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NEWS: FSF's open letter to UnitedLinux Board
by Frederick Noronha 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

------------------------------------------------------------------ LWN.NET: THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION'S OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITEDLINUX BOARD "Bradley M. Kuhn, the Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, has submitted an open letter to the UnitedLinux Board of Managers. 'However, since nearly all of the volunteers from the Free Software community (your fellow developers) did not receive a copy of the so-called 'closed beta', we ask that in a show of good faith, you make available at least the terms of distribution you used for that product...'" COMPLETE STORY: http://lwn.net/Articles/10257/ ------------------------------------------------------------------

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RMS: why open source needs Free Software's ideals
by Arun M 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

The following is an open letter from Free Software Foundation President Richard Stallman to SecurityFocus' Jon Lasser, in response to his article Lobbying for Insecurity: I read your article about Microsoft and Security-Enhanced Linux with interest, and saw your advice to the open-source community. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27121.html

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IndicComputing Bytes #001
by Frederick Noronha 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

-------------------------------------------------------x--------------- ###################IndicComputing Bytes#########################Issue01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In this issue: o Bram Moolenaar's input o Search engine for Japanese, Chinese, etc o Good news: Mandrake goes Tamil! FROM BRAM MOOLENAAR <Bram(a)moolenaar.net>, the person who wrote VIM, the Free Software-based editor, when asked whether it would be possible to "work on Indian language solutions for Vim": Vim 6.1 supports translated messages, menus and Unicode. It should be possible to make a Hindi translation. Places to ask around for someone willing to do the work. Appropriate places are the vim maillist and the comp.editors news group. Perhaps there are a few Indian news groups, I obviously don't know about that. I also don't know if the current Unicode support is sufficient for your language. Please find out yourself. - Bram -- Engineers are widely recognized as superior marriage material: intelligent, dependable, employed, honest, and handy around the house. (Scott Adams - The Dilbert principle) /// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram(a)moolenaar.net -- http://www.moolenaar.net \\\ /// Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.vim.org \\\ \\\ Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.a-a-p.org /// \\\ Lord Of The Rings helps Uganda - http://iccf-holland.org/lotr.html /// ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A SEARCH-ENGINE FOR JAPANESE, CHINESE ETC: From seo(a)cybermultilingual.com Let us submit http://www.cityradio.nu for FREE on Japanese search engines, German search engines, Hispanic search engines , French search engines , Chinese search engines etc.....! Wonder if they have plans for IndicComputing? Can someone follow this up? Let us submit your website on International search engines for FREE! Visit us at http://www.CyberMultilingual.com for full details! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MANDRAKE GOES TAMIL: "V_VenkataRamanan" <venkat(a)tamillinux.org> wrote: Here is a Press Release, I wrote on request from people here in Toronto, on the forthcoming Mandrake 9.0 with Tamil enabled. Please feel free to forward to people who may be intrested. You may be able to download a formatted version of this in tamil and english from the following URLs. Tamil: http://www.tamillinux.org/articles/mandrake_tam.pdf English: http://www.tamillinux.org/articles/mandrake_eng.pdf Feel free to download the screen shots from http://www.tamillinux.org/kde/imsges/Thumbnails.html Total Tamil computer is now available: People throughout the world are using computers and Internet in their own languages. However, Indian users are compelled to use them in English. This is strange and is inexplicable to anyone from outside India. It is undeniable that Indian engineers and scientists are a dominant force in the IT world, but it is also true that they are grossly negligent of the needs of their own masses. This has pushed India to the top of the list of countries suffering from the Digital Divide. No more! The solution is on the horizon. With the release of Mandrake Linux 9.0, an average user (without much technical knowledge) should be able to operate a computer and use Internet -- all in Tamil. For the first time, the unfathomable prerequisite of English knowledge for