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INDIA: What the President Told Bill Gates (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 17 Aug '03

17 Aug '03

What the President Told Bill Gates By Keya Acharya BANGALORE, INDIA (PANOS) - In November 2002, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on India's nuclear scientist-turned President, APJ Abdul Kalam, at the grand presidential palace in New Delhi. But what was billed as a salubrious meeting of minds - the head of the world's largest software company meeting a visionary 'techie' President - apparently turned into a "difficult" occasion. In a stunning speech delivered to software engineers in May, Kalam disclosed that in his conversation with Gates, the President pitched for open-source software codes - which are available for alteration so anyone with the technical knowledge can change the programme to suit their needs. "Our discussion became difficult since our views were different," Kalam added in an allusion to Microsoft's reported reservation to such 'non-proprietary' software. Much more was in store for Kalam's audience - typical of the breed of bright young engineers who have turned India into a leading Information Technology nation. "The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions," the President lectured. "Further spread of IT which is influencing the daily life of individuals would have a devastating effect on the lives of society due to any small shift in the business practice involving these proprietary solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open-source software needs to be built which would be cost effective for the entire society. In India open-source-code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people." The remarks by Kalam, who believes in linking human and economic development with science and technology, address an important issue in the development of information technologies, particularly in poor countries. The issue is whether countries such as India, which are pluralistic and have large poor populations, should opt for expensive proprietary software such as Microsoft (which cannot be altered) or go for cheap or free non-proprietary software that can be changed around to suit the needs of a diverse multi-lingual nation. Of equal concern is the loss of choice, or freedom, that proprietary technology imposes on democratic governments by controlling the programming codes of, and being privy to, official government projects. Open-source programming would remedy this, as well as allow local adaptations. Globally, open-source software has not caught on in a big way, but it has notched up some successes. Countries in which legislation has been passed urging open-source use include Brazil, France, Italy and Spain. Countries in which non-legislative actions have been taken include China, Germany and South Korea. And among other countries where open source solutions are being proposed are Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Venezuela. Abhas Abhinav, a young IT entrepreneur in India's technology capital of Bangalore, explains the features of an open-source software package called Knoppix: "It's very simple. You have the same features as in a Microsoft Windows application; you get secure, virus-free, regional-language options in inexpensively-priced systems." Abhinav runs DeepRoot Linux, a software company that developed Knoppix for a radically different computer operating system: GNU/Linux. It is the result of a dedicated group of computer programmers who set out to create an open-source, free-software alternative to industry giants like Microsoft and Macintosh. Members of India's open-source movement take time off to visit your office or home and demonstrate GNU/Linux - for free. India, with its IT sector employing half a million people and generating an annual income of $10 billion, represents a huge growth market in software. Nevertheless, commercial for-profit software - or 'proprietary' software - still rules in India, especially within government departments. According to Bob Hayward, Vice President (Asia-Pacific) of Gartner Research Services, the Indian government spent $1 billion on IT in 2002. "Microsoft now controls the database of various government servers," says Abhinav. "Apart from losing intellectual property rights, proprietary domination restricts technology-dissemination." Abhinav touches on the concern that government departments will become 'locked in' to a system of unalterable software with source-codes that are untouchable. Not having access to the source-code means that not only do you never completely understand the system, but also that you may end up being controlled by the software itself - and, by extension, the software manufacturers. Not only that, but proprietary systems cost money. In India, as in all developing countries, most people cannot afford commercial systems and the software that goes with them. So, with a proprietary setting in a poor country, the number of people who can afford to be IT-connected will remain small, with implications for economic growth and development. But such concerns are rarely articulated by Indian leaders, Kalam being a notable exception. In the south, where India's IT initiatives were pioneered, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state - the media-savvy, laptop-toting Chandrababu Naidu - invited Bill Gates to set up his India office in the IT corridor of the capital Hyderabad. Among many members of India's ruling elite, Gates is seen as the most important international personality after the President of the United States. Gates has returned the complement. He has visited India thrice - in 1997, 2000 and 2002 - each time making significant donations to charities and meeting with high-level authorities. Every visit has received saturation media coverage. In September 2000, 10 Indian chief ministers fell over themselves to heap praises on Gates after a luncheon meeting with him in New Delhi. During the 2002 visit, at four days the longest so far, Gates donated $100 million to the fight against AIDS, although Gates has said there is no connection between his business and charity work. Microsoft's India office in New Delhi did not answer queries from Panos Features on whether its business strategy for India complies with the anti-predatory and anti-monopolistic business practices being imposed on it in various states in the United States. But the company did issue this official statement from its headquarters in Redmond, US: "Microsoft is committed to helping governments develop strong, sustainable IT infrastructures that deliver ease of use, value through innovative technology, a clear roadmap for future development, and access to source-code to improve security and implementation. At the end of the day, we believe Microsoft offers the best overall option of value, integration, interoperability and support, without complexity or added dependency on services." An overwhelming 91% of government departments in New Delhi use Microsoft's Windows 98 software; nearly 67% use Windows XP; with a mere 16% using GNU/Linux according to a report in the Economic Times newspaper in India in April. Some thinkers view the issue of 'software localization' in political terms. In many nations, says Prof. Kenneth Keniston of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, the dominant positions in society are held by cosmopolitan, internationally-oriented business, professional and intellectual elites. "For them, 'localization' to vernacular languages and local cultures may be unnecessary and/or even undesirable, since English (or French, or Spanish, or another European language) may provide the best possible access to the rest of the world." In Karnataka state, with Bangalore as its capital, officials pass the buck as to why proprietary software rules its roost. "Our Technical Advisory Panel selected the best available options during the time," says the state government's IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni. Yet sources within the Panel - a mix of scientists, management and technical experts - speak of being presented with no alternatives. The e-networking tender for the state government's secretariat, for instance, insisted it use only Microsoft Windows, while Panel members preferred Sun Microsystems' Lotus Notes or Star Office. The costs are telling: Star Office 5.2 is free, while 6.0 costs about $45 per license (or computer) without an expiry date. Microsoft 2000 costs the government approximately $375 per license, after a discount of roughly $100. The license expires after three years, at which point the government has to buy anew. Rajeev Chawla, Karnataka's newly-designated 'E-Secretary' (head of an E-Governance department that is independent of the IT department), is dismissive of the costs of proprietary software. "Don't tell me to constrain myself when my software costs are just 5% of my total finances," he said. The costs involved may be a small part of government budgets, but activists say using only proprietary software at government departments restricts choice and sends the wrong signals to ordinary people. There are other costs. One IT official told Panos Features on condition of anonymity that the Karnataka government's decision to pay Microsoft Rs. 3.3 million (approx. $700,000) to have some of its software declared 'non-pirated', has caused debate within its Technical Advisory Panel. Sunil Abraham, whose Bangalore-based firm Mahiti customises open-source products for non-governmental organisations, believes there must be greater transparency and civil society participation on IT issues in India. "We need independent audits set up to monitor e-governance because civil society has no information on what is going on," says Abraham./PANOS June, 2003 * 1,470 words Keya Acharya is a Bangalore-based Indian journalist specialising in development and environmental issues. The Panos Institute * Visit our website at www.panos.org.uk 9 White Lion Street * London N1 9PD * UK * Phone: + (44) 207-239 7609

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Query about Hurd from Mumbai
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 17 Aug '03

17 Aug '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Send Linuxers mailing list submissions to linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to linuxers-request(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in You can reach the person managing the list at linuxers-owner(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Linuxers digest..." ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 23:52:04 +0530 From: "Ripunjay Bararia $ILUG-MUM$" <ilug-mum(a)ddcpl.com> Subject: RE: [ILUG-BOM] Hurd Cd's To: "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" <linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in> Message-ID: <BJEKKGAJGPCMOKBIPBNPKEHKDIAA.ilug-mum(a)ddcpl.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Send link to ISO images will keep them on download for you. Ripunjay Bararia -----Original Message----- From: linuxers-bounces(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in [mailto:linuxers-bounces@mm.ilug-bom.org.in]On Behalf Of Apurva Mehta Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 12:56 To: Linuxers Subject: [ILUG-BOM] Hurd Cd's Hi, Is there anyone here who has Debian GNU/Hurd cd's? (preferably the K4 release). I have tried the vendors listed at http://www.gnu-india.org/ but that is a dead end. I tried emailing a couple of people off this list but that has not led anywhere. It seems terribly hard to find Hurd cd's in Mumbai. On a dial-up line, downloading is unfortunately not a viable option. If someone does have the cd's and is willing to sell copies to me, please let me know. Thanks, - Apurva -- http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 00:50:45 +0530 From: Apurva Mehta <apurva(a)gmx.net> Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Hurd Cd's To: ilug-mum(a)ddcpl.com, "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" <linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in> Message-ID: <20030807192045.GA2828(a)home.woodlands> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii * Ripunjay Bararia (ILUG-MUM) <ilug-mum(a)ddcpl.com> [08-08-2003 00:36]: > Send link to ISO images will keep them on download for you. Thanks, but I have already the same offer off the list and have accepted it. Yours is the third one I have got. You guys are really helpful :) Regards, - Apurva ------------------------------

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NEWS: Cheaper Linux makes rapid strides in India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 17 Aug '03

17 Aug '03

Cheaper Linux makes rapid strides in India By Sumeet Chatterjee, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) Linux, a low-cost and lesser-known operating system with growing corporate use and backing by cash-strapped state governments, has caught on in India, diluting the monopoly of the mighty Microsoft. With a penguin as its mascot, Linux can be bought for a few hundred rupees or downloaded free from the Internet and the same software can be copied across dozens or hundreds of computers, unlike its proprietary counterparts such as Microsoft's Windows. One can also modify the software programme code to suit individual needs. While Microsoft say Windows is far ahead in terms of security and user convenience, supporters of the open source software, which no one owns, highlight its cost advantage and flexibility for a developing economy like India. According to a study conducted by Red Hat India, a Linux vendor, the Linux operating system will be installed in 200,000 desktop personal computers in India by December 2003. "Deployed on a large scale, Linux will save India a large amount of money," said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). He added that the open source movement was making rapid strides in India with the developer community evincing interest in the platform. "But looking ahead, I don't think it is going to be an either/or kind of situation. Both Microsoft's Windows and Linux will have their own markets in the country and the future of the Indian computing system will be a mix of the two," Karnik told IANS. According to an official study, only 16 percent of the central government offices currently use Linux as a platform but this is expected to grow manifold in the coming years. A number of states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra are either implementing or proposing to launch e-government projects using Linux operating system as the platform. "One reason for the growth of Linux in the last 18 to 24 months in India is that every company - particularly small and medium-sized - wants to cut costs," says Atul Chitnis, an advisor to the Bangalore Linux Users' Group and chief technology officer of Exocore Consulting. Enthused by Linux's cost advantage, the central government has unveiled a Linux India Initiative, which will include encouragement of free software solutions at the educational level. The Karnataka state government has decided to use Linux for its ambitious Mahiti Sindhu programme, which seeks to computerise 1,000 primary schools in different parts of the state. "It definitely has a very bright future. Over time, it is bound to dominate both Microsoft and Sun," said Vivek Kulkarni, secretary in the Karnataka government's IT ministry. "It is cost effective and except for the lack of Linux programmers, there is really no other problem in it being used in e-governance projects," he said. The treasury department of the Madhya Pradesh government has spent Rs.400 million for installation of computers with Linux software in their offices. The state government has also spent nearly Rs.200 million to install 6,000 computer systems in schools across the state with the Linux software as part of its Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission. West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd., the state's nodal IT body, has also formed a Linux cell to support various official IT projects in and outside the state. On the corporate front, global tech giant IBM is likely to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka government to set up a Linux software development centre at Hubli. Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software company, is reportedly planning to set up a Linux lab in its Delhi facility. The Linux movement in India is being helped by thousands of volunteer programmers who are pushing for the source code to be available freely to anyone who wants to tweak it to suit his or her own needs. Nasscom says that the rapid proliferation of Linux in worldwide markets, among large enterprises, is finding an echo in the Indian market as well. "Linux has a lot to offer to business users - stability, completeness, and support. These are three major issues for any corporation that needs to depend on its computers," said Chitnis of the Bangalore Linux Users' Group. Chitnis said that Linux, with its intrinsic strength as an easily customisable operating system, could well be used to spark off an Indian language software revolution in the country that envelopes and percolates down to the grass-root levels. --Indo-Asian News Service

