- Fsf-friends - lists.fsci.in

Re: [Fsf-friends] better english
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 02 Oct '06

02 Oct '06

----- kush <corporalster(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Have observed that if we have to really reach the top of any > organisation (research or commercial), our english has to be good > since > english is the defacto language of science and technology. MPO: In community projects this may not be always true. > Indian techies have weak english specially when we have to compete > against the best in the world. Even Linus Torvalds was a non native > english speaker but everybody there speaks/writes good english. Then why not write in the original language (mother tongue) of the writer and maybe some good translator can do the translation. > However if people are happy with the chalta hai attitude, then they > should not complain if they are overlooked within any organisation. reminds me of the good ol wikipedia, write once and improve forever, why static HTML, someone better in english can improve on it. -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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better english
by kush 01 Oct '06

01 Oct '06

Hi all, Have observed that if we have to really reach the top of any organisation (research or commercial), our english has to be good since english is the defacto language of science and technology. But most of Indian techies have weak english specially when we have to compete against the best in the world. Even Linus Torvalds was a non native english speaker but everybody there speaks/writes good english. The recent post given for some documentation on fonts has a lot of grammatical mistakes. http://avi.alkalay.net/linux/docs/font-howto/Font.html However if people are happy with the chalta hai attitude, then they should not complain if they are overlooked within any organisation. Kush

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Software Freedom Day
by Githin Alapatt 30 Sep '06

30 Sep '06

Hi, We conducted the Software Freedom day in a good manner. Here is the report and some photos. http://softwarefreedomday.org/gallery/2006/india/kerala/college_of_engg_che… FLOSS Cell College of Engineering Chengannur -- Cheers :-) githinATgmailDOTcom Free as in Freedom http://githin.googlepages.com/

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October 3rd Declared "Day Against DRM"
by പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

* * *"If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed" - Disney Executive.* *Defeating DRM is all about awareness*. The direct actions that we have taken are all about this. Whether it means protesting outside Apple Stores in Hazmat suits or getting HUGE press coverage for announcing the Bono petition (sign it now <http://defectivebydesign.org/petition/bonopetition>). Action gets attention, and creates space for debate. And as our friends at Disney recognize, if there is a debate, we will have won. Clear your schedule for a world wide day of action against DRM. *On Tuesday October 3rd we will all be taking action to raise the stakes and attempt to increase awareness to the threats of DRM - in a very significant way.* Add the action that you will take!<http://defectivebydesign.org/actions/plan_your_october_3rd_action>(real world or virtual) and ask others to join you. Or join the actions already planned<http://defectivebydesign.org/en/actions/oct3list>and get connected to others in your town. Submit your ideas <http://defectivebydesign.org/node/add/content-idea> for October 3rd and we will be ready to make it happen. Tell us<http://defectivebydesign.org/node/add/content-idea>how you think we can, together, raise awareness to defeat DRM. We will award prizes for the best ideas and actions<http://defectivebydesign.org/actions/plan_your_october_3rd_action>. Yes, that's right, to add a little more fun to the events (and we just love to get competitive here at DbD) we will award prizes for things like Best Idea, Best Action, Best Team Action, Best Photo, Best Blog, Best Video, Most People Contacted, Thing that makes us laugh.... and others. Submit your action today<http://defectivebydesign.org/actions/plan_your_october_3rd_action> ! *Based upon your actions on October 3rd<http://defectivebydesign.org/actions/plan_your_october_3rd_action>we will fulfill Big Media's worst nightmare: public awareness about the dangers of DRM.* Take a look at some of the idea's that have been submitted already!<http://defectivebydesign.org/ideas/day_against_drm> Is your idea too sensitive to tell everyone? Would it ruin the fun if everyone heard your idea now? Send us those suggestions<http://defectivebydesign.org/contact> . Digg this story!<http://digg.com/tech_news/October_3rd_Declared_Day_Against_DRM> http://defectivebydesign.org/en/blog/announce_day_against_drm -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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link - fonts on GNU/Linux
by Raghavendra Bhat 27 Sep '06

27 Sep '06

http://avi.alkalay.net/linux/docs/font-howto/Font.html -- Raghavendra Bhat Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward." -- Robert A. Heinlein

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Training for two govt. schools in Chenganur
by Githin Alapatt 27 Sep '06

27 Sep '06

Hi, As a part of the "Software Freedom Day 2006" celebrations at College of Engineering Chengannur, a one day training camp is planned for the staff and students of two Government Schools in Chengannur. A group of 12 students from the college will be spending a day helping them install and learn GNU/Linux. We have selected a group of 100 students in each school who will attend our training. (We could not celebrate the SFD on time as we had exams that time, then the school had exams.) We have already installed IT@School on the computers at the schools. The college has agreed to provide us an LCD projector and laptops for the event. This is a part of the actvity of the FLOSS cell existing at the college. Hope this small contribution of ours goes a long way in making Free Software useful and popular. Date and Time: 28thSept 2006, 1000hrs to 1600hrs Venue 1: Govt. Girls' School, Chengannur Venue 2: Govt. Boys' School, Chengannur FLOSS Cell, College of Engineering Chengannur, Kerala. http://floss.cec.googlepages.com/ -- Cheers :-) githinATgmailDOTcom Free as in Freedom http://githin.googlepages.com/

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Fwd: Marathi spellchecker available for OpenOffice.org 2.0.x (updates !)
by priti patil 27 Sep '06

27 Sep '06

Hi all, New updates !! It's available here http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Marathi_.28India.29 download mr_IN_pack.zip and install using "Install New Dictionaries" wizard of file menu. Works perfect with 2.0.x which has got inbuild huspell engine, but to make it work with 1.1.x and 2.x (with myspell) recompile their source code with Hunspell UNO component, then follow the same procedure. Please revert back with queries, suggestions, comments if any. PLEASE NOTE: It's just a 1st version of marathi spell checker and requires periodic refinements. Contributions will be highly appreciated. Regards. Priti Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Use GPLv3 for Linux Kernel says Bruce Perens
by പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

Ultimately, we need to recognize that Linux is a 15-year-old kernel and that there will be another technical development to superscede it eventually. I can't say what that will be, but I think the best chance of mobilizing individual contribution to it would be to use GPL 3. *Bruce* http://digg.com/linux_unix/Use_GPLv3_for_Linux_Kernel_says_Bruce_Perens Cheers Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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Re: [MarathiOpenSource] Marathi spellchecker available for OpenOffice.org 2.0.x
by priti patil 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

Thanks ! By the way, it's only the 1st version and consistant refinement is needed for upcoming versions. Contributions will be highly appreciated. Regards. Priti --- RKVS Raman <rkvsraman(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Congratulations!!! > > -Raman __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Marathi spellchecker available for OpenOffice.org 2.0.x
by priti patil 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

Hi all, This is for your information ! Most awaited marathi spell checker is now available for installation without any hassle through "Install new dictionary" wizard of "File" menu. It's in pipeline and will be available upstream very soon ! For more details please visit: http://blogs.nuxeo.com/sections/blogs/laurent_godard Do revert back with comments/suggestions, if any. Regards Priti Patil janabhaaratii Project Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (Formerly NCST) 8th Floor, Air India Building, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021. India. Telephone: +91 22 2202 4641, +91 22 2283 6924 Fax: +91 22 2204 9573 Website: www.cdacmumbai.in, www.janabhaaratii.org.in __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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rebel code
by Kush 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