operating computers has been eliminated, at least for those who know Tamil. What is possible? Mandrake is a package distributor of Linux and other open source software. While installing Mandrake Linux 9.0, it gives the choice of language for Graphical User Interface (GUI). All that is needed is to opt for Tamil here. The installation, in most of the cases, will be smooth with all hardware and network connections auto configured. At the end of the installation, when you reboot and login, you will be presented with a Tamil GUI (with the exception of a few yet to be Tamil-enabled programs). It is all yours to explore. Almost all operations for an average home user or a small office are now possible with total Tamil interface. You can do these tasks with Tamil GUI; 1.Configure your computer and connect to Internet 2.Create and edit files in Tamil and English (and other languages!!) 3.Manage your files and disks 4.Send email, browse Internet and chat. 5.Listen audio files and watch videos 6.Do all small office works (Word Processing, Spread Sheet, Presentation Graphics) 7.Maintain your personal/small office accounts 8.Schedule your tasks, Add and manage users. 9.Manage your desktop appearance, You can do much more than these. For example, you may be able to configure and run a FTP site with Tamil GUI. There are a few areas where work is currently under progress these include a graphics editor, a CAD drawing program, etc. Why in Tamil? Why not? Almost all developed countries use computers and Internet entirely in their local languages. In India, there is an unfortunate mindset to equate (English) language ability to technical achievement or intellectual superiority. Like every other device, computers are the tools invented by men. It is natural to sharpen the tool to make it suitable to the human beings as against adopting himself to the tools. To make the fruits of technology available to the common man, it should be made simple enough for the common man to understand. English language ability as a precondition to computer use is ridiculous in the context of majority non-English speaking population. Unless we shape the tool to our needs, we will always be dependent on other toolmakers for our survival. Availability of Tamil computers will enable localized applications (such as Sales Tax forms or Voter's List) to be developed rapidly. This will also take the local business to the new realms of commerce. There will be a strong motivation for the students to develop applications for their commonplace problems. Modern appliances such as cellular phones and televisions are being designed with embedded computers ^� it will be impossible to penetrate the local market without a native interface. If we do not do it now, we will be losing on all subsequent technologies. What is Linux? Linux is an Operating System (very much similar to the familiar Microsoft 98, 2000 or XP). An operating system interprets the user commands for the microprocessor in the computer. Linux is an outcome of efforts of millions of volunteers around the world. Currently popular commercial OS like Windows XP do not reveal source codes. This prevents knowledgeable users from efficiently using the programs. While every other product you buy lets you to modify it to your need (you do not need to seek permission from your realtor to repaint your bedroom or attach an additional jar for your mixer), software companies have manipulated patent and copyright laws to forbid users from adding or modifying their programs. Some intelligent and conscious programmers viewed this as anti-social and initiated the Free Software Movement (Free as in `speech' and not as in `lunch'). Thousands of programmers joined this movement that culminated as the Linux Operating System and other Open Source software. Product released by these volunteers are cleverly labeled as `copyleft' (to poke pun on `copyright') ^� which lets the user to peek into the source code, modify them and redistribute them without any strings attached. The only obligation is to make all modifications available as copyleft again. As this pool of programs grew excellent products started emerging out in the late nineties, weeding out the poor ones by natural selection. This has now emerged as a true and potential alternative to commercial products. As the source codes are freely available they are tested and driven to the limits of their vulnerabilities and all security holes are blocked. Linux is now estimated as the only operating system that grows in the market share. What is Mandrake-Linux? There are several companies that collect all the free programs developed by the users, test them for their integrity, package them and distribute them at a moderate cost. While selling the free programs seem an irony, many companies have successfully thrived and are continuing to grow despite the overall downtrend in IT. Mandrake is one of these companies that distribute Linux in a box. It aims at