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Low-cost [GNU]Linux gaining on Microsoft in India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Aug '03

16 Aug '03

The usual misunderstanding between the kernel ("Linux, created by Finland's Linus Torvalds...") and the operating system. But some pointers do come up. FN Low-cost Linux gaining on Microsoft in India Reuters Bangalore, August 11 Vijay Shekhar, who runs a team of 60 people sending scores to cricket-crazy fans through India's booming cellphone networks, feared that using cheap Linux software for his business could cause problems. Instead, Shekhar says he loves the Linux operating system after paying only a tenth of the Rs 4,00,000 cost of the competing Windows package from Microsoft Corp. About 10 per cent of India's personal computers will be sold with Linux rather than Microsoft operating systems by March, 2004, says Linux distributor Red Hat Inc, up from nothing in January. Besides the plain switch of desktop operating systems to Linux, analysts say the bigger worry for Microsoft is the growing use of Linux among India's pool of an estimated 400,000 software developers, many of whom churn out code for giants such as General Motors and American Express. Linux could use India as a back door into the lucrative global business software market as Indian programmers, hunting for low-cost programming tools, use it as their basic system and introduce it to customers. Indian programmers are at the epicentre of a global boom in outsourcing of business software programming, back office and call centre services. India now has 60 per cent of the offshore IT services market, which consultant Gartner estimates is worth $16 billion. "India is a key battleground for Microsoft as it tries to get a pool of developers loyal to its computing platform," said Partha Iyengar, director at market researcher Gartner India. But analysts say it will be tough for Linux to take a stranglehold in the key software of big firms. Microsoft cites the ease of use, security and support as key factors that give Windows dominance of personal computers and servers, while Linux still has a small percentage of the global market. Once a fringe interest for programmers and professors, Linux, created by Finland's Linus Torvalds, now has a market share of about 20 per cent of servers -- the workhorse computers that feed websites, email and other data to desktop PCs. "Commercial users have moved from a stage of pilot runs and experiments to doing serious business on Linux systems," said S Sabyasachi, analyst at industry researcher IDC India. Linux advocates say open-source software is ideal for India, whose population of more than one billion means labour is cheap but personal computers are a lot less affordable. New versions of Windows often require newer computers with more memory and speed. GOVERNMENT BACKING Linux already drives the National Stock Exchange, where day traders have taken the top slot from the Bombay Exchange. Linux is also the favourite of the national agency making supercomputers and Bombay's Breach Candy Hospital. "Linux is so reliable that it helps our department give an impression we have all the time in the world," said Dilip Desai, IT manager of the seaside hospital which serves affluent clients. Linux enthusiasts are upbeat. "We are not seeing large replacements of Microsoft's software with Linux, but it is happening in bits and pieces," said Atul Chitnis, a senior adviser to the Bangalore Linux Users' Group. Linux users say a four-day visit to India last November by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who announced $400 million in local investments, drew attention to Linux. The cash-strapped federal government has launched a "Linux India Initiative" to use the system in schools and state agencies. "Open source fits perfectly with India's needs," said S Ramakrishnan, director at India's IT ministry. Seventy per cent of India's 1.05 billion people live in rural areas, and the nation has only eight million PCs. Companies like Red Hat, which sell standardized versions of Linux, are thrilled. "We see an immense opportunity here," said Sachin Dabir, who heads enterprise sales at Red Hat in India Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_335799,00030001.htm

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Wealth of corporate secrets on the Web...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

WEALTH OF CORPORATE SECRETS ON THE WEB Many documents posted online may contain sensitive corporate or personal information, according to AT&T researcher Simon Byers, who was able to unearth hidden information from thousands of Microsoft Word documents posted on the Web using an ordinary search engine and a random selection of keywords. Byers targeted Word documents because they're so common, but he stressed that other document formats, such as Adobe PDF, may contain similar hidden information. After downloading the Word files, Byer used the free software tools "antiword" and "catdoc" to convert them to plain text. Then, using a simple script he wrote, Byers was able to locate text that had been deleted from the original Word files, including people's names and other personal identifiers, e-mail headers, network paths and text from related documents. "The worst is erased text. This has bitten people surprisingly often," says Bruce Schneier, a security expert with Counterpane. Microsoft Office UK marketing manager Neil Laver says the company is working on ways to better ensure sensitive information is not inadvertently leaked in files. The next version of Office 2003 will include tools that will allow users to remove personal information from documents as well as new "information rights management" software that will enable an author to determine who can read or forward a document. Meanwhile, Schneier recommends converting documents to plain ASCII before publishing online: "I don't know of any programs that effectively clean out the extra text." (New Scientist 15 Aug 2003) http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994057

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Happy birthday Debian...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

*********************************************** Debian is 10 tomorrow Saturday sees the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Debian project - over 1,100 registered free software developers, over 12,000 binaries and the distribution is still going strong. There are parties taking place all over the world, with the UK event taking place in Cambridge. It's all back to Steve McIntyre's place - but it looks like accommodation on his floor may be limited, so it might be a good idea to book a local bed and breakfast establishment... http://the.earth.li/~huggie/cgi-bin/moin/Debian10thBirthday _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ LinuxUser mailing list LinuxUser(a)www.linux.org.uk http://www.linux.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/linuxuser

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[Fsf-friends] CBSE and AICTE promoting MicroSoft (from india-e-gov list) (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 07:17:58 +0530 From: Atul Asthana @ Home <atulasthana(a)gmx.net> Subject: CBSE and AICTE promoting Micro$oft A lesson in how to sell your product and make it the defacto standard. When countries like Pakistan have officially decided to use Linux and open source softwares for all governmental organisations, we in India are officially promoting M$. Take the case of basic education. The CBSE syllabus officially wants the students to learn and use M$ products. for facts goto www.cbse.nic.in and check for syllabus of computer science, information practices. Similar is the case with AICTE. Hats off to our country, we really know how to splurge money for the wrong reason. I am looking for people who will help in pressurising CBSE and AICTE to change the syllabus to generic applications viz Learn a spreadsheet NOT SPECIFICALLY M$ EXCEL and so on. Any volunteers may please contact me off the list at atul(a)cheerful.com The open source tools are so similar, that a student (and at that age, the learning time is very short) will not feel any difficulty. _______________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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Announcement: Release of Calpp Beta Version 1
by Ramanraj K 15 Aug '03

15 Aug '03

Dear Friends, Calpp Beta Version 1 has been released and can be downloaded from gborg at ftp://gborg.postgresql.org/pub/calpp/stable/calpp_1.0.0.tar.gz Calpp: Computer Aided Legal Procedures and Proceedings Calpp aids in defining legal procedures and executing those procedures as proceedings. Calpp uses Postgresql and PHP to create Calpp powered legal systems. Calpp relies on three tables: procedures -> steps -> particulars to store all details about its procedures, and correspondingly three tables: proceedings -> events -> assertions to store all details about the proceeding. Calpp may also be used in any field where the rules can be listed for execution and application. Calpp powered medicine, Calpp powered surgical procedures, Calpp powered irrigation systems, Calpp powered schools, Calpp powered research and development, Calpp powered story telling and many more Calpp powered systems can be devised for practical use. Calpp is simple, sturdy and stable. The Calpp project is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Calpp has several features including: * Legal procedures are logically and accurately stored and executed as proceedings * All details of the procedures and proceedings can be indexed and viewed from a variety of angles. * A set of data validation, conversion and manipulation functions are available for easy use in proceedings. * Calpp makes rules explicit and we can see what is going on at a glance. * Password authentication to access This beta release has the minimal set of features required to maintain and run most legal procedures and proceedings with the aid of computers. The word proceedings is used here to mean every use of the law, and any clear set of rules. It concerns all of us. A least complex solution to suit the most complex nature of law has been attempted here. No legal procedures in force are provided for now, but it can be used to create procedures and run them as proceedings. Your interest and participation in the calpp project will shape both Calpp and the way we choose to live. Regards, K. Ramanraj. 2003-08-15

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[Fsf-friends] [ot][jobs][commercial] admin who understands gnu-linux + routing + switching @ l3/l4
by Trevor Warren 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

Hiyee folks, Following is the requirement. >> 3-4 Years of experience in the Industry >> NO FRESHERS >> Hardcore GNU - Linux Knowledge >> Knowledge of Cisco IOS and capability to work with CISCO/BAY/3COM Routers and configure them for the network >> Knowlede of L3/L4 switching capability and previous experience/exposure on the same. >> Most Important is the capability to Interface with the customer and help iron out Technical/Techo-commercial Issues >> Experience on the ISP front will be an added advantage. >> RHCE Will be an added advantage. Those interested can get in touch with me on twarren(a)redhat.com at the earliest. Thanks for the help vivek. Trevor ===== ( >- -< ) /~\ __ Gnu/Linux, Its all about Choice __ /~\ | \) / trevorwarren(a)softhome.net \ (/ | |_|_ \ PreSales-Technical Engineer Red Hat / _|_| \___________________________________/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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For FSF..
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Aug '03

06 Aug '03

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'Chinese' CPU for Linux PCs
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 06 Aug '03

06 Aug '03

Hong Kong firm offers 'Chinese' CPU for Linux PCs By Peter Clarke Semiconductor Business News HONG KONG -- Culturecom Holdings Ltd., a publisher of Chinese language "fighting" comics that migrated into information technology in the 1990s, has begun selling its V-Dragon microprocessor for use in Chinese PCs. Culturecom, which listed on Hong Kong's stock exchange, professes links to Transmeta Corp. and IBM Corp. A report on Culturecom's Web site when the first reports surfaced said transactions in its shares were suspended on July 23 pending an announcement on a cooperation effort with eForce Group and Transmeta to exploit the Linux-based Midori operating system. The V-Dragon CPU incorporates support for Chinese-language characters, according to the company. It was unveiled at an event held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, the company said. The company said it signed agreements for the sale of about 100,000 V-Dragon CPUs, and letters of intent related to the sale of an additional 200,000 V-Dragon CPUs on the first day of the trade show. According to Culturecom's Web site, the V-Dragon was developed with help from IBM and has been designed to run the Midori variant of the Linux operating system. In addition, the V-Dragon CPU was specifically developed to meet criteria established by the Chinese government as part of a standard information technology environment for China, Culturecom said. "This V-Dragon Midori Linux embedded architecture is a leading system of its kind in the China market and is in line with the Chinese government's IT policy. Culturecom is confident it will make a significant impact on market share with this new development," Frank Cheung, chairman of Culturecom, said in a statement. Speakers at the trade show opening ceremony included: Zheng Minzheng, director general of the department of electronics and information product administration in the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry; C.D. Tam, CEO of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp.; and Alexander Poon, chairman of The Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Asia.