Pls see these reviews http://www.amazon.ca/Rebel-Code-Inside-Source-Revolution/dp/customer-review… They give a better idea which i was not able to convey as well. The main point is that it gives ideas about trends and also is a great motivational book. There are so many ideas which tell how things happenned or why they fell in place. It really inspires one to be good in software. e.g. i remember when I was in engg college in 1991 we couldn't even think of writing an assembler software and here in the book there is this exceptional 19 year old who has a head start in programming and thinking of emulating an OS and that too Unix. Even now most of us cannot write or even think of designing systems software like compilers/assemblers/OS etc. There is a huge difference in quality among majority of our engineers and the normal engineers/technicians there. (when I read joelonsoftware.com --though its microsoft oriented, i feel we hardly know as much as these top chaps know) (also we are bogged down in a few open source projects like fonts development etc which hardly should have taken more than an year or two-- if there are more good indian led projects why can't a list be maintained for them like sourceforge.net) There is also a huge difference in quality and mindset between what type of so called engineers are being produced from our educational machine as compared to the western education system. There those people don't think of themselves as engineers till they get out of 6 to 8 year courses (no time limit is fixed unlike the people who pass out here after their 3 or 4 year courses and still don't know much) and in between drop out or take totally different subjects e.g. Larry Wall's career is not typical computer science subjects at all. Thats why he was so innovative and PERL was produced. Linus Torvalds stayed in college/university for 7/8 years, some of these bright chaps completed Btech and then Mtech next year or same year --there are so many options for training, research and development there --where we don't even come close. when i see such sites as http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/ I am amazed. See the difference in quality between what their final year students produce and whats produced here (where most things are copied and students don't have any idea what to do till the term has already started) Then it was also quite interesting to read that Linus could lead so well the OS kernel work maybe as a result of the 1 year compulsory army officer training that he opted for during university days. We have nothing like that here.(not many Indian geeks want to build a sound body to cope with the pressure of working on computers and not many people understand what its like to have compulsory army training) He keeps things in his head --photographic memory and so on (thinking on one's feet, the maturity in tackling conflicts or not giving offense, developing leaders under him automatically etc etc). Difference between system of working with linux development as compared to emacs forking development etc etc-- so many management aspects are also revealed in the book --it can be read a few times just to understand and learn from such history. I think its a great book and can really really inspire new people to think ambitiously. Our drawbacks-- we have no authentic idea about the number of indian open source programmers/developers and whether there is an increase/decrease or constant number since nobody measures and nowhere in any open source project do we see names of Indians mentioned much. There should be some annual survey in some authentic Indian publication and highlighting of role models and good personality traits so that people understand what made open source/free software succeed. Spanish speakers/non english speakers ask more questions in forums than Indians and that shows places like Brazil,Mexico, Italy, East Europe, japan, korea etc are more active and increasing in development/computer literacy then in college we don't share or innovate code but compete unhealthily against each other --this is typical indian crab mentality --teachers do not see this aspect and cannot think of ways to reduce this mentality --only highlighting positive traits/ publicly praising healthy competition/sharing/giving/good leadership etc etc and publicising good indian/foreign role models can change this negative crab mentality. We even don't learn how humility has played such a great part in the open source movement--witness what one top hacker told how linus himself is and was so humble and encouraging which motivated all those around him. Or the great traits of Richard Stallman and so on and so forth. Our nerds think its infra dig to help somebody else --specially if they don't know computers or don't know as much as them. They think that is macho. They have never been told that --knowledge increases the more you use it or give/share it. Also knowledge is one thing no thief can steal from you (even if they succeed in the short term --your peers will eventually find out and time will compensate you unless you brood on that one negative thing for ever.) There is nothing like our abominable ragging in the west --people will sue the institution and the authorities if that happens there because their justice system works. A simple thing such as highlighting local political godfathers in an institution or state from a different/outside publication can keep such things in check. By outside publication, I mean say if an institution in Bihar has a lot of political interference (political godfathers who control student union/elections/council etc) have a report published in a publication outside Bihar or on the web --make the issue transparent and the politician will have to hide/duck for cover and all this nonsense will reduce. We have something like indiavotes.org /mumbaivotes.org now coming up which is asking educated people to understand and take part in higher governance so that quality of leadership improves. A great book is here http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/ since good men should not be aloof from society. Einstein etc could motivate society because they were accessible and participative. Indian scientists/researchers/hackers must contribute to society by participating in the community too. Kush

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very important book
by Kush 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

I recently had a chance to read the book Rebel code by Glyn Moody published in 2001 and somewhat dated. The book must be made required reading for children in school (atleast from the 8th/9th class onwards)if India is ever to become a software superpower because of the following reasons-- It gives a complete overview of the history of the open source movement and one gets a good understanding from such history. It shows the values of the hacker movement--meritocracy, peer acknowledgement, pride in one's work etc etc plus also how work becomes worship/happiness and money comes naturally as a side effect. How sharing and giving reduce costs and ultimately increase the buying power of the whole world. What are the pitfalls that are to be watched for in leadership, getting group consensus, keeping the community whole and so on. How things could be easily subverted? and so on. How the commercialisation helped/did not help the movement? etc etc In short this book is a real motivator as it gives insights and shows things from various perspectives. Its not talked about later technologies such as php, mysql, open source CRM/ERP business solutions etc etc but it is certainly better than reading all those confusing computer magazines which do not tell about trends and tend to give information overload to people like me. I wish we had access to such books in 2001 itself. It would have helped a lot. In the end open source (volunteer driven part) has succeeded in some ways though core development now is being done by people paid by the establishment. But these top people have been given the freedom to innovate and do what they like once they have proved themselves. Also this movement was a backlash against vendor lock in, not listening to the customer, fleecing the customer etc etc because of the unequal balance of power etc between vendor and customer. Most of the factors which led to the free software movement have since reduced/vanished but eternal vigil is needed . Microsoft and others can bring back the clock anytime -- I think there is a parallel between the Kerberos episode and open document standards being adopted/twisted by Microsoft (decommodifying or non transparency in standards is mentioned). Its not only Microsoft which is bad but also Oracle, HP, Canon, IBM etc--they do what suits them most and leads to vendor lock in. Kush

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Free software on AIR
by Hiran Venugopalan 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

Today there will be a broadcast on Free software by Sminesh [GEC,Thrissur] at 9.15pm in All India Radio Thrissur. Thanks to C K Raju [DOXA] for information. May the source be with you................ Hiran Venugopalan http://hiran.movingrepublic.org # 09846951870

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Re: [FSF-locale] Indian language translations of GNU manifesto and GPL
by Nagarjuna G. 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

On 9/20/06, klchxbec <klchxbec(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Hello, > > Is anyone working on translating the GNU manifesto to indian languages ? > If yes, please let me know their email addresses. I want to participate > in this task, at least as far as Hindi language is concerned. > > I know there is a Malayalam translation of the GPL. > Since most people use fsf-friends list, I took the liberty to forward this mail to fsf-friends list. Nagarjuna

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Re: Open letter to B&MGF ATLA Re: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Access to Learning Award (ATLA) 2007 (Frederick Noronha)
by Vihan Pandey 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Great Reply Fred ! You are an inspiration :-) By the way did Rebecca respond after your reply ? Regards, - vihan