taking Linux to the non-technical users and towards that they have created some excellent installation and administration tools (which are again available freely with source open). Always willing to experiment, the engineers at Mandrake have worked closely with volunteers developing Tamil programs for Linux and have now announced that their upcoming version 9.0 will enable users to configure their computers with a Tamil GUI. You may be able to buy Mandrake Linux in the local bookstore or electronic shop or through their web store. Like every other Linux distributors, Mandrake also makes the entire product freely downloadable (it comes to about 2 GB). But, by buying these Open Source products, you contribute to those volunteers who devote their time and effort for this laudable cause. Unlike commercial OS, which requires buying a lot of extras (say an Office Suite, a Photo editing tool, a drawing utility, etc.), most of the Linux distributions come packed with hundreds of programs and an average user should be able to get almost everything he needs right after the installation. How Tamil GUI is enabled? The Linux volunteer base encompasses the entire globe. As such they have a common need to make these programs inter-operable with many languages. Their intelligent design of the GUI separates commands that are passed to the core of the OS (known as the kernel) from the interface icons and command prompts presented to the users. This enables easy translation of the interface without knowing the finer details of the programs. Volunteers working on these projects typically translate commands into their own language. With some minor compilation it is then firmly integrated with the program. There are some additional tools necessary such as a keyboard driver, the native language editor, etc. Several programmers have written such tools for Tamil. An incomplete list of volunteers include (not in any particular order) Sivaraj, T. Vaseeharan, Dinesh Nadarajah, Sivakumar, Gomathi, Venkataramanan, Nagu Chinnaswamy, Prabu Anand, M.K. Saravanan. This list is by no means exhaustive. Like a typical Linux volunteer cross section, Tamil Linux programmers come from Canada, USA, Singapore, Japan, India and Malaysia, largely interacting through the web and Internet discussion groups. It should also be mentioned that these works were possible due to several pioneering efforts on Tamil computing by K. Kalyanasundram, Manivannan, Muthu Nedumaran, Suvadi Ilango and others. There was also support and encouragement from the International Federation of Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) and some industrial partners. What are the opportunities? Endless -- can be the only word that can quantify the floodgates of opportunities open by this. Linux has proven to be an excellent and reliable OS for all applications ^� from tiny laptops to supercomputers. In a country like India, due to the digital divide, not even 30% of the population has used the computers. Further penetration will be only possible if computers are easier to use. With Tamil enabled computers there will be enormous opportunities for the vendors to design and build computers for local needs. As already indicated, this will spur the growth of software tools for common applications such as sales tax reporting. Other Indian languages will soon follow the advances made in Tamil. As we master the art of enabling local language interfaces, we will be ready to assimilate the new technologies as they emerge. As Linux OS runs equally well on mean machines, it is possible to design and implements low-cost computer laboratories for schools in our community. Another potential area is computers for government offices. Open source software has been found robust and secure and there are no hidden vulnerabilities. Many developed countries have started adopting open source solutions for e-governance. It is a great coincidence that the first out-of-the box Indian language computer is being released during the 5th Tamil Internet Conference to be held in San Francisco, during 27-29th September 2002. Many interesting discussions are expected during this conference. Dr. V. Venkataramanan http://www.tamillinux.org Some Useful Websites � The Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu.org) � To know more about Linux (http://www.linux.org) � Tamil Linux developments (http://www.tamillinux.org) � Tamil Linux discussions (http://groups.yahoo.com/tamilinix) � Mandrakesoft (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/) � The International Federation of Information Technology in Tamil (http://www.infitt.org) The fifth International Tamil Internet Conference and Exhibition at Foster City, California (http://www.infitt.org/ti200s2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled in public interest from material on the Net by: -- Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783 BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference