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NEWS: GNU's twentieth birthday on savannah...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 03 Aug '03

03 Aug '03

------------------------------ From: "Vijay Kumar B." <ec10052(a)rect.ernet.in> Subject: [glug-t] GNU's Birthday on savannah. Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 12:38:28 GMT There is a project on savannah that calls itself "20th anniversary of the GNU Project". And here is what it says. "Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the GNU Project. Organize various events all over the world from 27th September 2003(when the initial announcement went out) until 5th January (when RMS quit his MIT job and actually started working on GNU)." So what are we waiting for. Lets do it guys! Pour in your suggestions. - Vijay Non-free* software sucks. - RMS * 'free' as in freedom.

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Using GNU/Linux code... and yet charging for it?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Jul '03

31 Jul '03

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Mandar wrote: > Hi! > Sry for distracting you people by asking you an 'off the mark'topic > as you guys/girls(?) must be busy preparing for Ecap.I heard about > Lindows,providing the stability of Linux as well as able to run > windows program,if so is it the next big thing to hit the market?? > I visited their site,I couldn't understand was if it were using linux > code then how can they charge for it. > I hope you people will provide me the facts about Lindows. > Mandar Hi Mandar, Thanks for your query. Even among some who have been in the group for long, there has been some confusion over what Free Software stands for. What does the term 'free' really mean in this context? Free-of-cost or freedom? Gratis or libre? Just for debate's sake: If you wrote a program using GPL'd code, would it be alright to: (i) sell it for a price? (ii) block anyone else from copying it? (iii) charge per-user licence fees? (iv) sell or share it without the source code? (v) improve it, sell it commercially, but hide the source code you've written? Also, to take the debate further -- what's the difference between Free Software and Open Source? Is there some difference in the licence(s)? Is there some difference in the approach and motivations guiding either of these movements, or is it just a different name for the same thing? Finally, do you think the GPL is a good licence for (i) individuals (ii) small firms (iii) corporations (iv) all of these (v) none of these? What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of the GPL as compared to the Open Source licences or other model licences? What could be the possible reasons for the popularity of the GPL among developers till date, if you perceive one? Hope you don't mind me 'answering' your questions with further questions! But I thought this could throw up some interesting debate, and also clarify issues. Others are welcome to participate... FN

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[Fsf-friends] NEWS-DELHI: MP brings computer-enabled education to rural schools...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Jul '03

29 Jul '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ HINDUSTAN TIMES: MP BRINGS COMPUTER-ENABLED EDUCATION TO RURAL SCHOOLS "'In the second phase we have used open source technology in which the main programme coding is available to all for modification, customisation and improvement. We are optimistic about its success too...'" COMPLETE STORY: http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_316881,000600030011.htm More Infrastructure stories: http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure ------------------------------------------------------------------ CNET NEWS: ASIAN LINUX: SOME KEEN, OTHERS COOL "Asia could leapfrog Western countries in the development of Linux-based applications, but some governments are not latching on to this opportunity, says a senior IBM executive..." COMPLETE STORY: http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5053537.html More Infrastructure stories: http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure ------------------------------------------------------------------

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by SEPSIT KANNUR 24 Jul '03

24 Jul '03

The source code of on-line banking solution for Co-operative banks developed by Open Software Solutions name 'Sanghamithra' which is distributed under General Public License (GPL) is available through the url http://www.atpskerala.org/Sanghamithra/ Regards, Social Entrepreneurship Promotion Society on Information Technology (SEPSIT), Reg No 463/2002, Dinesh Software Park, Kannur, Keralam, India - 670002, Telephone : 0497-712965 -- ______________________________________________ http://www.linuxmail.org/ Now with e-mail forwarding for only US$5.95/yr Powered by Outblaze

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NOT A JOKE
by syed ahmed shah 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

When I asked a friend What I should do to my propreitory UNIX package when I install GNU/LINUX. he replied "SCO WINDOW SE BAHAAR PHEK DO" ___________________________________________________ Download the hottest & happening ringtones here! OR SMS: Top tone to 7333 Click here now: http://sms.rediff.com/cgi-bin/ringtone/ringhome.pl

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GNULinuxInIndia * July 22, 2003
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