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Open letter to B&MGF ATLA Re: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Access to Learning Award (ATLA) 2007
by Frederick Noronha 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Dear Rebecca, Thanks for letting me know about this. As you might be aware, I consider myself part of the Free Software movement. As such, I find it unacceptable to work with a fund that made its millions on the premise of the questionable practices of proprietary software. While INASP (the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) is a great idea and approach, can we afford to forget the need for an International Network for the Availability of Access to Software Products? Would this be acceptable to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which you might argue is separate from Microsoft Corp, but nonetheless made its billions on just the opposite approach? Or do you consider scientific publications to be sharable, but not software? In addition, I really don't believe our planet merely needs a million dollars (or many million dollars) to spur intiiatives forward. Specially when this money was earned at the cost of placing unacceptable blocks on the sharing of software, curbing software freedom, and turning nine out ten computer users into "pirates". In my view too, what we need is talent and skill that looks at the problems and the needs of the many rather than at the luxury and greed of the few. While the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been claiming to do exactly this, history tells us differently. Is it possible to take the clock back to the pre-Open Letter to Hobbyist Days? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists or http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html Or, alternatively can your initiative think of joining the campaigns of the Free Software movement, and its emphasis on the freedom to run, study, copy and improve software? If not, why not? Is it merely because it threatens a business model that helps to concentrate wealth in a phenomenal manner? Am sharing this note with our BytesForAll list. If anyone is interested in taking up your offer, it's upto them. I wouldn't. Thank you anyway for taking the trouble to write though; nothing personal here, but I feel such issues and assumptions need to be debated. FN On 20/09/06, Rebecca Priestley <rpriestley(a)inasp.info> wrote: > > Frederick Noronha > Founder > Bytes For All > > Dear Mr Noronha, > > Firstly, let me introduce myself. I work for INASP (the International > Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) and one of my > responsibilities is to assist in the coordination of the 2007 Access to > Learning Award, an award given by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It > recognises excellence in providing access to information through computers, > at no cost to the user. The recipient will receive an award of up to US $1 > million. It must be stressed that this is an award for work already > completed or in progress, it is not a grant. > > We are currently contacting our large international network with > information to encourage applications. I am sure many of your contacts may > be eligible. We should be grateful if you could use means at your disposal, > e.g. news item in your bulletin or journal, or links from your website to > inform your community and contacts. > > Please find attached a copy of the ATLA brochure in English and the > application form. Full information (including brochures in relevant > languages, and application form) is also available on our website at > http://www.inasp.info/ldp/awards. I would like to send you > a few hard copies of the brochure too so could you please let me know you > postal address? > > If you think I can help in any other way, please do get in touch with me. > > Best wishes, > > Rebecca > > > > > ----------- > Rebecca Priestley > Programme & Events Officer > International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications > (INASP) > 58 St Aldates, Oxford OX1 1ST, UK > Tel: +44(0)1865 249909 > Fax: +44(0)1865 251060 > Email: rpriestley(a)inasp.info > Skype: rebeccapriestley > Web: http://www.inasp.info > > INASP is a registered UK charity: number 1106349 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/

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Software Freedom Day 06 a grand success
by പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen 19 Sep '06

19 Sep '06

Hi, We had a woderful Software Freedom Day in Bangalore and I would like to thank all who helped in making this event a grand success. Also cheers to Hiran, Pavithran and all others who helped make this event a great success not just in bangalore but all over India. "This year they had shortlisted some colleges in Bangalore and our dear > BMSCE was a part of it.But it so happened that the coordinators for our > College backed out from conducting the event in our college thinking that > the response will be bad.And many thanks to Ram , an active member of > FOSS.in, me and my friends Sharadha,Shilpa, Nandini and Ganga took up the > initiative and oragnised the entire thingie in good 6 hours yesterday.Somephone calls and the event was finalised ." > "Yesterday whole night me and my friends were hoping that people will turn > up and make the event a huge success. And it happened !!!" -- Nethravathi B http://netravathib.blogspot.com/2006/09/16th-september-2006-software-freedo… "We reached BMS at around 9:15 AM to see the Audi filled with Praveen, Dilip > and myself only. Ahem… It was 9:30 and lo behold!!! The AUDI was jam packed > with people not having place to sit and extra chairs been roped in. Great!!! > 350 people packed in a 300 capacity audi!! " -- Anjhan aka tuxmaniac http://www.tuxmaniac.com/blog/?p=12 " About 60 people stayed back and we splitted into 4 groups and addressed > their doubts and asked about their interest areas. Me and Dilip took charge > of one group and we had a very interesting discussion. Other three groups > were handled bu Aanjhan, Srikanth and Dinesh. We had to leave the hall only > because they had to close the hall and we left the campus becuase it was > already 1 30 and all of us were started feeling hungry." -- Praveen A [me :-)] http://www.pravi.co.nr/2006/09/16/software-freedom-day/ "Audience participation was good and there were some interesting questions. > ESR's `Cathedral and the Bazaar' came into the discussion and was soon being > twisted out of shape (sample: whether you would like to enter a Cathedral or > a Baazar? Cathedral is more solid, peaceful - but it alienates you; Baazar > is more `inclusive', you become part of it)!" -- Pramod CE http://pramode-ce.livejournal.com/42465.html See more at http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/SFD Also add more info there if you have got. Cheers Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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A small exposure to GNU/Linux
by Roshan 18 Sep '06

18 Sep '06

This post is sent to three lists (GNU/Linux , FSF-EDU, FSF-FRIENDS) because I wanted to share this experience and also have a small question. I was asked to present a seminar on a topic assigned to me. The seminar topic doesn't have much relevance to this post, but there was something different that I tried. In a way, I have exposed "Free Software, Ubuntu LIVE CD" distro to my classmates and one of my professor. I didn't speak about GNU and Free Software, but I did mention about considering (GNU/Linux) as an alternative to Windows. One mistake I committed, was I being a bit bais to GNU/Linux and pin-pointing _only_ Microsoft to be responsible for proprietary software. The question that I have ask is this. We had a DLP Projector that could not synchronize with the hardware and the display always went out of Range for Ubuntu 6.06. Why?..Doesn't ubuntu run on DLP's? __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/

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Kerala to celebrate Free Software Day in Schools
by Vimal Joseph 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

Dear All, FSF India along with IT@School project, Govt. of Kerala is planning to celebrate "Software Freedom Day 2006" on the 15th and 16th of September. On 15th, the students will be briefed about the importance of "Knowledge Sharing and Community" in the school assembly, and "Software Freedom day" message from Sri. M.A Baby, Education Minister, will also be read out. on 16th, a Digital Painting Competition on "Freedom, Sharing and Community" for students (Exclusively on free software) will be conducted in every school, and selected pictures will be uploaded to a website, the details of which will be notified later. We request the Free software community to participate/help the Software Freedom day celebrations in your nearby school. Also please send us your suggestions/comments and photos/reports of the Software Freedom Day celebrations. in solidarity, ~vimal -- Free Software, Free Society <http://www.gnu.org.in> Download IT@School GNU/Linux from http://www.edugrid.ac.in/webfolder/download/schoolGnu/slgnu.html