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ZDNet UK News: Government body says developing countries need open source
by ajith＠nsc.ernet.in 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

This ZDNET UK News story has been forwarded to you by ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in. They have added these comments: ------------------------------------------------------------ Government body says developing countries need open source Developing countries should look at open-source software and should avoid legislation designed to stop anti-copying measures being circumvented, a government-backed group of influential experts will warn on Monday. In its report, called Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy, the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights will encourage developing countries to take a stand against unfair copyright measures affecting online media, and against software pricing that puts products beyond the reach of many citizens. The commission, an independent body set up by the UK government in 2001, includes on its board Professor John Barton of Stanford Law School and Professor John Enderby, vice president of the Royal Society. Other members include Daniel Alexander, a barrister specialising in intellectual property law, Professor Carlos Correa of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Dr Ramesh Mashelkar, director general of the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and secretary to the Indian government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The report covers many areas of intellectual property, but the recommendations on copyright, software and the Internet will add fuel to debates over the use of open source in government and over copyright protection mechanisms. "Developing countries and their donor partners should carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of using low-cost and/or open-source software products," the report recommends. Publishers of software, as well as of conventional and online materials, have a duty to review their pricing policies to help reduce unauthorised copying and to ease access to their products in developing countries, the commission believes. "The cost of software is a major problem in developing countries and it is the principal reason for illicit copying," it notes. Part of the problem with proprietary software, says the commission, is that publishers often make no allowance for markets in developing countries where it notes many people live on less than $2 (£1.30) a day. But the report goes further than other recent studies on the use of open-source software in government, and recommends that to help adapt software to meet local needs, developing countries should ensure that their copyright laws allow reverse engineering of software programs "while complying with relevant international treaties they have signed." The commission cautions developing countries against some forms of international treaty; in particular the WIPO copyright treaty, which many countries are pressured into signing in return for monetary aid from organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The WIPO Copyright Treaty, while being less restrictive than laws such as the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the EU's Copyright Directive, which is due to be enforced in the national laws of member states next year, still "contains provisions of concern in developing countries," says the commission. In the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has received a great deal of criticism for making it illegal to circumvent technological protection, even when the purpose of circumvention does no violate copyright laws. Developing countries are advised against passing similar laws, and the commission goes so far as to advise them to declare void shrink-wrap software licences in some cases. "Internet users in developing countries should have fair use rights on available information, including creating and distributing printed electronic copies in reasonable numbers for educational and research purposes and making reasonable excerpts in commentary and criticism," says the commission. "If suppliers of digital information or software attempt to restrict fair use rights, either through contract provisions or by technological methods of protection, the contract provisions may be treated as void." In particular, says the commission, developing countries should allow their citizens to circumvent copyright protection mechanisms and should not follow the example of the US and the EU by enacting laws that ban such practices. Even weak levels of copyright enforcement have had a major impact on diffusion of knowledge and knowledge products throughout the developing world. "Stronger protection and enforcement of copyright rules may well reduce access to knowledge required by developing to support education and research, and access to copyrighted products such as software," notes the commission. "This would have damaging consequences for developing their human resources and technological capacity, and for poor people." The report is to be formally launched on Monday at an event in Geneva: speakers will Clare Short MP, the UK secretary of state for International Development; Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, director general of the World Trade Organisation; and Dr Kamil Idris, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The full report is available at the Commission's Web site here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ See the Digital Rights News Section for the latest on DVD-Ram, DVD-RW, zoning and copy protection. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. ZDNet News: The UK's best source for computing news - updated throughout the day. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/ Please report any abuse of this service to ukwebmaster(a)zdnet.com

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Re: [Fsf-friends] IT Vision
by klak＠giasbm01.vsnl.net.in 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

On 17 Sep 2002 09:10:01 +0530, "P. Sugathan" <sugathan(a)nsc.ernet.in> wrote: > The Kerala IT@School syllabus do mention about free software. But do > they encourage using free software at school? The approach paper on > IT@SCHOOL prepared by the Govt. do insist that, the computers bought by > the school should have pre-installed Windows9x as operating system!!.So > what is the point in telling the school children about philosophy of > Free Software and asking them to work on proprietary Software.? Yes, that does sound like a joke, doesn't it? Just goes to show what we are up against when dealing with an irrational Government bureaucracy :) At this very moment, some free software advocates are seized of the matter of the curriculum and are planning to do something about it. Nevertheless, the fact that a few pages on software freedom made their way into a school textbook for the first time (in India?) is quite an achievement don't you think? It will start those young minds thinking about it at least? And as has been stressed repeatedly on this list and elsewhere, letting people know about the philosophy of free software is far more important than getting them to use free software immediately. Once they are knowledgeable about software freedom and understand its implications, they will *ask* for free software. Perhaps the students, teachers and parents too will see through the irrationality of the syllabus? Regards, -- Khuzaima

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Columbia next country to try for a free software law?
by Raju Mathur 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