e88~~\ 888b | 888 | / 888 888 ,e, d888 |Y88b | 888 | L 888 888-~88e e88~\888 " /~~~8e 8888 __ | Y88b | 888 | I 888 888 888 d888 888 888 88b 8888 | | Y88b | 888 | N 888 888 888 8888 888 888 e88~-888 Y888 | | Y88b| Y88 | U 888 888 888 Y888 888 888 C888 888 "88__/ | Y888 "8__/ X 888 888 888 "88_/888 888 "88_-888 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Formerly LinuxInIndia * Compiled by: Frederick Noronha * July 22,2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- GETTING THE NEWS OUT... A new initiative with a South Asian focus. We invite all user-group coordinators, and also individuals interested in FLOSS evangelism to join a new network, called FLOSSToday. The idea is make sure that news about what happens in different parts of India percolates from one region to another. The list was initiated with the aim of making cross-pollination of ideas and events, announcements etc across India and elsewhere in South Asia. This list aims at being an *event-centric* announcement-list. Reports of meetings and events to be held or already held, and announcements of FLOSS special events, gatherings, tech sessions are welcome. Opinions, discussions, feature articles would be offtopic here. For further details contact Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay <sankarshanmukhopadhyay at vsnl.net> who has launched this initiative with support from the compiler of this newsletter (FN). Says Sankarshan: "Let's hope this can bind the fragmented nature of the FLOSS world in India." Flosstoday mailing list * Flosstoday(a)mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/flosstoday INTEREST FROM BRAZIL: Christiano Anderson <anderson(a)debian-rs.org> writes in from Brazil to say: "I have read the President in India talking about free software, this is a very positive action, and we would like to keep in touch with someone from government in India to discuss about free software initiatives and experience with people from the Brazilian government. We would like to invite someone from India government to talk about the free software experience in our next Free Software conference. Do you think it's possible? Who could talk to us about the experience in your country? Marcelo Branco is the coordinator of Free Software Project in Rio Grande do Sul, he is also discussing free software initiatives for the Brazilian government." THIS IS AN INTERESTING page featuring Microsoft in India -- including the Shiksha Microsoft e-learning initiative, and reports of Gates committing $21 million to IT projects. Also links to FLOSS in India, and "Microsoft against Open Source". http://www.gnacademy.org/twiki/bin/view/SOS/MicrosoftInIndia KUNAL <kunalbharati at yahoo.com> OF THE NORTH Mumbai GLUG has arranged a seminar on FLOSS in his college. Says he: "It would really help if you give me some ideas what I (could) do. I will be distributing KNOPPIX 3.2 CDs. I would appreciate if someone from you comes up with other good ideas..." Students do need more options, any help would be welcome. DESI (India-linked) names continue to make news in the FLOSS movement worldwide. Guess who was making news when a new Debian Project Leader was elected by a narrow margin recently? Manoj Srivastava, the General Secretary of the Debian Project, who was credited with putting in the "work (that) had made the election possible". See the discussion on the debian-devel-announce list (lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2003/debian-devel-announce- 200303/msg00025.html) FROM GOA ANIMESH N Nerurkar <banduji(a)gmx.net> has announced plans for stepping up activities of the TUG-Goa network. On Saturday July 26, Prof (Ms) Kshama Fernandes will demonstrate the power of PDFLaTeX or LaTeX itself. Plans are also underway for activities in the academic circles of this small state on the west coast of India, otherwise better known as a touristic destination. All are welcome. SURAJ KUMAR <suraj(a)symonds.net> has on offer a copy of speeches on Free Software and Software Patents, downloaded from gnu.org. Says he: "I have cut a CD out of it. Unfortunately this collection does not contain RMS's speech at Chennai (Madras Institute of Technology) made on March 13th, 2002. However its worth noting that most of the speeches carry the same message (the only differences being the humour that he adds to various speeches)." See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html The CD also bundles two of GnuPress published books: * Free Software, Free Society - http://www.gnu.org/doc/book13.html * Free as in Freedom - http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ Also included are the web pages from http://gnu.org/philosophy/ and http://gnu.org/licenses/ LATEX WORKSHOP AT PUNE: Thanks to H S Rai <hsraidce(a)iitr.ernet.in> for this pointer. Read the detailed report of the Latex workshop held at Pune, western India during 9-14 July, which was jointly organised by Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana and Dept. of Maths, University of Pune. http://www.tug.org.in/download/pune-workshop-report.pdf or visit news item of the index page of www.tug.org.in FLOSS IN THE THIRD WORLD: Open Source practitioners from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America recently got together to produce a manifesto on the role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the development cooperation context. Asking all stakeholders to pay more attention to (FL)OSS, they argue that it has a special importance when viewed, used and produced in the context of development cooperation and should be employed wherever possible. http://sarai.waag.org/display.php?id=28 E-BOOK: Prashanth CM <prashpro(a)yahoo.com> has announced his e-book on the Vieditor. Says he: "I have compiled an e-book on using vi-editor. Please go through this book and please send me comments. I know there are lots of corrections (required)..." Contact him for details. GIMP AND CMYK: Subash Jeyan <nsjeyan(a)vsnl.net> notes that one of the major cribs about the gimp has long been that it doesn't support cmyk colour space. Now, says he, there is a plug that addresses this partially. If you're interested, have a look at: http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/projects/separate-0.1.tar.gz HONG "FRED" FENG, one of the active Free Software proponents in China whom some of us here in India are in touch with, says: "My work in Koretide will be ended on Jul 20, 2003, so pls redirect the emails to me from the list to hongfeng at gnu.org" AN iLINUX DISTRO: Jyotirmoy Saikia <jyotirmoy_saikia(a)yahoo.com> of PicoPeta Simputers (Bangalore) informs that IIT Kanpur has released an iLinux distribution. Please check the site: http:///www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/isciig and go to the link "download Indian Linux" MALAYALAM DESKTOP PLAN: Dileep M Kumar <dileep(a)kumarayil.net> says they are working on project to create a Malayalam desktop for GNU/Linux. Says he: "We believe MGL may help to popularize 'Freedom' into Kerala in a minimal way. We are looking for volunteers to help us to translate more applications. As a first step we are concentrating on GNOME now. Take a look at http://smc.sarovar.org" RESTLESS SOUL TREVOR WARREN FROM MUMBAI <trevorwarren at softhome.net> has come up with a new initiative -- building libraries of freely sharable Free Software. He's looking out for anyone to sponsor/sell at a reasonable rate, the following distros: * Debian * SuSE * Gentoo * Knoppix(en) * Yellow Dog * Slackware * Red Hat + SGI XFS * Lycoris * Mandrake (older releases) * trustix * turbolinux * LDP(www.tldp.org) * FreeBSD 5.0 * OpenBSD * Collection of FSF-OS ebooks-docs. * NetBSD * etc related to FSF-OS. Can help? Write to Trevor with a cc to "trevorwarren at softhome.net". Says he: Donations are welcome or if that isn't possible just lemme know the cost of the cd's and i will pay for the same. This is a bit urgent. FLOSS IN AFGHANISTAN: BBC recently reported that the United Nations is training civil servants in the intricacies of FLOSS software to help them get government computer systems up and running. The first civil servants to complete their training in Linux went back to work earlier this month. The UN hopes that training government workers to use [GNU] Linux will help the country close the technology gap that separates it from many other countries. Broadly free, Linux is becoming a favourite among many organisations who want greater control over what they can do with software. In contrast to Microsoft operating systems, Linux gives programmers much greater flexibility to scrutinise the core of the program and to adapt it to their own ends. FROM KERALA, Mahesh Pai <paivakil at vsnl.net> informs of a report in the local newspaper *Mathrubhumi* (page 11, Kochi edition, 17 July 2003) that sees the Opposition leader VS Achutanandan raise questions about the role of Microsoft in the IT@School project. The translation reads: "One of allegations raised by Achutanandan relate to the 'project siksha' of Microsoft which is part of the IT@SCHOOL. The project is worth Rs 10 crore (100 million rupees). It was made clear in the agenda note given to the general body that an IT academy will be set up in 3000 Square feet space and and teachers will be trained (here) to use Microsoft products. However, the leader of opposition pointed out that it is made clear in the agenda note that the 3000 sq. ft. space in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, which would fetch rent of Rupees 6,84,000 is to be handed over to Microsoft for mere one rupee. He also stated that due to the training, the teachers will be able to use only Microsoft's products." It adds: "At the same time, authorities of IT@SCHOOL informed that there is no block to use of 'swatantra' (Free) software in the project. But the problem is that there would be no training support available. They also point out that the government has directed that there shall not be any new appointments for the training." SCRIBUS 1.0 IS OUT: Programmer Franz Schmid has released Scribus 1.0 - the Linux Desktop Publishing. Two years in development and available in 17 languages, Scribus represents the first open source DTP application capable of generating professional "press-ready" results. Unicode support including support for right to left scripts. Can export CMYK separations and "press-ready" PDF including PDF 1.4 features such as transparency. Scribus Home Page: http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/ and mirrored at: http://scribus.planetmirror.com LIC OF INDIA SHIFTS TO FLOSS: The Life Insurance Corporation has shifted to a Linux operating system on the heels of pinpricks experienced with a Unix system, according to LIC officials. At a media gathering to introduce LIC's new pension policy, Mr R.R. Nair, Additional Zonal Manager, said "we are shifting over to Linux; almost 75 per cent of the branches have shifted". http://thehindubusinessline.com/stories/2003071501310700.htm PUNJAB LINUX USERS GROUP: Jaspreet Willy <plug(a)linuxmail.org> has started a user group for the Punjab region. Check out the Punjab Linux Users Group website: http://www.plug.willywings.com IN THE HOSPITAL: Dr G Parthasarathy <gpartha72 at vsnl.net> from a Kochi hospital in South India writes: "I am a pathologist, also the IT Officer and Sysadmin of the hospital networkj of a 316 bed hospital in Kochi. We are currently running NT 4.0 with a proprietary hospital management software on the hospital's 65 node network. I am not quite happy with the state of affairs and want to port it all to Linux which is more robust and much cheaper a solution. I wish to learn more about other hospitals like Breach Candy who have used GNU/Linux with Open Source Hospital Information Systems on their hospital networks." DR BUD P BRUEGGAR (bud at sistema.it) of Sistema (www.sistema.it) in Italy writes in to suggest: "Probably the most complete site on open source in health-care can be found at http://www.euspirit.org/. Among other resources, there is a software index at http://www.euspirit.org/list.php. FROM THE IIT-BOMBAY, Prof Siva <siva at iitb.ac.in> says: "Thanks much for the mail about FLOSS in Asia.... Regarding interesting work at IITB, let me start with two students (who can later put you in touch with others). Nandan Dixit (nandan at cse.iitb.ac.in) see xmmsmplayer.sourceforge.net for his work and Nilesh Bansal (nilesh at cse.iitb.ac.in) along with others is working on KDE localization." See http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~siva WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE SIMPUTER FRONT? Perhaps the FLOSS lobby has been guilty of ignoring it. Edward Cherlin <edward.cherlin at etssg.com> explains all the way from the US that Africa Digital Bridges is the Simputer distributor for the Middle East and Africa http://www.simputerland.com/appmaster/m.partners.view.asp?pcode=AA0024 Cherlin is also setting up to recruit development partners for Simputer applications in the US. Says he: "I have Simputers here in Silicon Valley, and can demonstrate them for you. You can find Encore's European partners at http://www.simputerland.com/appmaster/m.partnerlist.asp" There is also "a lot" happening in development and field trials. Says he: "I am working with a developer of literacy software in the US to produce a Free Linux version. The current program is for US English only. It can easily be adapted to other forms of English, and we will work on software for other languages as well." FREE SOFTWARE, AND THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM-4 IN MUMBAI: Diego Saravia <dsa at unsa.edu.ar> writes in from distant Argentina to say: "I am searching for people in india related to the World Social Forum and Free Software, I see your bytesforall.org web site and I wonder if you could help me." Incidentally the WSF4 is being held in Mumbai(Bombay)-India in early 2004. Free Software advocates hope to deploy their solutions and raise issues at this global meet of activists there. See www.hipatia.info - info(a)hipatia.info - www.fsm.hipatia.info Fsm2004 mailing list Fsm2004(a)hipatia.info http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsm2004 JOIN OUR Latin American (and other) friends in an initiative to harness the power of Free Software for free speech and knowledge! Writes Martin Olivera <martin_olivera(a)yahoo.com.ar> from Argentina: "At first (this mailing list) was intended to organize the Hipatia (www.hipatia.info) participation in the WSF4 (World Social Forum 4). The main objective of Hipatia is the freedom of knowledge, leveraging free software as the key tool to do this. In this way, this list would like coordinate efforts to fulfill WSF4 software necessities (web, mail, communications, news, virtual spaces, anything...) using only free software, cooperating worldwide." WSF4 is to be held in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in January 2004. Do join this mailing list. It is open to everyone who could participate anyway for this: coordination, local (India-based) support, resources, free software selection/development/adaptation, content manmagement..." What possibilities we think of is restricted only by your imagination! FN List-Subscribe: http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsm2004 OR mailto: <fsm2004-request(a)hipatia.info?subject=subscribe> AT SCHOOLS, IN GOA: Daryl Martyris <dmartyris(a)hotmail.com> of the Goa Schools Computers Project says that 20 schools use the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) solution in Goa. "About 40 more use standalone Linux, and about 40 use Windows This link might give you an idea of cost comparison's - http://www.gscp.org/linux.htm " INDIAN LANGUAGE TOOLS: Prof Nagarjuna G <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> reports that a team of students are to be working on Indianisation of Mozilla. Says Sayamindu Dasgupta <unmadindu(a)Softhome.net> : "I have no idea about the coding procedures followed by the mozilla developers. However, I guess, it might help if the students take a look at the sources of already working tools (for Indian language computing), like Yudit, QT 3.2, Pango, etc." MAKING FLOSS SPEAK IN INDIAN LANGUAGES: Want to get GNU/Linux to speak your language? Visit the web page below that will tell you what are the words you need to translate http://www.indlinux.org/downloads/gnomegloss/GnomeGlossary.csv IN HINDI: Dinesh Shah <dinesh at shahmicro.com> writes: "We have GNU/Linux - Hindi Edition - Milan ver 0.5 CDs with us. This is a bootable CD based on Morphix. You can use it as demo CD or if you want you can install it on the harddisk. Those who are interested can buy it from me or Mr. Venkatesh Hariharan @ Rs. 30 each. We can mail it any where in India @ Rs. 50 inclusive of delivery charges. To learn more about Milan 0.5 CD, pls visit http://www.indlinux.org" Phone Shah +91-98213-11906 +91-22-56919423 PROGRESS OVER HINDI FONTS: Young font and web designers Avneesh Chhabra a.k.a. The Virus Shivaas Gulati a.k.a MaRiAnZ RuLe say "At last, after weeks of hard work filled with successes and failures, we have finally done it. We have come up with a new font that is totally handwritten. Feel free to use it anyway you want. Released under the LGPL license. Hope to get some good feedbacks. You can download the font from the ilug-d website's download section or from www.msmschool.com/hindi freehand.ttf They can be contacted via email fontdudes(a)rediffmail.com FREE FONTS: Want to create fonts on GNU/Linux? Check http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net/ S2S2 INITIATIVES IN KERALA: Sujeevan Pullanhiotan <sujeevan_p at rediffmail.com> reports that in June 2003, the Swathantra Software Solutions & Support( S2S2) conducted GNU/Linux awareness program at various colleges and schools in Kannur district of Kerala. Talks on "Free Software in Education" and demonstration on GNU/Linux system using Knoppix 3.2 bootable CD was arranged at all places. "It was well attended and appreciated by all," says he. A one-day orientation was held for 115 school teachers from government schools in Kannur and remote Wynad participating. A seminar on Free Software, Its Philosphy was held at Mahatma College, Iritty, Kannur, besides others. Feedback: "Programes were successful, in the sense that people at large got an idea of what free software is all about and what its impact will be on society. Both students and teachers were overwhelmed by the number of applications and packages available in GNU/Linux. For almost all of them, the use of computer is limited to only word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, music and movie playing. Students were found to be better in learning and trying out Linux. Teachers have a different complaint -- they would like to try out GNU/Linux in schools, but the school IT syllabus specifies properitary packages..." http://s2s2net.netfirms.com PUBLIC SECTOR FREE SOFTWARE INITIATIVES: Mitch Kapor and others have just announced a web site for public sector free software initiatives called http://www.opensector.org LINUX, TO THE FIELDS: J S Sandha <jsandha at vsnl.net> has been trying to weave two fields -- ICTs-for-development and R&D on agricultural tractors. Sandha would like to take a project www.jagriti.com over to using GNU/Linux-based networks, with no licensing issues and workable on lower PC configurations. www.jagriti.com CRITICAL FEEDBACK: Suman <mansu at gmx.net> has some critical feedback for the sarovar.org and the Project Resource Centre (http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc) initatives. Writes Suman: "It's good to see such sites coming up but i hava a few suggestions regarding this. As usual from the mail I see that nothing is different from sourceforge. These days the software that is being developed and hosted is pretty bloated, or they do not have any use or miss important features. Above all most of the work is being duplicated. Hence most of the free time of developers is wasted on projects which meet the needs of very few people and which in many cases is inadequate to do the job. Linux is maturing now so should the applications. Sarovar.org should be different. Why not host a module where people pour in their ideas so that interseted others can take them and work. PRC achieves this to a very small extent but it is no more helpful because it doesn't help answering the larger question.... The site can also host TODO lists of various projects seperately. In addition to the ideas that flow here another thing that could be done is the person who gives a suggestion should also give an idea of how to do it which helps the developer take an instant decision. Also, if some KDE/GNOME gurus put their ideas in they can ask people to write components which can be used by other programmers like bonobo for gnome. If the ideas are easy to formulate many engg. students will take it up for their projects. jus my two pence worth." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are welcome. Contact us at fred at bytesforall dot org COPYLEFT 2003. May be freely circulated provided entire text and credits is left intact. FN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPILED AND CIRCULATED BY: -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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IT@School - food for thought
by Mahesh T. Pai 17 Jul '03

17 Jul '03

Missed out this one till late in the day. Refer to today's (17 July, 2003) Mathrubhumi, (pg 11 in Cochin edition). Here is a summarized rough translation for non-malayalees:- IT project: Antony respects suggestion by VS, Soopy opposes. By B. Rameshkumar Education minister expressed dissatisfaction over action taken by the chief minister in postponing meeting on the ground that the objections raised by the leader of opposition are very serious. The minister had to meet the leader of opposition at his official residence to comply with the chief minister's directions These incidents relate to the IT@SCHOOL project. The law department also has raised certain objections. The general council of the project was scheduled to meet on 11th. Apart from the Chief Minister, secretaries and ministers of education, industry, IT, finance, and local administration arrived for the meet. The leader of opposition gave a detailed note to the Chief Minister 2 hours before the meet pointing out that there are serious traps in the memoranda of understanding proposed to be signed. The CM arrived at the meet with this note. The CM directed that there points raised in the note are serious, and the education minister should discuss the issue with him (leader of the opposition). He did not take up the agenda. Minister Soopy stated that it is not proper to postpone it in this manner. However, the CM stood his ground that the minister discuss the issue with leader of opposition. In the meanwhile, the IT secretary pointed out that the concerned file has not reached (her). Certain quarters advised the education minister that he need not go and meet the leader of opposition. But, Soopy agreed to honour the promise made to the general council by the CM. He talked with Achutanandan for one hour on Tuesday night. He (VS Achutanandan) stood firm on the doubts and concerns raised by him. One of allegations raised by Achutanandan relate to the 'project siksha' of Microsoft which is part of the IT@SCHOOL. The project is worth 10 crore rupees. It was made clear in the agenda note given to the general body that an IT academy will be set up in 3000 Square feet space and and teachers will be trained (here) to use Microsoft products. However, the leader of opposition pointed out that it is made clear in the agenda note that the 3000 sq. ft. space in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, which would fetch rent of Rupees 6,84,000 is to be handed over to Microsoft for mere one rupee. He also stated that due to the training, the teachers will be able to use only Microsoft's products. He also questioned the direction issued to the DPI (Director of public Instruction) to issue orders to the schools informing them (to?) purchase (of?) necessary software. Achutanandan also demanded in his note to the CM to drop the move to hand over execution of the IT@SCHOOL project to a private concern for next 30 years. At the same time, authorities of IT@SCHOOL informed that there is no block to use of 'swatantra' software in the project. But the problem is that there would be no training support available. They also point out that the government has directed that there shall not be any new appointments for the training. (Note:- The words in brackets are added by me, to make the context clear).