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Library to celebrate Free And Open Source software
by Frederick Noronha 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=17185243&BRD=2279&PAG=461&dept_i… Library to celebrate Free And Open Source software 09/13/2006 Software Freedom Day, a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software, will offer CDs, demonstrate Open Source products, and increase public awareness of Open Source Software. Products such as Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, NVU, Audacity and the GIMP are showing up on more desktop computers every day. Firefox is a tabbed Internet browser with millions of downloads since its release, the GIMP is a top-notch graphics editing program, NVU is a complete web authoring system, Audacity is a cross-platform audio editing system, OpenOffice.org is a fully integrated office suite, and the list goes on. All these Open Source products are available free. Open Source Software runs many of the world's servers. LAMP, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, is becoming the software of choice for System Administrators and is increasing its market share annually. By 2008, the LAMP market share is expected to be over 37 percent. Locally, Susquehanna County Library and Susquehanna Community Information Network (CIN) websites were developed and are maintained using Joomla! which is a dynamic, state-of-the-art Content Management System (CMS). "As frugal librarians, we love Joomla! because it's free, like all Open Source Software," said Hilary Caws-Elwitt of the Susquehanna County Library. "The best part is that staff members can add content easily to the library's website without needing to know any code. At the CIN, all non-profits and community organizations are encouraged to add content. Plus, Joomla! is flexible and powerful - just as good as software we'd have to pay thousands for!" Free and Open Source Software is freely available from the Internet, or on CDs and DVDs. You can install it on as many computers as you like, copy, or share with friends. Broadband Internet is recommended for downloading. If you do not have broadband at home, go to your local library, download the software, burn it to a CD to take home. As an incentive for participating teams to promote Software Freedom Day, the international sponsor has organized a global competition, offering high performance IBM servers to teams with the best event publicity, documentary, FOSS deployment project, and event. Autographed T-shirts are being offered as prizes to individuals producing the best SFD logo, event photo, blog coverage, and photo of the highest-ranking government official at an SFD event. Information is available at the local website, http://sfd2006.gbztechnology.com, and the global website, http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/. Local team leader William Davies may be reached by calling 865-368-1912 or by registering at the local website. (c)Susquehanna Independent Weekend 2006 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/

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Query from Brazil on Indian Font Support on FreeDOS
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

Message from "Henrique Peron" <hperon(a)terra.com.br> Can anyone help Henri out ? CK Raju =========== I'm Henrique Peron and I'm the one in charge for keyboard layouts (to be used with Aitor Santamaría's KEYB) and codepages for FreeDOS. I'm also a beta tester for Aitor's DISPLAY and Eric Auer's MODE as well as beta tester and character designer for Mateusz Viste's FOXTYPE, which is a program that is able to type UTF-8 Unicode text files (in graphics mode) under FreeDOS. Now, I'm also collaborating with Eduardo Casino (NLSFUNC) and Blair Campbell (menus for the selection of keyboard layouts on FreeDOS installation time). I have always wandered how did Indian computers work with DOS codepage 806 and the respective keyboard layouts for hindi, gujarati, tamil, malayalam, etc. on those days. My intention is to provide the very same support for FreeDOS - unless there's something already done, i.e. some terminate-and-stay resident program which deals with the different alphabets like devanagri, siloti nagri, gurmukhi, gujarati and others and the keyboard layouts, specially the matras - I can't even imagine how the keyboard dealt with the cursor when it had to type matras before, after, over, under and even surrounding letters, as what seems to happen with tamil, telugu, kannada and malayalam on those old IBM/MS-DOS days. Thanks in advance for your attention, have a nice day, Henrique Peron, Brazil ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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16th Sept 2006: Software Freedom Day Celebrations in Thrissur
by Anivar Aravind 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

WHAT: Software Freedom Day Celebrations in Thrissur WHERE: Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur WHEN: September 16th, 2006 Saturday, 09 AM ABOUT: Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). It is aimed at educate the worldwide public about of the benefits of using Free Software in education, in government, at home, and in business WHY: We need to celebrate, meet up with peers, share information, build links and solidarity. HOW: That's for you to decide. So do come! CONTACT: Hiran Venugopalan +91 9846951870 Anivar Aravind +91 9846885539 or mail to: sfd06(a)gaia.org.in FOSSers of Vidya & Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA) are Celebrating software freedom Day in Thrissur on 16th September 2006, in association with Free Software Users Group Thrissur(FSUG-Thrissur) & Palakkad Libre Users Society (PLUS) as a part of Worldwide celebrations on 16th September 2006 as a part of International day of celebration of software freedom. Free Software Movement is leading freedom struggle in domain of information technology. This movement is fight for the freedom of knowledge and freedom to communicate. As a Part of Software Freedom day Celebration we are Organizing a one Day Seminar and Technical sessions on 16th. The Sessions are Freedom: Software,society &culture : Anivar Aravind The world of Python : Baiju.M Free Hardware: Introduction to Phoenix : Pramode CE, IC softwares Reaching Vidya Academy: Vidya Academy of Science & Technology (VAST) is located at 15th Kilometer on Thrissur-Guruvayoor highway and is easily accessible by public and private transport buses which stop at Kaiparambu. For a Location & route Map see http://tinyurl.com/q5a3f ABOUT ORGANISORS: Fossers of Vidya is a group of Free Software Users & advocates in Vidya Academy of Science & Technology. Free Software Users Group Thrissur (http://fsugtsr.org) is a group of GNU/Linux and Free Software enthusiasts from the cultural capital of Kerala, Thrissur. Palakkad Libre Users Society (PLUS, http://plus.sarovar.org) is Advocating and promoting the use of free software by providing technical assistance related to free software, bringing together free software businesses and free software users, and propagating the message of software freedom in and around the city of Palakkad (Kerala, India) GAIA (Global Alternate Information Applications), Founded in 2004, is a collective space for imaginative reconstruction of public sphere, new/old media practices & research, and critical cultural intervention.

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Photo Albums by SPACE, Kerala
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 08 Sep '06

08 Sep '06

http://space-kerala.org/gallery/albums.php Nice collection, Vimal. Cheers for the work. In the meantime, are we deciding anything on the RMS' suggestion that SP-Alternative -Computing-E should be re-done. CK Raju Thrissur ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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Now I have a complete GNU System on my PC
by പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen 07 Sep '06

07 Sep '06

Hi, I setup a GNU system snapshot and noted down the steps here. http://www.pravi.co.nr/2006/09/07/now-i-have-a-complete-gnu-system-on-my-pc/ We are looking for more hackers to finish the GNU system. Cheers Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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anybody in indian engg campuses doing work like this?
by Kush 06 Sep '06

06 Sep '06

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/082806-open-source.html?page=2

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10 common misunderstandings about the GPL
by പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen 05 Sep '06

05 Sep '06

Hi, IT Manger's journal has an article about 10 common misunderstandings about the GPL which you can read here http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/21/1659203 The experts NewsForge consulted to come up with this are: Richard Fontana, a lawyer with the Software Freedom Law Center and one of the main drafters of the third version of the license; David Turner, former compliance engineer at the Free Software Foundation who is assisting with the revisions of the license; and Harald Welte of the GPL-Violations project<http://gpl-violations.org/>, which tracks possible cases of non-compliance and tries to assist in resolving them. <quote>In the end, Turner concedes, some degree of confusion is probably inescapable. "There's always going to be people who misunderstand," he says, "no matter how you write the license, even in words of one syllable." </quote> Regards Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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problems with installing linux on older hardware
by Kush 05 Sep '06