[Thanks to ox-en] Looks like Colombia is the next country to be contemplating a law on free software a la Peru and Mexico. My Spanish is rotten (read, non-existent after hijo di puta and vaya con dios ;-) so this message is about what I understood from the Google translation, which isn't particularly good. FWIW, the original text is available at: http://bachue.com/colibri/ley.html The Google-translated page is at: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbachue.com%2Fcolibri%2… Any Spanish-speakers here who could offer more information? Regards, -- Raju -- Raju Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ It is the mind that moves

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IT Vision
by Ajith Kumar 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

Hello, I am forwarding a copy of the letter send to the The Executive Director IT @ SCHOOL Project SCERT Buildings Poojapura Thiruvananthapuram-12 itschool(a)asianetindia.com for comments. regards ajith

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The basic problems
by sooraj 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

The main reason for the growth of free s/w in india may be the large amount of advertisement and support for proprietery s/ given by local Computer centers and educational institutions. Away from big cities, (I don't know what are the current circumstances outside kerala), no computer institute tries to teach free s/w. Instead they give large amount of advertisement for Office,Vb, VC, ASP, Oracle etc. The reason is that the institutes wants profit and they think that they can get a high profit only through teaching MS products. They make general public feel that A computer means windows (What a funny idea isn't it?) Even i have some experience with some employees in some computerised environment unknowing about free s/w at all. There is the deficiency of good faculties as well. Even those people running Computer centeres (We can call them principals or centre heads of an eucational institution) unawre of the fact that there are free s/w available instead of what s/w they use. Also anybody has a comment about teaching programming in high school classes before the student understands what is a computer, what is word processing, what is a spread sheet? what is internet etc.. Our educational policy is to first teach programming and may of our schools are without proper facilities.. The student who sees the computer for the first time in his life starts learning programming in c++ and he is really confused (that was the case with me when i started programming some years back).. So i think its appropriate to teach some fundamentals and some lab sessions at least for 2-3 months.. Any opinion about it.. then plz write to me thank U

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emacs and its manual
by Raghavendra Bhat 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

Hello: The self documenting editor Emacs has a very cool and extensive manual. It does not come as a separate package but it is there within Emacs itself. Start Emacs and then press Ctrl-h-i-d-m Emacs. -- , , ragOO, VU2RGU / \ ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) `-_---' `---_-' `--|o` 'o|--' \ ` / ): :( :o_o: "-"

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Re: Linux Workshop
by Frederick Noronha 14 Sep '02

14 Sep '02

Can anyone help this group? They are college students and need some experts to conduct a workshop. Please contact Chairman <ieeecec(a)bharatmail.com> Thanks, FN On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, Chairman wrote: > hi Frederick > > Mr Rajkumar has referred your name for helping us to find a person for a workshop in Linux Networking. > > The students attending the workshop will be having a preliminary knowledge of Linux, commands and general things. The number of students will be around 30 -40. The workshop can be conducted in our labs. The portions for the intended workshop is given below > > Linux Networking > > Configuring a NIC > Basic Network Services > - telnet - Server / Client > - ftp - Server / Client > Basic Concepts of DNS > - Implementation of BIND > - forward & reverse lookup > - DNS Client Commands > DHCP - Server / Client setup > NFS - Network File System > - RPC portmapper > NIS - Network Information System > - ypserver / yp client configuration > - RPC portmapper > Apache Web Server > - Restriction through htaccess; > - Name & IP Based Virtual Hosting > Samba Server - File & Print Service > - Authentication through samba > - smbmount; smbclient; > Dial-up connectivity > PPP Server setup > Sendmail - Mail Server > - Configuring mail over LAN/WAN > - SMTP Server; POP3 Server Setup > Proxy Server - Squid > - ACL for restricting access > > We know this is too much to cover. What I was having in my mind is to cover as much as possible in 2-3 days. > > Kindly let me know whether you can find someone for conducting the workshop. > > regards > Kiran C > Chairman > IEEE Student Branch > College of Engineering, Chengannur > Kerala > India > > ------- > > > _____________________________________________________________ > Get Your Free ScanMail and Email At http://mail.ttkbharatplanet.com >

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