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GNU/Linux for hospitals....
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jul '03

12 Jul '03

Please share this among doctor-friends who might be interested. FN >From LINUX USER & DEVELOPER (www.linuxuser.co.uk): M e d i c a l S o f t w a r e Free Software has been making inroads into many markets recently, particularly those where security and data integrity are of importance. This is certainly so in medicine, where another problem is the mess of different proprietorial software used across different departments -- each tied to its own OS and its own data format. Care2002 provides a modular replacement for all these apps, using a single database and single data format (currently SQL). Everything runs on the server, clients access the modules through their web browser. Care2002 has many built-in automation, data validation, signalling, and updating features, which substantially reduces the occurence of erroneous data and removes the burden of counterchecking data manually. FreeMED is another web-based app, for physicians and healthcare providers in any setting, from small practices to large hospitals. It provdes a comprehensive electronic medical record and billing system that gives the physician control and immediate accessibility to data. Meditux is a Medical Information System. Its primary task is to provide timely medical information to both medical and non-medical staff that operated in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) environment. This release makes available most of the functionality of the current operating system that Dr Richard Piper conducts within his ICU. Some functionality has been withdrawn due to legal constraints (e.g. copyright and licensing requirements). However, Meditux still makes available 90% of its original functionality to you. Meditux-1.0 is released under the GNU/GPL. Meditux is a collection of Java Servlets, running under Apache Jakarta-Tomcat, Java SDK 1.3 and MySQL. Open Infrastructure for Outcomes (OIO) system facilitates the creation of flexible and portable patient/research records. The major component of the OIO system are the web-accessible OIOI Server and OIO library. OIO Server is a highly flexible web-based data management system that manages users, patients, and information about patients. (Of course, the same system can just as easily manage information about customers, invoices, shipments, and accounts.) K e y l i n k s Care2002 http://care2x.com/ FreeMED http://www.freemedsoftware.org LinuxMedNews http://www.linuxmednews.com Meditux http://meditux.sourceforge.net/ Open Infrastructure for Outcomes http://www.txoutcome.org -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[FSFE PR][EN] Free Software prominently represented at the UN- Conference (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jul '03

12 Jul '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- [for immediate release] Free Software as part of the German governmental delegation at the UN- Preparation - Conference to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Paris Karlsruhe, 12.07.2003 >From July 15th to 18th, a preparative conference towards the World Summit on the Information Society will be held in Paris, at which the future and destination of the information- and science- society shall be discussed as requested by the UN- General Assembly. As a nominee from the coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS, Georg Greve, president of the FSF Europe will take part in the meeting as a member of the German governmental delegation. "To take part in such an important meeting as a member for the coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS means a huge honor and a challenge to fulfill the great expectations", said Georg Greve at the LinuxTag in Karlsruhe. "In this function I would like to thank the German Government that they opened the door for the participation of the civil society. We hope to build upon this during the two years of the summit's process and to serve as a role model for other countries." Georg Greve continues: "The sustainability of the information society will be my focus. Besides questions like equality of knowledge and access as well as informational independence, which are part of my regular work for Free Software, also gender- equality and greater possibilities of access by means of new media will play a seminal role." "Especially for developing countries, Free Software offers various possibilities to gain access to the information- and knowledge- society. Therefore, we warmly welcome Georg Greve as a member of the German governmental delegation", said Markus Beckedahl, Chair of the Network of New Media (Netzwerk Neue Medien e.V.). "Free Software provides transparent and open digital infrastructures. Thanks to the civil commitment of numerous programmers worldwide, those are open to everybody. The network new media e.V. is convinced, that Free Software is fundamental in helping close the global digital divide", continued Markus Beckedahl. ------------- About the FSF Europe: The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition - allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the United States. http://fsfeurope.org Contact FSF Europe: Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org> phone: +49-40-23809080 fax: +49-40-23809081 The network new media e.V.: Since one year, the network new media works on the networking of the civil society for the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) of the UN, that will take place in Geneva from 9th ~12th December 2003. Out of this work now the ~coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS~ has emerged. -- More information about the wsis is available under: http://www.worldsummit2003.org http://www.itu.int/wsis _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release(a)fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release

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Experiments in Zero G, now open source...
by Amol Hatwar 10 Jul '03

10 Jul '03

I recently came accross this text that talks about an anti-gravity craft at wired.com. Here's the link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/pwr_antigravity.html Surprisingly you can make your own craft. It's rathr very simple. Here's the link: http://www.americanantigravity.com/ have fun, ah

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World Social Forum-4 ... and Free Software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 09 Jul '03

09 Jul '03

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM-4 (IN MUMBAI, 2004) AND FREE SOFTWARE -------------------------------------------------------- JOIN OUR Latin American (and other) friends in an initiative to harness the power of Free Software for free speech and knowledge! Writes Martin Olivera <martin_olivera(a)yahoo.com.ar> from Argentina: "At first (this mailing list) was intended to organize the Hipatia (www.hipatia.info) participation in the WSF4 (World Social Forum 4). The main objective of Hipatia is the freedom of knowledge, leveraging free software as the key tool to do this. In this way, this list would like coordinate efforts to fulfill WSF4 software necessities (web, mail, communications, news, virtual spaces, anything...) using only free software, cooperating worldwide." WSF4 is to be held in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in January 2004. Do join this mailing list. It is open to everyone who could participate anyway for this: coordination, local (India-based) support, resources, free software selection/development/adaptation, content manmagement..." What possibilities we think of is restricted only by your imagination! FN List-Subscribe: http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsm2004 OR mailto: <fsm2004-request(a)hipatia.info?subject=subscribe> -- Frederick Noronha in India -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Government Information Awareness
by Raj Shekhar 06 Jul '03

06 Jul '03

<http://opengov.media.mit.edu/gia.htm> I came across this site on slashdot. The concept is really nice. If this is scheme is implemented in India, we will have a nice database of sleaze. Read the details below. What is the Government Information Awareness Program? Government Information Awareness (GIA) is a research effort by the Computing Culture group of the MIT Media Lab. It aims to provide software and data to help citizens understand the complexities of their government. The premise of GIA is that individual citizens have the right to know details about government, while government has the power to know details about citizens. Our goal is develop a technology which empowers citizens to form a sort of intelligence agency; gathering, sorting, and acting on information they gather about the government. Only by employing such technologies can we hope to have a government "by the people, and for the people." The system presents itself to users as a Web site, but is actually a suite of information technologies that actively peruse data, accept contributions, and post alerts about government. The system will accommodate information of almost any type, allowing users to sort through volumes of information which would otherwise be unusable. More importantly, the system allows for people to submit any information, while retaining anonymity, but while also being identified as a consistent source. -- Regards, Raj Shekhar http://geocities.com/lunatech3007/

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Linus Interview...
by Amol Hatwar 06 Jul '03

06 Jul '03

Caught an interesting interview of Linus by Mercury News here: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6238207.htm Regards, ah

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DRAFT FAQ... for email users in Goa
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Jul '03