05 Sep '06

One problem that I have always faced with installing linux and have dual boot systems is the need to resize existing partitions--specially NTFS partitions. Can anybody advise which open source softwares are best to do this job painlessly? I recently came across partition logic but have still to try it. what are the key tools one needs to install linux effectively on a desktop? some which come to mind are 1. ultimatebootcd.com (for special fdisk(otherwise windows creates problems if the linux fdisk is only used), booting etc) 2. ghosting software (for painless and multiple installations simultaneously/in parallel) 3. a linux distribution --ubuntu/fedora/easyubuntu etc

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FreeDOS 1.0 released !
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 04 Sep '06

04 Sep '06

========Cross posting - Announcement========= "FreeDOS 1.0 Yes, the FreeDOS Project has reached the "1.0" milestone. Please download the FreeDOS "1.0" distribution from ibiblio. If you prefer to purchase a CDROM rather than download the iso file, wait a few days for our online distributors to have their sites ready. We're partnering with at least two CD shops. This is a very important day for FreeDOS. A lot of you have put in so much work over the years, helping to make everything perfect. Even if you didn't contribute code, you helped out the FreeDOS Project by submitting comments and bug reports. Thank you! What is FreeDOS FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system for IBM-PC compatible systems. FreeDOS is made of up many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project. These days, there are three main uses of FreeDOS: 1. To run old DOS games (like DOOM, etc.) 2. To run old business software that only supports DOS 3. To support an embedded DOS system, such as a computerized cash register or till You can run FreeDOS on pretty much anything. While can run FreeDOS on a dedicated PC, now it's most often run inside a PC emulator. You can find PC emulators for all computer platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac.) If you are new to DOS, we recommend you use an emulator to install and boot FreeDOS....." http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/ ===============End of Announcement======== Cheers to the FreeDOS team. A lot of Indian hardware shops already ships with FreeDOS as default OS. CK Raju ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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finding ways and means to wean away windows users towards linux
by Kush 04 Sep '06

04 Sep '06

One way to wean existing users towards linux or open source softwares is by giving them a feel of the various open source softwares under windows so that the migration towards linux becomes easier (training etc costs become less etc) A lot of equivalent open source softwares now exist in both worlds (linux and windows) such as gaim/openoffice/gimp etc etc. I found these 2 sites which are very helpful http://www.opensourcewindows.org/ http://osswin.sourceforge.net/ Recently I came across mistika too which though not open source is a special purpose software under linux which shows that newer software development may be moving towards linux. Kush

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problems with open source
by Kush 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

Many open source programs like openoffice/jashaka etc now only come with versions that can work with windows XP etc instead of also working with earlier windows versions. This necessitates buying or using pirated versions of windows and also upgrading the hardware sometimes. What can be done to continue making softwares for all versions of windows instead of the latest versions? Can some of us write to the developers of various such softwares and to the linux media channels of this anomaly? 2ndly I have been trying to popularise linux at the individual level but the problem which is cropping up again and again is the demand for a relatively high end hardware. e.g. ubuntu needs at least 512 MB ram and most people wanting free software are the poorer types having older hardware and it always necessitates a hardware upgrade. I have tried other linuxes such as puppylinux or damn small linux (needs atleast 128mb ram) or kanotix (256mb ram) but do not have the expertise to advise people properly of all the possible applications they need with these other linuxes. I am most experienced with ubuntu since it has easier install/upgrade options/software such as the synaptic GUI . Am sure other open source proponents also would have come across similar dilemnas. What we need is a gui based linux for the lower end hardwares in the same way ubuntu/edubuntu/xubuntu is for the higher end hardwares-- because most of us are still laymen where linux is concerned. Having multiple distributions means a lot of learning is required to test and upgrade packages without breaking the dependencies etc and that reduces the masses taking up linux fast enough. Kush

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olpc project in kerala or any other advanced state
by Kush 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

Is there any equivalent project like the one laptop per child project in Brazil here in any of the 30 plus states of India or in any of the 500 plus districts of India? What looks most interesting is the self cranking/auto powering feature of the OLPC laptops (because of our dismal electricity problem in most of India). Wonder what hardware they have and what softwares are put on them. Anybody here who has first hand experience of the gadgets and if they are worth anything. I mean lot of hype is created for such projects including our own under 10,000 rupees computers but these sadly fail because of 2 types of problems-- 1 mass scale manufacturing and management of distribution etc (large scale concerns) 2 problems in quality and benefits of the device plus no mechanism to improve on the existing device after users report defects and ask for enhancements. (individual concerns) Kush

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drupal
by Kush 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

Has anybody any idea how drupal is being adopted in India? i.e. the rate at which ngos etc are adopting it. http://drupal.org/handbook/is-drupal-right-for-you

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what pain windows users have to face which a linux user does not have to
by Kush 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

essential maintenance--desktop or standalone user /individuals *windows user* *ubuntu user* 1 run scandisk once a month or as required ext3 file system does this automatically 2 run windowsupdate manually or wait for slower automatic updates --once a week automatic updates 3 run defrag once a month part of ext3 File System 4 run diskclean once a week part of a cron job 5 update antivirus weekly or autoupdate no need --inbuilt security 6 keep antivirus and firewall on all the time--slowing down the computer no need --inbuilt security 7 update firewall weekly no need --inbuilt security 8 update antispyware weekly no need --inbuilt security 9 be always on the lookout for some new vulnerability etc because of the inherently insecure system less tension because of better architecture

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open source in windows
by Kush 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

Hi all, I recently came across turbocash which is open source. Since such a key software was missing for the business users(small and medium enterprises) (who could become the most effective champions of open source) is it possible for Indians to develop a module for the Indian accounting system? US, UK and other accounting systems have been built for this software but no Indian system exists. My question should have been --is any Indian group working to customise this software which has enormous market potential? http://www.opensourcewindows.org http://sourceforge.net/projects/turbocash/ kush

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Linux in Kerala Schools and MGP
by Baishampayan Ghose 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hello, A good friend of mine sent me the following piece of information. I am quoting him verbatim here --- - --- About the storm in the tea cup about Kerala schools going 100% GNU/Linux, I am cynical about the story. 1. The decision was made by the previous government, several months back and there is absolutely no reason to make such a hue and cry about this right now; unless you want to attract some attention of the wrong kind. 2. The decision, AFAIK, applies to High Schools only. +2 schools have to teach Tally, (in the commerce stream) so will stick to the proprietary OS and/or dual boot. 3. Within the government, a massive software deployment is going on, under the name ``Modernisation of Government Programme'', or MGP. This is entirely M$ based, and govt. servants are provided a 7 working day training on using such exotic programmes like MS Word, MS Excel, etc. The training includes how to type Malayalam. How will the community counter this MGP thing? The training is being provided by Institute of management in Government, Kerala. Have a look at their web page - made in good quality M$ FrontPage. (http://www.imgkerala.org/) - --- Regards, BG - -- Baishampayan Ghose <b.ghose(a)gnu.org.in> Free Software Foundation of India http://www.gnu.org.in/ 1024D/86361B74 BB2C E244 15AD 05C5 523A 90E7 4249 3494 8636 1B74 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFE+Vh/Qkk0lIY2G3QRAvweAJ4mM18qlLASB3PMNJuw3v5F2a1pyQCeJp4E Z+RB/ZvQ98eJ/DOZJpqxU0s= =lRIt -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Fwd: Response to Charles Assisi's Article
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 02 Sep '06

