies' series books for proprietary software. I don't know what forced him to make such a commend. Just go through the textbook, can we compare it with "for dummies series?" The IT text book commitee members are most pro towards GNU/Linux. All of them are well aware of the facts. The have taken all the effort to include GNU/Linux in IT Text book. Its their effort which resulted in including GNU/Linux in IT Text book when all authorities above them are Pro Mircosoft and Anti GNU. The IT Textbook commitee of Kerala, (Headed by Pro. satyapalan SCERT) is trying their level best to bring GNU/Linux to kerala schools. Don't simply critisice them without considering actual facts. -----------------Regards SajithVK------------- _________________________________________________________________ Is India taking over the US? Find out here. http://server1.msn.co.in/features/nri03/index.asp Meet these new-age NRIs.

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GNUCASH: State of the Gnucash project
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 19 Aug '03

19 Aug '03

------------------------------------------------------------------ GNUCASH: STATE OF THE GNUCASH PROJECT, A CALL FOR HELP "Although GnuCash comes up in every discussion of needed software to get Linux on the desktop, the GnuCash project currently has only about seven active developers... and enjoys far less exposure than many projects of a similar size..." COMPLETE STORY: http://www.gnucash.org/en/state_of_the_gnucash_project.phtml More Developer stories: http://linuxtoday.com/developer ------------------------------------------------------------------

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Help needed: Anyone from kotayam,kerala?
by Sajith V K 19 Aug '03

19 Aug '03

"Freedom matters" Hi, Is any body willing to help Dr. Ikbal (Vice chancellor, University of kerala) in installing Gnu/Linux. He is interested in the concepts of free software and now wishes to try it. Location is near Madical college, kottayam kerala. If possible, please mail me back with your contact number or call me at 94473 88664. ------Regards SajithVK----------- _________________________________________________________________ Is India taking over the US? Find out here. http://server1.msn.co.in/features/nri03/index.asp Meet these new-age NRIs.

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 4, Issue 10
by Sajith V K 18 Aug '03

18 Aug '03

"Freedom matters" Hi, Mahesh T pai wrote: >Which text book? VIIIth? IXth? Xth? In VIIIth and IXth now. Xth std text book is on process >I believe that the text book for VIIIth is already published, and is >there for all to see. There is no point in having a war of words on >contents of the text books. It only diverts the subject matter of the >thread, which is 'helping the CBSE make a switch over' to swatantra >software. GNU/Linux section was not there in VIIIth std text book published last year. This year, the text book is revised to include "GNU/Linux section". I think this made the confusion >The post wanted help to change the *syllabus*. He was not looking for >help for a swatantra implementation of a non-free syllabus. I believe >that The CBSE does not insist on proprietary software and permits use >of free software by schools. But, the permission is tacit, nothing in >writing. I remember reading somewhere that people at Delhi LUG were >instrumental in that part. People at GSCP, Goa, have been successful >in getting similar assurances (viz. non-free in syllabus, free in >practise) from the educational authorities of Goa. In "kerala IT text book" both Windows and Gnu/Linux section are included. Another way is to include the generic concepts. I mean Introduce Spreadsheets in general instead of Excel or Calc. But I don't know how efficient it will be since we have to include screen shots and "exact steps to follow" >Our friend was asking for more. That requires a very formal approach. >Efforts by Mr. Sajith and his friends, while certainly significant >and important, are based on tacit and silent approval of >authorities. If somebody takes up the issue, the Government will be >forced to withdraw the text books created by the present committee >because they do not conform to the syllabus. >Or has the Govt. of Kerala changed the syllabus? The syllabus has been changed to include GNU/Linux and the schools can choose either Windows or Gnu/Linux. The issue is, the "teachers training" is provided only in windows. This forces the schools to choose Windows. This issue has to be addressed. We need to "force" the govt. to provide teachers training in Gnu/Linux too. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Hotmail now on your Mobile phone. http://server1.msn.co.in/sp03/mobilesms/ Click here.

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Darwin license is now free software compatible
by Nagarjuna G. 18 Aug '03

18 Aug '03

Darwin and products from apple will now be released under their new license, which is a free software license. http://www.opensource.apple.com/news/2.0-announce.html Nagarjuna -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun at hbcse tifr res in. http://www.gnowledge.org/ I support Public Library of Science http://www.plos.org/

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FPGAs and free software
by George Scaria 18 Aug '03

18 Aug '03

Dear all, There is a lot of activity in the electronics community over the so-called FPGAs(Field Programmable Gate Array). It is a custom programmable digital IC with lots of capabilities and pins. FPGAs are very exotic devices, and even microprocessors to the speeds of ghz can be made from them. We do the design of the custom chip in a language called VHDL, which is like Ada, or Verilog HDL, which is like C. Sometimes, some elements are used very commonly, and are called cores. Some FPGA cores are developed by people with free software inclinations and are available under GPL. That is a very nice thing, free software gets into hardware too!! -George Scaria __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer

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