06 Jul '03

RECENTLY, a shiftover of mail-servers in Goa (from Goatelecom to Sancharnet.in) caused quite a few glitches in e-mail access here. Below are some threads from the debate. We are trying to find solutions (many have been found), and seek your help in pointing us in the right direction. Please note that some of the suggestions below are tentative and not tested in all conditions. Hence, your suggestions on these, and pointing out of inaccuracies, would be more than welcome. Kindly send your responses to fred(a)bytesforall.org with subjectline reading EMAIL FAQ... FN ------------------------------------------------------------------------- DRAFT FAQ: FOR GNULinux EMAIL USERS IN GOA, INCLUDING THOSE ON SANCHARNET ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled by FN for ILUG-Goa It is found that sancharnet does not accept webmail logging from konquerer, but from mozilla it works. I am using RH 7.2. Dialling through kppp script is also not smooth due to long time it takes for password authentication. Has anybody else in the list found the same problem? -- Bijon B Shaha <bbshaha(a)gmx.net> I had to enable the silent option in /etc/ppp/options to enable wvdial to connect. But this connect now takes ages at least 1.5 min from handshake tone to final connection. Is this a problwm with Sancharnet speeds? Or is it a problem with my machine? What's the best and fastest connect setting? I'm using wvdial.. no extra settings in the file. -- Ashely Delaney <delaneyashley(a)softhome.net> > > For me after the silent option I get the connection and it takes around > > 30 secs to connect. That's about as long as it takes for me also... This is almost 20-25 seconds slower then Windows based systems. I tried it out! I don't like my Linux box slower then something else :-( > In wvdial.conf, will Stupid Mode =1 be of use? Nope.. tried that. The stupid thing does just that. Starts ppp before username and password and hence disconnects almost immediately. BTW I must note that with the option passive it took 30 seconds, and with option 'silent' it took 1 min and the next time it disconnected. Any ideas??? -- Ashley Delaney <delaneyashley(a)softhome.net> Wvdial which used to work flawlessly for dialling to goatelecom has become unusable due to long authentication time required by Sanchanet. The program after starting desparelty ppp waits and waits and waits and eventually comes out to start redialling. Has anyone found a solution as many linux users use wvdial for automatic dialling? -Bijon B Shaha <bbshaha(a)gmx.net> I use wvdial and have to enable 'silent' option in /etc/ppp/options to make sancharnet dialing to work with wvdial. However after configuring using debian tool pppconfig and using pon and poff it worked in the first shot. Still there are problems while sending mails using sancharnet smtp. -- Rajesh Fowkar Use PAP authentication without dialup script or terminal. -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does anybody know how to configure Mozilla mail to handover outgoing mail to exim? -- Mahesh T Pai Very simple. Just put your outgoing smtp server as localhost (or your machine hostname) Exim listens on the port 25 of your local machine as defined in your inetd.conf file. You don't need to edit it. Just a tip: If you use fetchmail to retrieve your email you can install one of the many available pop3 servers. UW i.e. university of washington pop3, imap is quite good. <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wanna get your hotmail email in a linux email client? Use hotwayd proxy server http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/ -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are problems while sending mails using sancharnet smtp. -- Rajesh Fowkar smra.sancharnet.in requires SMTP authorization. Old email clients do not support authorization. Change your email client. You may not be able to send email using an MTA such as sendmail, postfix, exim etc.. Use an email client directly or get the use of an alternative SMTP server(relayhost) -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> Strange -- I had no problems in setting up wvdial. It just worked with same options as for Goatelecom. Regarding the mail sending -- a line on CSI-Goa (Computer Society of India-Goa chapter) list helped. I got three helpful responses. Sancharnet requires authentication for sending mails. I set that option on Sylpheed and it is working. -- Anil Seth <anilseth(a)sancharnet.in> Thats good to hear. But does wvdial.conf have the option Stupid Mode = 1 enabled? Sylpheed supports SMTP auth. Not all email clients support the same. Older versions of kmail -- e.g. kmail on RHL7.2 Debian woody 3.0, Mandrake 8.1 -- do not support smtp auth. MTAs most probably will not support the same as they are full fledged SMTP servers and not any email client like Sylpheed. Sancharnet could, like many other servers, have allowed POP before SMTP authentication so that most users (using sendmail, postfix, old email clients) will be able to use the given SMTP server BTW users of old versions of ppp should use 'passive' instead of 'silent'. -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian vs Redhat: In Debian the wvdial package contains a file /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial-pipe whereas in RedHat Lnx the same does not exist. Is it that this file is not important?(Then why does it continue to exist even in Knoppix?) There is a utility called pppstatus in Debian Woody(and Knoppix). The same I downloaded and compiled on Mandrake, RedHat, But it fails to do the job (it provides a terminal interface graph). Has anyone tried it, Any answers? -- Derek Cordeiro I can add a lot to that since yesterday I made a mess of my dialup accounts. Redhat ppp dialer (rather the ifup-ppp script) also uses a file in the same directory. It is created with the names like ppp0, ppp1. It contains the command for connecting to the ISP using wvdial. (These files should actually be temporary and dynamic and should be cleaned up when the connection is closed. My problem may have been a side effect of abnormal terminations.) For the curious, I used a shortcut to make sancharnet correspond to ppp0. The idiot kept dialing goatelecom! I got rid of goatelecom entry in wvdial.conf. It then complained about no phone number. Oh, well. I learnt - short cuts are dangerous. Regarding the ppp status, from my experience with Modem Lights, I would guess that these programs actually use the Modem Lock file for the status. If the modem is using /dev/ttyS0 and the monitoring program is using /dev/modem, the status will not be shown. The file name will be something like /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0 -- Anil Seth <anilseth(a)sancharnet.in> These files i.e. ppp0, ppp1 to my knowledge only contain a command wvdial with different options. The file "wvdial-pipe" contains pppd options like "noipdefault" etc. That's the reason I want to know it's significance.(It does not contain the command wvdial) The RedHat Network control creates ppp0, ppp1,...only upto version 8.0. RHL 9.0 directly edits the /etc/wvdial.conf file. There are additional settings in /etc/sysconfig/network(network-scripts) folder-- Derek Cordeiro ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ILUG-Goa, a network with a difference: sharing software, knowledge and ideas ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Electronics makers rally around Linux
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Electronics makers rally around Linux By John G. Spooner, CNET News.com 2/7/2003 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/systems/0,39001153,39138829,00.htm Several large consumer electronics companies are banding together to spread the usage of Linux in a range of new devices. Matsushita Electric, Sony, Hitachi, NEC, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba on Tuesday announced the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, or CELF, a consortium designed to adapt and advance the operating system for use in consumer electronics. Linux is widely used in large computers such as servers, but the eight companies wish to extend the operating system to other devices. While some companies, including MontaVista, have already created their own consumer electronics-oriented versions of Linux, the CELF wishes to spread out development work and take a more collaborative approach. CELF grew out of a Linux development alliance between Sony and Matsushita inked last December. At the time, the two companies agreed to collaborate on a new version of the open-source operating system for consumer electronics devices and said they would consider founding a forum to further those goals. The companies said their objective was to create a version of Linux that boots quickly and offers snappy performance for use in digital video recorders and other audiovisual devices. Digital video recorders capture TV programs and store them on a hard drive for later viewing. The CELF will cover the same basic objectives in a larger forum, with a steering committee made up of engineers from each of the eight companies, and will open up issues to the wider Linux community. Some of the CELF's initial goals will be to reduce start-up and shutdown times for the operating system, bolster its power management capabilities to help lengthen battery life in devices and reduce its memory requirements. The forum also will work to improve the real-time capabilities of Linux--in other words, the response times for devices that require precise timing, the consortium said in a statement. The forum will go about its work in a public manner, discussing ideas and then issuing requests and specifications for Linux developers to create software. The resulting software, once certified by the CELF, will be added to the consortium's source tree, a repository of Linux software. Individuals may join the CELF for free. Corporations wishing to join will pay fees ranging from US$4,000 to US$16,000, according to the forum's membership agreement posted on its Web site.

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Re: GNU/LinuxIndia... July 1, 2003
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Ola Christiano! Thank you for your note. Will forward to a couple of programmer-based lists in India. Christiano is from Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil, and his note is self-explanatory. It would be really nice if we could link up more closely with the global network that is etching freedom into software! FN PS: Christiano, could you give us some tips on how we could get more people in India to look at the possibility of developing for Debian? On Wed, 2 Jul 2003, Christiano Anderson wrote: > Fred, > > Thanks for sending me the GNU/Linux India news. Please keep on sending > it. > > I think you can help me. Richard Stallman invited me to help on GNU > Directory[1] and I'm working to include new packages and organise all > the structure, category list, etc. > > I'm including new packages to the Directory and I it could be important > to include packages developed in India. > > Please ask developers to send me the URL of their projects. I will > check if the project is GPLed and if it's ok, I will put the reference > on GNU Directory list. > > If you have any question, please let me know. > > Regards, > > Christiano > > [1] http://www.gnu.org/directory -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Release of GNOWSYS Version 0.4
by Nagarjuna G. 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Release notes for GNOWSYS version 0.4. GNOWSYS: Gnowledge Networking and Organizing System. Useful for knowledge/content management, semantic web, building ontologies, building portal sites, link management etc. Learn more about it from http://www.gnowledge.org. In this version of GNOWSYS we have added a number of new modules. The core GNOWSYS engine of the earlier releases has been improved with better catalogue support. 1. Changes to GNOWSYS Core Semantic Engine: Amongst the main improvements to the core engine over GNOWSYS version 0.3 is that now the catalog support has been improved. All the Object Types, Objects, Association Types, and Associations entries are catalogued. Facet Types and Occurrence Types are yet to be fully supported by Catalog. This feature can be effectively used for large gnowledge bases, since ZOPE catalog increases the response time. In future releases Facet Types and Occurrence Types will also be catalogued. In GNOWSYS 0.4 the User Interface has also been changed. Amongst improvements to user interface. The layout of the index_html for an Object and an Object Types has been changed. We tried to get all the metadata of the objects visible. This may make the system a little slow, but useful for the users to know how to query for the most useful metadata of the objects. Users can modify all of this since we copy the entire template as dtml files in the instance. In association types now we have new associaton type called as rigid associations. By rigid association we mean: when an object is installed as an instance of an object type, which is defined as a role in a rigid association type, then the association will be automatically made. This works more like an RDBMS relation between two tables. Apart from these changes there are numerous other small changes and bug fixes. 2. New modules in GNOWSYS. In this release a number of new modules have been added, they are as follows. 1. Functional Representation (Execute) 2. Graphical Representation (Draw Maps) 3. Import Export (XML Data Exchange, TopicMaps (XTM)) 4. Publishing Module (Publish) Modules 2 and 4 may not work in non-UNIX operating systems without lot of tweaking. Most of this is due to the use of external programs like TeX and MetaPost. In future we will make this truly interoperable. 3. In future we will have: - authentication module (multi-user, role based with integration with the ObjectType Members), - work-flow (keeping track of objects and status), - RDF and OIL support for data exchange to make it ready for semantic web community. - XUL GUI for editing GNOWSYS sites effortlessly from Mozilla/Netscape and using a GTK/QT client. - UTF-8 support - skins or at least a style sheet - optimizing for speed - and improving all the above and continueing to fix bugs. Examples illustrating the use of GNOWSYS will be made and linked from the project website: http://www.gnowledge.org Happy gnowing! GNOWSYS TEAM Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education Nagarjuna -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun at hbcse tifr res in. http://www.gnowledge.org/ I support Public Library of Science http://www.plos.org/

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GNU/LinuxInIndia (July 01, 2003)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