02 Sep '06

Some random (and similar to may other view points already experessed in this discussion and many previous discussions) comments on the Biased and confusing article: Mr assis cant decide if he is an (free beer seeking?) ordinary user or a software developer. Usually ordinary users cannot fix the software, they have to depend on the services offered by developers, and hey services are not free beer. But in case of free software users/ customers can choose any developer, benefit from the free market and of course pay. Under ideal conditions business will not benefit from monopoly but by the merits of their offers and services. There are incentives for developers and software developement: Developers get the money and ordinary users/ and the software itself benefits by competition and quality of services offered by the talented/ motivated developers. In the early days of free software movement IMHO the work was based on individual and usually free as in beer efforts (thanks to RMS and many other talented guys). But now it has attained its own momentum to break apart the monopolies and there is nothing stopping it now. But India is a free country (as in freedom) everyone can speak, lets not try to overwhelm ToI, the truth will still happen. There is lot of money and opportunities in free software, much more than Mr Assis can see or want others to believe. The article and our subsequenting discussion will bring out nothing new except for free (as in beer) publicity for Mr assis. Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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The Charles Assisi article
by Vihan Pandey 02 Sep '06

02 Sep '06

i totally agree with Nagarjuna, in fact i think all of us ought to send a piece of our minds to toieditorial(a)timesgroup.com . This is what i've sent them : ================================================== Hello, This is with reference to Charles Assisi's article on the 31st August, 2006 titled "No free lunches for me" in the Business and Technology section. I don't think Mr Assisi has understood anything about the Free Software philosophy at all. He call's himself a capitalist but forgets that one of the cornerstones of capitalism is a free market with no place for monopoly. Every individual player has a right to enter the market and the price and quality of their goods and/or services offered and/or rendered along with market conditions decides the success of a player. Any attempt to over ride this simple rule is unethical and illegal(remember "certain" anti trust cases). The Free Software philosophy gives such a transparent and fool proof business model wherein one has the required freedom in software usage, modification and re-distribution. It is true that you cannot make as much money via sales alone in Free Software, however the service, support, customisation, integration, and solution providing is the place where people profit from. Moreover these are generally bundled with sales to give a "comprehensive solution". This is the trend all over the world at this time. Thus you have ethics and profit existing in a natural harmony. Mt Assisi also mentions "When somebody tinkers with it two things happen. Firstly while the kernel may be mine, what finally emerges may not be mine, what finally emerges may not necessarily be mine. In fact it may turn out to be a highly evolved version of what I had originally thought up. The collective is always better than the individual. But by thinking something up and offering it to the collective to improve upon, I stand to loose my lively hood" The Free Software philosophy respects copyrite. Any work(software, documentation, or even artwork) done is always credited to its original author. Any successive revisions made by others are credited as well. The fact remains that the world knows who the original author(s) is and acknowledges that person(s). That would essentially To quote an example, Einstein's work on relativity changed the way we look at classical physics(attributed to Newton's work). Did that make Newton look like a looser? On the contrary people still admire Newton's work. Einstein himself acknowledged the fact that without Newton's work on Mechanics and Calculus there wouldn't have been a Special or General Theory of Relativity. Another irony here is that Calculus itself has been first traced as long as Archimedes(200 B.C), and Madhava of Sangamagrama(1300's) later improved and further researched by Issac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and several others. To be a little brash, it seems pretty unlikely that if these genius' existed around the same time they would be "loosing their lively hood". Oh yes, and if he does want his software tinkered with or fixed but doesn't want to do it himself, he can hire a Free Software developer to do it for him for a fee. If he doesn't have the money he could get some people(who also have the same requirement) together in a community and then pay the developer for this community software. This is exactly what Free Software stands for, a community of people collaborating and co-operating to achieve the greater good. I do agree with him that we live in a cynical world and most people want to be selfish out of choice or circumstance. But encouraging that attitude is not going to make things better, which is exactly what Mr Assisi is doing here. In today's world the only way we can exist is by some direct or indirect dependence on others. Hence a community spirit is what is needed to foster this. Free Software gives this ideal. To share ideas, jokes, poetry, feelings is that not the basis of us interacting with one another at all? The fact it also becomes implicitly true for sharing knowledge as a whole and that is the essence of being human. Regards, - vihan ================================================

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Broadening human resources
by Ramanraj K 02 Sep '06

02 Sep '06

I came across an article titled "Open Source Apps Broadening the Human Resources World" http://www.technewsworld.com/story/52761.html that begins with the introduction: <quote> Software is ultimately composed of congealed ideas, so ideas are very important in the minds of software developers. The key to market power in the software industry lies in the minds of developers. Fashion plays a role too; some ideas are fashionable and some are not. The idea, or philosophy, of open source is powerful, frictionless, and seductive. </quote> The article highlights an important advantage available *currently* with free software: <quote> OSS developers benefit from a reduction in the friction-to-idea exchange that commercial enterprises engender through the use of lawyers, contracts, and payments. They experiment with new tools immediately instead of paying for legally licensed access to technologies. OSS is winning the minds of developers -- and that is precious real estate </quote> Would the GPLv3 take away the advantage? I don't know, but time will tell. A gentle warning has already been issued: http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2003dltr0023.html <quote> The [US] Supreme Court spoke clearly to clarify the relationship between copyright and trademark law, cautioning against an extension of trademark law into an area covered by copyright law. Understanding this relationship is of great value to writers, artists, and creators; for Fox and the other respondents in this case, that understanding came at a price of $1.6 million. </quote> If the free software community could see the distinction, it may make room for more widespread growth and adoption. Of course, not understanding means a kind of self destruction that is not really deserved.

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Fwd: Response to Charles Assisi's Article
by V. Sasi Kumar 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

From: V. Sasi Kumar <vsasi(a)cessind.org> To: toieditorial(a)timesgroup.com Cc: sasi.cess(a)gmail.com Subject: Comments on "No free lunches for me" by Charles Assissi Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 20:49:27 +0530 Sir, I was appalled to read the article by Charles Assissi entitled "No free lunches for me" in your newspaper dated August 31, 2006. Although he is perfectly within his rights to express his views, and that is what he has done, when it is published in an influential publication like yours, he should have been more careful in formulating and expressing his opinion, since a lot of people are going to take this seriously. My objections are as follows: 1. He effectively says that nice things should not be done because those who do them are bound to come last. This is shocking, to say the least. In today's world torn by strife and infected by terrorism, I would have thought that what we need is more nice things and nice people. I guess coming first is more important for Mr. Assissi than peace, kindness, empathy and other nice things. 2. He says, "my guess is free software will always remain on the fringes of the mainstream." If he had just bothered to look at some statistics, he would have changed his 'guess'. Just a few examples: The Free Software operating system GNU/Linux is the second most popular on desktops, after Microsoft Windows. Free software applications like Apache are by far the most popular on web servers. Apache, incidentally, has a share of around 65%. A number of companies, including large multinationals, are switching to Free Software for their network applications and even desktops. The city of Munich has shifted all their 13,000 or so computers to Free Software with help from IBM. 3. He says that the spread of Free Software would deny jobs to programmers. He would have found, if he had done some homework, that a vast majority of programmers are involved in developing or customising software for specific needs for specific clients. Interestingly, many of them do use Free Software. The fraction of programmers involved in developing the kind of software people use on their desktops is very small. And even in the Free Software world, there are companies like Red Hat, Mandriva, Novell, IBM, HP, and Sun Microsystems, who employ programmers to develop Free Software. 4. He compares his profession with software development. Though the final products (article and source code) are comparable, the work is not at all. Once he publishes an article (like the one under mention here), that is the end of it. He, or anyone else, is never going to improve it or do anything else with it. No one is going to use if for any purpose. Once it is read, and people like us write our responses, its purpose is over. Software, obviously, is nothing like that at all. If Mr. Assissi had spent a few minutes thinking about this issue, he would have realised this fact. Gandhiji once said, "They first ignore us, then they laugh at us, then they fight us, then we win." People like Mr. Assissi are still at the second stage -- laughing at Free Software. Proprietary software companies like Microsoft have started fighting Free Software with whatever means they have. History shows that they have little chance of winning. Best -- V. Sasi Kumar Atmospheric Sciences Division Centre for Earth Science Studies PB No. 7250, Thuruvikkal PO Thiruvananthapuram 695031, India -- V. Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf(a)gmail.com> Free Software Foundation of India

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Fwd: Response to Charles Assisi's Article
by Nagarjuna G. 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nagarjuna G. <nagarjun(a)gnowledge.org> Date: Sep 1, 2006 3:49 PM Subject: Response to Charles Assisi's Article To: toieditorial(a)timesgroup.com Dear Editor, This is in response to the article "No Free Lunches for Me" written by Charles Assisi, Times of India, 31th August 2006. The author is either 'blind' or irresponsible or both. If this article were written by a newbie journalist, I would not have reacted this way, but Charles Assisi is a known name, also because he interwiewed me once or twice. He may be a popular technical writer, he may claim that he was once a socialist now a capitalist, or he was once convinced about free software but not now anymore etc. This style of writing informs some readers that the author has experienced both worlds and then writing with experience. What this journalist lacks, now I realize after reading the article, is a sense of responsible journalism. He is essentially reacting to the decision Kerala Govt is going for free software in place of proprietary software. The only reason that he says free software should not be used is because it is backed by a very good ethical principle of sharing and "nice guys finish last". So this irresponsible journalist is asking people to be bad guys and finish first. If this wasn't the message, what was it? Let me demonstrate how blind this journalist is. First: he assumes that nice guys don't finish. The already successful operating system, the only competitor for the proprietary software today, is the GNU/Linux operating system with a large number of applications for almost every purpose, including computing in Indian languages. If this operating system is not complete, how is this system being used by millions all over the world. Which concept of computing does this operating system does not implement, except possibly viruses, that the system be declared unfinished? The system is not only finished, several millions all over the world use it exclusively. That is not to say that the system is not evolving, it is evolving at a pace that people already began to call it a revolution. The second point of the argument made by the author is that it does not feed programmers, or why would software programmers work for free software without incentive. Again, this is entirely baseless. Save one major company, which other major company does not use or depend their business on free software? If there is no money why did RedHat, Novell, IBM, Sun Microsystems etc. ventured to business by supporting free software. Even the exceptional major company, saved above, is known to use whatever is borrowable from the free software world. True, free software business doesn't happen by selling what is essentially and eminently shareable entity called code. But, people who make money in free software make money by providing various services: making a free software accessible in the form of distributions, helping in installation, customization, maintenance, documentation, training and so on. In the case of propreitary software both the things happen, namely selling what is not sellable, as well as servicing. In free software only one of them is possible. Therefore it is true that one cannot make as much money as one would make with propreitary software. The reason why free software community chose to give up on the additonal profit is due to ethical committment, to live a moral life. A lot of service business in propreitary software also happens by providing service to fix vulnarabilities, such as software viruses, which were fixed by free software by choosing a secure multi-user file system. It is an open question: Why wouldn't a proprietary company doesn't fix a fixable vulnarabilty? It is true that several hackers (not crackers) who contributed to free software were hobbyists and worked out of their free time and without much in expectation. That is because they were intervening in a system that is ridden with evil practices. They are sacrifycing their time to give the world and its people freedom, a better and healthy place to live in future. No freedom movement will win without sacrifice. This jounralist is pleading the Govt and people not to go for free software because good things never win. What a hopeless irresponsible suggestion? He writes: "Take away their incentive to create it and the world will have fewer peices of software to work with." The author assumes that their incentives were taken away, which is a baseless. If you ask the users of proprietary software, who created the application they are using, they will be mum. You ask the same question to the users of free software, they will tell who the original contributors are. Even if they are ignorant, may be they didn't pay attention to it, they can find out by visiting their favourite search engine and will answer in a jiffy. In the case of proprietary software, even if you give them the library and also the Internet, it is very difficult to find out who contributed what. Acknowledgement and maintaining authorship is the real incentive any author, including journalists, would ask for. How many journalists will find their job worthwhile if they were to write articles without their names printed along with the articles. Reporters on the street do not get enough attention, true. But they continue to report with the assumption that one day when they become a known writer they can imprint their name with each article they write. This is the incentive that an author always asked for, which makes each of the authors immortal, for they wish to make their mark in the history. Proprietary software companies don't create any history by masking the code as well as the contributions of millions of programmers who work for them. This is the culture that free software movement is trying to correct in the society, among others. As scientists, we may never publish a paper in a journal if the publisher asks us to be anonymous, or intends ot use another person or company's name instead. The incentive we get is citation, readership, and name, apart from the salary that we draw for our service. Thisculture already exists in the traditional knowledge business, free software business follows and embellishes this tradition. Thus, the author's view that there exists no business model for free software is not true. What is true is, free software does not produce billionaires in half a generation time. Proprietary software was created by converting knoweldge into a commodity. This happened by encoding electronic documents in a format that only their systems can decode. By asking people to pay for decoding these documents for life is unethical lockin policy. This is, by ethical standpoint, an illegal activity, for knowledge doesn't continue transmission by privately locked code. Free software momevent is asking the policy makers, Government bodies all over the world, to correct this mistake too, and that is why we demand for all electronic documents to be in open standards. An unrepairable technology is evil. Proprietary software is unrepairable since the source code is not made public. No 'garages' are possible in this model. But we need garages for software too, since no software can be perfect. Free software is repairable just any system of ideas. Unless people at large participate knowledge does not evolve. If Kerala Govt. took the decision to change their schools to free software, that is a very wise decisiion. We wish that all other governements all over the world follow them to create a better digital world. I would request the editor to publish this response to correct the misunderstanding the article by Charles Assisi would create about free software movement. -- Dr. Nagarjuna G. Scientist, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Eduation, TIFR, Mumbai Chairman, Free Software Foundation of India, http://www.gnu.org.in/ -- Nagarjuna G. http://www.gnowledge.org/ http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/Data/Objects/n/nagarjun/viewObject

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I've done a transcript of Richard's talk
by Ciaran O'Riordan 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