e88~~\ 888b | 888 | / 888 888 ,e, d888 |Y88b | 888 | L 888 888-~88e e88~\888 " /~~~8e 8888 __ | Y88b | 888 | I 888 888 888 d888 888 888 88b 8888 | | Y88b | 888 | N 888 888 888 8888 888 888 e88~-888 Y888 | | Y88b| Y88 | U 888 888 888 Y888 888 888 C888 888 "88__/ | Y888 "8__/ X 888 888 888 "88_/888 888 "88_-888 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Formerly LinuxInIndia * Compiled by Frederick Noronha * July 01,2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMBA HOWTO: Dileep M Kumar says he has "written a small samba howto". Check it out at http://kumarayil.net/samba.htm Don't forget: Comments welcome. SHARING KNOWLEDGE, THROUGH TINY TIPS: Your tech tips on how to sort out various issues are welcome on the GNU/LOST (Linux One Stanza Tips) network. Check out the howtos mailing list howtos(a)frodo.hserus.net or http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/howtos VOLUNTEER FOR HINDI-KDE: Tarun Kant <bobkant(a)yahoo.co.in> calls on volunteers to be part of the IndLinux-Hindi-KDE project and help in translating the K Desktop Environment to Hindi. Send Indlinux-hindi-kde mailing list submissions to indlinux-hindi-kde(a)lists.sourceforge.net To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indlinux-hindi-kde or send an email with subject or body saying 'help' to the address indlinux-hindi-kde-request(a)lists.sourceforge.net Contact the person managing the list via indlinux-hindi-kde-admin(a)lists.sourceforge.net BEGINNERS GUIDE TO CODING NETWORK DEVICE DRIVERS: Karthik <mnkarthik(a)yahoo.com> has a new site. Check out its GNU/Linux section at http://www.metlin.org/linux Says he: "I've also included some beginner's guide to coding Network Device Drivers there and soon plan on adding stuff on HCI in Linux." FREE SOFTWARE... TO THE WORLD FORUM: From distant Argentia, Diego Saravia <dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar> of the Hipatia network is keen to do something that would take Free Software to the World Social Forum, that is being organised in Mumbai in January 2004. Says he: "Perhaps we could setup an email list to work on the free software issue for the 4fsm/India. I could invite people involved in previous (World Social Fora) and the Free Software Forum-India could invite Indian enthusiasts." See www.hipatia.info or via email info(a)hipatia.info or visit the list http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coordinadores-hipatia DESILINUX.COM: "ttyl - Jonnas" recently announced the new *desilinux.com* bulletin-board. This, he says, "aims to foster discussion in technical, business and legal matters related to Linux. I am looking for a founding group that can bring their issues to the BB." His favorite topic currently is Linux on embedded devices. Other than this, he also would like to discuss "what is going to the climax show-down between MS & Linux when Linux hits the desktop market in a big way (I'd estimate somewhere in early 2005)". Says he: "To help build yet another comprehensive Linux community, visit http://www.desilinux.com " FLOSS GIVES INDIA A BOOST IN MANY MARKETS AND ENDEAVOURS: From banks and hospitals to software houses and prestigious technological institutions, the charm of free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS) is casting a spell in India that is pushing many here to venture into uncharted fields. Full Story http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6958 HELP FROM AFAR: A friend from Finland, Aschwin Van Der Woude <aschwin.van.der.woude(a)linux-aktivaattori.org> of the group working to kickstart and fuel ("aktivaattori") further interest in Free/Libre and Open Source Software is willing to volunteer to "download, burn and send" CDs to India, if these could be of help here... and if we can build a system for sharing the same. Any takers? FREEBSD OPTIONS: FreeBSD enthusiast and developer from Bangalore Joseph Koshy < a_joseph_koshy(a)yahoo.co.in> says, in response to a query from one youngster: "We don't have a central body that directs FreeBSD. It is more like a collection of peers, the only criteria for admission is (proven) competence on FreeBSD. There are a number of mailing lists that carry FreeBSD related technical traffic. Do check www.freebsd.org for more information. For example, press, publicity and the like are discussed on freebsd-advocacy. There is no 'certification' on FreeBSD that I'm aware of." Koshy is also the self-described "founder-manager-programmer-peon" of the Indic-Computing Project (http://indic-computing.sf.net) NOT FLOSS, BUT BASED ON IT: The South Asia IT list run by Irfan Khan from nearby Pakistan is an interesting source of news on how IT can help this sub-continent get a better life for its millions. It's not directly focussed on FLOSS, but runs on a Free Software platform (Mailman). See the s-asia-it mailing list at http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/s-asia-it ......................................................................... . . FIRST PERSON... TEMPTING SOLUTION? Prof G. R. Bhat <grbhat(a)exocore.com> . formerly of the Goa University, describes his experience with Reliance, a . big player in the Indian mobile world. This comes in via the ILUG-Goa . mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa : . . Hi, I was at the Reliance web world last night with my notebook just to . check whether the rconnect service works as advertised at least for Linux. . We reached there just as they were about to close for the day (8.30 pm), . but the person there was gracious enough to let us in and allowed us to . outstay our welcome for whopping hour and a half after closing time while . we put the service through a "linux compatibility" test. . . The staff there was unaware of Linux but again thats OK. They were sales . and marketing, not technical and hence forgiven ;). The Binary ran fine on . Redhat 9 (my notebook) - it asked me what device I was using (USB or . Serial). I said USB, so it went and made /dev/rmodem a soft link to . /dev/usb (strange!) and then proceeded to change /etc/ppp/options, . /etc/ppp/ip-up.local and /etc/ppp/ip-down.local without any warning (and . without backing up my versions). The README clearly said that my files . would be backed up with a .old extension. My ip-up/down files are pretty . much standard so no problem there. But this could be a major problem for . those who do a lot of magic in their up/down scripts . Back Up!. . . After all this - when I ran the prescribed "rconnect" it did not work. . . That's when I checked the stuff that was going on under the pretty . interface. I doubt if it installed any driver on my notebook. Once I . figured that all they were using was a dialout (the ususal pppd + chat) . script coupled with some changes to files in /etc/ppp, and making a blind . softlink with whatever device was entered in the installer form, I decided . to try my luck myself rather than use the install program, . . I got the Samsung handset to dial out using the standard USB ACM Modem . drivers that come with RH9 (modprobe ub-uhci; modprobe acm), changed the . /dev/rmodem to point to /dev/input/ttyACM0 (my /var/log/messages told me . that the stock RedHat9 USB ACM driver had attached itself to this device) . and ran the script that came with rconnect. . . It works! . . I got an IP assigned to me and my /etc/resolv.conf was set correctly to . point to the Reliance DNS server (I had usepeerdns in /etc/ppp/options) . and I happily pointed my browser to www.gnu.org :). The service was great . (no one in the shop hassled us to leave inspite of the fact that it was . well past closing time, In fact they watched with a lot of interest and . gave me free run of the place), but the bandwidth was much lower than what . I expected - about 1.7K/s consistently from 9 pm to 9.45 pm on the night . of 25 June. Did I buy it? Well I didn't yesterday on account of the rather . poor bandwidth that I got, but I will be definitely waiting and watching . the throughput on my friends handsets with a lot of interest. . . A mobile IP gateway that I can carry around is too good to resist :) . ........................................................................ THE WORK IS ON: G Karunkar <karunakar(a)freedomink.org> reports in a different context that you can find some resources and links to groups working on different Indian languages at http://www.indlinux.org. Says he: "We are also working on a bootable CD with Indic support (right now based on Morphix). The Indic components come as a seperate release (see http://www.indlinux.org/downloads/ ), which can be installed on any distro (with a bit of tweaking though). There will be another release next week which will work on RH 8/9, MDK 9.x and Debian unstable (with Gnome 2.2)." Karunakar, a low-profile and hard-working campaigner on the Indic computing front, adds that since much of their current work is based on Gnome 2, you need to have that if you wish to use the IndLinux-Hindi release. Adds he: "The stuff is all bare bones, not good for any production use. That'ss still few months away -- till we have KDE, Gnome, Openoffice, Mozilla etc all supporting Indic at all levels." LINKING YOUNG TECHIES, MENTORS: Project Resource Centre is a mailing list and network that puts students and young techies in touch with potential mentors. It also gives them a chance to discuss their ideas and get feedback. More details from http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc GOING FAR MORE DEEPER: Comments Mahesh T Pai, LL.M. of Kochi (http://in.geocities.com/paivakil): "The approach by the guys at indlinux.org takes language far more 'deeper' into the OS than (attempts by proprietorial software). Language enabling is much more than mere translation of help files, enabling fonts, and input methods. The KBIPS is directly involved with Free Software Foundation-India (at least, that is what I understand, about the FSF-India's involvement) for enabling Malayalam on GNU/Linux systems." Mahesh, a close and perceptive watcher of the Free Software scene in India, can be contacted via paivakil(a)vsnl.net Says he: "I believe that the Indlinux team has spent far less during its entire existence that what (proprietorial software major players have) spent on a single foreign jaunt for its team leader/s. Not that I grudge the individuals' benefits; but I cannot help reacting when the government subsidises efforts, fruits will be controlled by private corporates while giving a cold shoulder to efforts which would be under public control." CALLING VOLUNTEERS: Linux-india.org website is expected to get an overhaul, with volunteers coming forward to support the work of webmaster Raj Mathur. If you'd like to volunteer too, contact Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ ADAPTING LINUX TO INDIA: Venky <venky(a)indlinux.org>, a persistent lobbyist on this front, said in a public discussion: "One issue that is important in terms of adapting ICT to Indian needs is that the technology should speak the user's language. At IndLinux (www.indlinux.org) we have been working on adapting the Linux operating system to Indian languages and have done a significant amount of work in Hindi. We would like to get an active group going in Punjabi too so that Punjabi-literate individuals too can benefit from using computers. Can you please help us get volunteers who can translate computer terms like "files", "folders" etc to Punjabi?" 'PIRACY'... AS A FAKE CONCEPT: "The concept of piracy being propagated by multinational companies is fake and do not hold water in the perspective of our social commitment. I feel we have to launch resistance and fight against it," said Manabendra Mukherjee, West Bengal's minister for information technology and environment department, while delivering a lecture at a seminar on `Linux initiative in e-Governance applications'. See http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=23&story=17114 INDIANIZATION, INTERNATIONALIZATION: Jaco Aizenman <jaizenman(a)fsc.cc> of the Free Software Consortium is looking out for Indian supporters to help with the internationalization of their "Government Distro". This Free Software package is being launched in July 2003, by this global organisation "dedicated to the promotion and commercialisation of Free Software" The Government Distro is a compilation of programs widely used by the public sector in Brazil, Argentina and Spain. It contains the GNU/Linux Operating System, an Office-like suite called Open Office, email and instant messenger, a calendar, a database, a web browser application and many other programs. Say its promoters: "All these applications have been used and tested previously in dozens of Latin American and European users, in order to certify their functionality. They have all been designed by highly talented programmers from all around the world." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are welcome. Contact us at fred at bytesforall dot org COPYLEFT 2003. May be freely circulated provided entire text and credits is left intact. FN -- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Former French PM condemns software patents
by Raj Mathur 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

[Cross-posted] Michel Rocard opposes the patentability of software "Everyone copies, and this is a good thing" By Florent LATRIVE and Laurent MAURIAC Liberation, Monday June 30, 2003 "A civilization should be preserved where the place of the world outside the market and of the human intellect is respected." One does not find a computer on the Parisian desk of Michel Rocard. He admits it freely: he is not "one of the generation which has an easy facility with the computer". However, as president of the Committee for Culture in the European Parliament, he has had to plunge himself, with an "evil madness", into software patentability, "words which even a year ago were unknown to me". Today, if he speaks about it in such an animated way, it is because hiding behind the technical aspects there is a real issue about civilization. For the ex prime minister, the introduction of patents on software in Europe would be "very serious". It would call into question the freedom of movement of human knowledge. Until now, software has been officially excluded from patentable subject-matter in Europe, just like mathematical equations or cooking recipes. But for several months, a very polemical draft Directive has been before the institutions of the European Union which aims to modify this regime. It will be put to the vote in the European Parliament at the beginning of September. Q.: Why do you reckon that Europe should not authorize patents on software? Since the cave of Lascaux, it is not clear that humanity has progressed in its aesthetic capacities. As for its ethical capacities and morals, one is even more doubtful. On the other hand, in the field of technical knowledge and the control of nature, the progress is astounding. The dizzying growth of knowledge is the key to this history. Knowledge was spread by copying, everyone recopied everyone, and that was good. With the patentability of software, one is re-writing the statutes on human knowledge. All of the intellectual exchange in the creations of the human spirit, the means of bringing knowledge together, will be achieved more and more by software. If patentability is introduced, i.e. a cost, a prohibition, one sets up a new rule. It is worrying. ... Full translation at: http://www.aful.org/wws/arc/patents/2003-06/msg00221.html Original (French) story at: http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=121303 -- Raju -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F It is the mind that moves

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Re: WSF and Free Software
by Diego Saravia 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Hi, yesterday we setup and email list to discuss wsf and free soft. The idea is to involve people from 3 wsf with india free soft comunity towards 4 wsf. Do you like to be included? Do you know another people that must be included? > Dear Diego Saravia > > We do have a Free Software Foundation of India, and I am one of the > Directors staying in Mumbai. I saw your query to Frederick > (bytesforall) who forwarded the email to us. Do let us know what you > have in mind for the WSF program, and what we could do. We think that > WSF India event should exclusively use free software, and if needed > FSF India can help in this as a support organization. I am copying > this mail to Arun (arun(a)gnu.org.in). > > Nagarjuna > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > nagarjun at hbcse tifr res in. http://www.gnowledge.org/ > I support Public Library of Science http://www.plos.org/ > > -- Diego Saravia dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar

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TeX, SchoolForge, FreEduc... and even Susegado
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