Here is the transcript of Richard's talk and Q&A: http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/bangalore-rms-transcript.en.html It is of the file "part-1.ogg", and I have not finished the last 12 minutes. I have to leave the office now, so I just wanted to put it online. I will finish the 12 minutes in the morning. I might do transcripts of other parts of the recordings, but I haven't decided yet. I will mail here if I decide to do further transcripts. If someone else decides to do a transcript, please also mail here to prevent two of us from doing the same work. One very easy way to raise awareness of the GPLv3 process is to pass that webpage URL to other mailing lists, and to submit it to news sites and to forums. As many of you probably saw, there was also an interview with Stallman in The Hindu: http://www.hindu.com/seta/2006/08/31/stories/2006083100441500.htm (That was on slashdot today) Thanks for making the recordings available. -- Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3 http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ GPLv3 and other work supported by http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org

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India State to Dump Windows for Linux
by Frederick Noronha 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Aug31/0,4670,IndiaWindowsvsLinux,00.html India State to Dump Windows for Linux Thursday, August 31, 2006 COCHIN, India — A southern Indian state plans to switch all school computers from Microsoft Windows to the free Linux operating system, an official said Thursday. The changeover on computers used in some 12,500 high schools in the state of Kerala is set for Friday, and teachers are being trained on the new software, said the state's education minister, M.A. Baby. The state is ruled by communist politicians and its top elected official, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, has long been a supporter of free software, railing against the dominance of Microsoft's Windows when he was a state legislator. However, Baby insisted that the state government has no grudge against Microsoft specifically. But Achuthanandan was keen to develop the state as a"free and open software systems destination,"Baby told The Associated Press. "It is our stated policy that only free software should be used for IT education in Kerala's schools. The government is introducing Linux based software as tools to teach various subjects,"Baby told the Associated Press on Thursday. The decision to switch to Linux came after free software guru Richard Stallman, founder of the open-source GNU software project, visited Kerala two weeks ago, and persuaded officials to discard proprietary software, such as Microsoft, at state-run schools, Baby said. Despite the denials that Microsoft was the target, opposition leader M.A. Shahnawaz, of the Congress party, said he believed the decision was based on the communists'opposition to the software giant's products. He cited the communists'opposition to a Microsoft-supported computer training program that the Congress party enacted in 2002 when it ruled the state. "I think schools should be given the option to choose whether teachers are to be trained in Linux systems or Microsoft,"Shahnawaz said. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com fredericknoronha(a)gmail.com

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Fwd: [ILUG-GOA] Indian state to bypass Microsoft 'monopoly'
by Vimal Joseph 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Edgar D' Souza Date: Aug 30, 2006 3:19 PM Subject: [ILUG-GOA] Indian state to bypass Microsoft 'monopoly' To: ilug-goa(a)yahoogroups.com " In a new attack on multinational corporations, the Communist government in India's southern state of Kerala is campaigning to eliminate Microsoft from use in public institutions, just weeks after it imposed a ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi. " http://news.com.com/Indian+state+to+bypass+Microsoft+monopoly/2100-1016_3-6… Naturally, Linux is the shoo-in replacement that the Kerala government is encouraging schools to use. the GNU/Linux distribution made for Schools can be downloaded from : http://www.edugrid.ac.in/webfolder/download/schoolGnu/slgnu.html

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olpc
by Kush 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5745842945.html are any indian state govts part of this?

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Defective By Design on orkut
by പ്രവീണ ്‍‌ (P raveen) എ (A) 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

About DefectiveByDesign We Oppose DRM! DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based anti-DRM campaign that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. The campaign aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled products to market. DRM products have features built-in that restrict what jobs they can do. These products have been intentionally crippled from the users' perspective, and are therefore "defective by design". This campaign will identify these "defective" products, and target them for elimination. Our aim is the abolition of DRM as a social practice. To view the 'Defective By Design' community page on orkut, visit: http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=19514479 -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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delete
by satish reddy 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

pl delete my id from the mailing list. tks satish reddy --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.

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Re: [Fsf-friends] from Bangalore GPLv3
by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

> FSF India, made 300 bags for each registered participant, we also made > 300 peices of specially embroidered 'kurta' which were on sale at > Rs. 250/-. Is any piece still remaining unsold? If yes, can it be bought by someone who is a FOSS enthusiast, but did not register for the conference? Regards, Debarshi -- Don't be humble ... you're not that great. -- Golda Meir

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[Photos] International Conference on GPLv3, IIM, Bangalore, August 23-24, 2006
by Shakthi Kannan 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

Greetings! The photos that I took at the International Conference on GPLv3 on August 23-24, 2006 at IIM, Bangalore are available here: http://www.shakthimaan.com/Mambo/gallery/album36 Regards, SK -- Shakthi Kannan http://www.shakthimaan.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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APC CHRIS NICOL FOSS PRIZE IN 2007
by Fouad Riaz Bajwa 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

=============================================================== ANNOUNCING THE APC CHRIS NICOL FOSS PRIZE IN 2007 Making it easy to use free and open source software =============================================================== The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognises initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize will be awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users. The APC FOSS Prize has been established to honor Chris Nicol, a long time FOSS advocate and activist who for many years worked with APC. We are looking for initiatives that: * improve the accessibility to, knowledge of and/or usability of FOSS * are user-oriented * are documented so that others can learn from and replicate the model * have demonstrable impact and have increased the number of people using FOSS on a day-to-day basis THE PRIZE IS OPEN TO: Any person or group anywhere in the world who supports or promotes user-oriented free and open source software. The application form must be completed in either English or Spanish however there are no language restrictions regarding the language of the project. Small-scale activities are encouraged to apply. THE PRIZE: US$ 4,000.00 may be shared by up to two initiatives at the jury's discretion. DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: March 30 2007 MORE ABOUT THE APC CHRIS NICOL FOSS PRIZE: http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol http://www.apc.org/espanol/chrisnicol or write to fossprize(a)apc.org ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION FOR PROGRESSIVE COMMUNICATIONS (APC) http://www.apc.org The Association for Progressive Communications is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of information and communication technologies, especially internet-technologies. =============================================================== Courtesy of _______________________________________________ APCNews mailing list APCNews(a)lists.apc.org http://lists.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/apcnews Forwarded for information by ----------------------- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan ® Secretariat Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-5030039 E-Mail: bajwa(a)fossfp.org URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.5/426 - Release Date: 8/23/2006

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from Bangalore GPLv3
by Nagarjuna 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Many of you attended the fourth GPLv3 Conference held at Bangalore. We thank you for your interest and attending the conference which made it a success. Many of you actively participated in the discussion, which made the event even more interesting and useful. We continued informal discussion till late evening. Many of you opted not to attend the conference. As a registered participant this meant several things for the event. Those who opted not to attend the conference, and did not inform us in advance, actually were squatting on the empty seats in the auditorium. We had only 270 seats in the auditorium. Since the registration was overwhelming, we had to inform the new registrations which were still pouring in, 'to say sorry, we are already full.' So we said registrations are closed. Your gesture of supporting this event by registration actually turned out to be a way of disrupting the event. FSF India, made 300 bags for each registered participant, we also made 300 peices of specially embroidered 'kurta' which were on sale at Rs. 250/-. We expected this way we could make up for the expenses. We had ordered for more food, and tea. You could understand how your action of opting out of the conference added a lot of discomfort to the organizers who were working hard for the last several days. We apologize on behalf of the foundation for those who were denied registrations, and could not attend. Thankfully, the volunteers at IIMB and FSF India made efforts to record the event. You will all get to hear and, most likely, see the proceedings of the event. If you had come, the event would have been more successful. In the events to come, please give us more substantial support. Thanking you Nagarjuna G. Chairman, FSF India.

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