FORMER GOA BOARD for SSC & HSSC Education chairman Raghuvir Vernekar was waiting for the meeting to get up seat, as was Animesh, Alwyn and Mario. Others walked in somewhere between the appointed hour of 3 pm, scheduled for the launch of a proposed TeX Users Group in Goa. Normally-silent Alwyn Noronha was in full-bloom, explaining why he opted for TeX. "It's a way of creating documents that wil last over the years. Size of the documents is small. It's typesetting, not wordprocessing. You can get LateX to work with computers ranging from mainframes to Windows. Indexing and table-of-contents are very easy to create. You can even forward refer." We discussed the ways of creating PDF books. With so much content floating around, perhaps this might be a good idea. Prof Vernekar gave some ideas of how we could get in touch with Goa school principals (Goa Headmasters' Association) to introduce them to the idea of Free Software for education. One idea is to link up with the principals, teachers associations (AGSSTO, AGSSTA), and the higher secondary principal's forum. Any volunteers? Rizaplaystation, which was lugged in earlier, was demonstrated with FreEDUC. FN demoed some of the Gcompris games his daughter enjoys. Animesh ran through some other programs on this CD (www.ofset.org). This was followed by a discussion on the Goa government's approach towards GNU/Linux was discussed, as was whether have Goa's own 'base CD' would help. Albert Gouveia of NIO gave his inputs, as did educationist Dr Anil Seth and Bijon Shaha. Some pointed out that in view of the limited functionality of proprietorial software tools offered to students under the Cyberage scheme, a demand should be made for installing dual-boot systems on the PCs. Mario@Alienwiz gave an interesting explanation of his plans to create a 'virtual Goa' community game, perhaps aptly titled 'Susegado' (a difficult word to translate, but reflecting the relaxed state of the Goan mind). More about this later. Everyone adjourned for the customary tea-and-snacks at Navtara restaurant, leading to another session of informal discussions. Randall, a young student, was also present along with his friend from Don Bosco's IT college. Looking forward to seeing more young faces at the LUG. Let's take Free Software to your colleges too... Some plans: o St Xavier's Free Software talk and demo, possibly on 19.7 o Randall is checking out possibilities at Damodar's o Prof Bhat promised to follow up more IT-in-college initiatives -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[OFFTOPIC] INDIA-KERALA: Akshaya's plan for 500 community technology centres
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

KERALA STATE IT MISSION Department of IT Government of Kerala has put out an ad (Express Computer, June 16, 2003) requesting proposals to provide connectivity "to over 500 community technology centres (AkshayaECentres) in Malappuram district, Kerala". It says: As part of Kerala's ambitious e-literacy campaign, Akshaya e Centres are being set up throughout Kerala. These centres will initially provide e-literacy to one member from every household and eventually act as ICT Dissemination notes and IT Enabled Service Delivery points in every village. All Akshaya e Centres need to have quality internet connectivity and will have to be networked with a centralised operating centre. Implementation of the first phase of the project is now on in Malappuram District. The second phase involves setting up of over 6,000 Akshaya e Centres in all the district of the State, which is expected to be over by December 2004. Kerala State IT Mission, the nodal agency of the Department of IT, Government of Kerala invites proposals from connectivity providers with similar project experience to provide connectivity to over 500 Akshaya e Centres in Malappuram. Deliverables: Providing 128 Kbps connectivity at each centre to ensure smooth internet services ranging from broising, voice over IP, to video conferencing. Setting up Network Operating Centre linking Akshaya e Centres for management and monitoring of connectivity, and bandwidth management. How to apply: Interested service providers should send their proposals as per detailed RFP on or before June 25, 2003 along with service level agreement to be signed with details including guaranteed uptime, bandwidth, response time, maintainence plan etc For detailed RFP, contact: Director, Kerala State Information Technology Mission, ICT Campus, Vellayambalam Jn, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State, India 695033. Tel -91 -471 - 272 6881, 232 4307. Email itmission(a)vsnl.com Website: www.keralaitmission.org www.akshaya.net -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Re: world social forum - free software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Perhaps we could go *beyond* deploying Free Software to *showcasing* it. It's important that the alternate world knows that, in computing, the *alternate* has perhaps surpassed the "real thing". FN On Mon, 30 Jun 2003, Arun M wrote: > > Free Software? Sure! Try FSF-India. Copying this to their mailing list. > > My friend Nitya Jacob of Oneworld might also be able to put you in touch > > with the World Social Forum network. FN > > > > We really must try to have a Free Software presence at the World Social > > Forum meet in Mumbai in January 2004. Any idea where exactly it is to be > > held? FN > > > SOme interactions happened with people like Sri MP Parameswaran who is > part of WSF organisation regarding FSF India's participation in WSF. > Also offered help in making use of Free softare in WSF. > > Also FSF India participated in ASF in small way. > > > Arun. > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: world social forum - free software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Thanks very much Diego. Let's build the links. Ate logo. FN On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Diego Saravia wrote: > I will copy this to hypatia list, (www.hipatia.info) > hipatia was involved in several events related to free software in III > world social forum. > > http://www.softwarelivre.org/index.php?menu=mais_noticias2&cod=1043092196&t… > > http://www.softwarelivre.org/index.php?menu=mais_noticias2&cod=1043458129&t… > > > > > Ola Diego! > > > > Free Software? Sure! Try FSF-India. Copying this to their mailing list. > > My friend Nitya Jacob of Oneworld might also be able to put you in touch > > with the World Social Forum network. FN > > > > We really must try to have a Free Software presence at the World Social > > Forum meet in Mumbai in January 2004. Any idea where exactly it is to be > > held? FN > > > > On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Diego Saravia wrote: > > > > > Hi > > > > > > I am searching for people in india related to world social forum and > > > free software, I see your bytesforall web site and I wonder if you > > > could help me. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks in advance > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Diego Saravia > > > dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar > > > > > > > -- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net > > Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org > > http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com > > http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > -- > Diego Saravia > dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: world social forum - free software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Jun '03

29 Jun '03

Ola Diego! Free Software? Sure! Try FSF-India. Copying this to their mailing list. My friend Nitya Jacob of Oneworld might also be able to put you in touch with the World Social Forum network. FN We really must try to have a Free Software presence at the World Social Forum meet in Mumbai in January 2004. Any idea where exactly it is to be held? FN On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Diego Saravia wrote: > Hi > > I am searching for people in india related to world social forum and > free software, I see your bytesforall web site and I wonder if you > could help me. > > > > Thanks in advance > > > -- > Diego Saravia > dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Fsf-friends] Re: [ilug-goa] Indic solution for *Government Distro* (long)
by Jaco Aizenman 29 Jun '03

29 Jun '03

> I am happy if this is to mean that you will send a CD to registered people. Shure!, but please help us find volunteers so we can elaborate an Indian version. A very good start is that you presented us with the url of Malayalam. We will appreciate if you can send us additional url's from other Indian languages initiatives. Im copying the message to Kumar, Arun and Vshaji who are involved in the Malayalam, and requesting them if they can appoint a technical contact for coordination. > > Refer to the following link for hints on Malayalam. > > http://www.keralaindustry.org/malayalam/ > > > -- > +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ > > Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M., > 'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road, > Ernakulam, Cochin-682018, > Kerala, India. > > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil > > +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ > > Consortium Development Free Software Consortium FSConsortium.com

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[Fsf-friends] [Commons-Law] FSF Statement on SCO v. IBM - Eben Moglen (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Jun '03

28 Jun '03

Thanks to Sunil Abraham and the Commons-Law mailing list (India) for forwarding this. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- FSF Statement on SCO v. IBM Eben Moglen June 25, 2003 The lawsuit brought by the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) against IBM has generated many requests for comment by FSF. The Foundation has refrained from making official comments on the litigation because only the plaintiff's allegations have been reported; comment on unverified allegations would ordinarily be premature. More disturbing than the lawsuit itself, however, have been public statements by representatives of SCO, which have irresponsibly suggested doubts about the legitimacy of free software overall. These statements require response. SCO's lawsuit asserts that IBM has breached contractual obligations between the two companies, and also that IBM has incorporated trade secret information concerning the design of the UNIX operating system into what SCO calls generally ``Linux.'' This latter claim has recently been expanded in extra-judicial statements by SCO employees and officers to include suggestions that ``Linux'' includes material copied from UNIX in violation of SCO's copyrights. An allegation to this effect was contained in letters apparently sent by SCO to 1500 of the world's largest companies warning against use of free software on grounds of possible infringement liability. It is crucial to clarify certain confusions that SCO's spokesmen have shown no disposition to dispel. In the first place, SCO has used ``Linux'' to mean ``all free software,'' or ``all free software constituting a UNIX-like operating system.'' This confusion, which the Free Software Foundation warned against in the past, is here shown to have the misleading consequences the Foundation has often predicted. ``Linux'' is the name of the kernel most often used in free software systems. But the operating system as a whole contains many other components, some of them products of the Foundation's GNU Project, others written elsewhere and published under free software licenses; the totality is GNU, the free operating system on which we have been working since 1984. Approximately half GNU's components are copyrighted works of the Free Software Foundation, including the C-compiler GCC, the GDB debugger, the C library Glibc, the bash shell, among other essential parts. The combination of GNU and the Linux kernel produces the GNU/Linux system, which is widely used on a variety of hardware and which taken as a whole duplicates the functions once only performed by the UNIX operating system. SCO's confusing use of names makes the basis of its claims unclear: has SCO alleged that trade secrets of UNIX's originator, AT&T--of which SCO is by intermediate transactions the successor in interest--have been incorporated by IBM in the kernel, Linux, or in parts of GNU? If the former, there is no justification for the broad statements urging the Fortune 1500 to be cautious about using free software, or GNU programs generally. If, on the other hand, SCO claims that GNU contains any UNIX trade secret or copyrighted material, the claim is almost surely false. Contributors to the GNU Project promise to follow the Free Software Foundation's rules for the project, which specify--among other things--that contributors must not enter into non-disclosure agreements for technical information relevant to their work on GNU programs, and that they must not consult or make any use of source code from non-free programs, including specifically UNIX. The Foundation has no basis to believe that GNU contains any material about which SCO or anyone else could assert valid trade secret or copyright claims. Contributors could have made misrepresentations of fact in their copyright assignment statements, but failing willful misrepresentation by a contributor, which has never happened so far as the Foundation is aware, there is no significant likelihood that our supervision of the freedom of our free software has failed. The Foundation notes that despite the alarmist statements SCO's employees have made, the Foundation has not been sued, nor has SCO, despite our requests, identified any work whose copyright the Foundation holds-including all of IBM's modifications to the kernel for use with IBM's S/390 mainframe computers, assigned to the Foundation by IBM--that SCO asserts infringes its rights in any way. Moreover, there are straightforward legal reasons why SCO's assertions concerning claims against the kernel or other free software are likely to fail. As to its trade secret claims, which are the only claims actually made in the lawsuit against IBM, there remains the simple fact that SCO has for years distributed copies of the kernel, Linux, as part of GNU/Linux free software systems. Those systems were distributed by SCO in full compliance with GPL, and therefore included complete source code. So SCO itself has continuously published, as part of its regular business, the material which it claims includes its trade secrets. There is simply no legal basis on which SCO can claim trade secret liability in others for material it widely and commercially published itself under a license that specifically permitted unrestricted copying and distribution. The same fact stands as an irrevocable barrier to SCO's claim that ``Linux'' violates SCO's copyright on UNIX source code. Copyright, as the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized, covers expressions, not ideas. Copyright on source code covers not how a program works, but only the specific language in which the functionality is expressed. A program written from scratch to express the function of an existing program in a new way does not infringe the original program's copyright. GNU and Linux duplicate some aspects of UNIX functionality, but are independent bodies, not copies of existing expressions. But even if SCO could show that some portions of its UNIX source code were copied into the kernel, the claim of copyright infringement would fail, because SCO has itself distributed the kernel under GPL. By doing so, SCO licensed everyone everywhere to copy, modify, and redistribute that code. SCO cannot now turn around and argue that it sold people code under GPL, guaranteeing their right to copy, modify and redistribute anything included, but that it somehow did not license the copying and redistribution of any copyrighted material of their own which that code contained. In the face of these facts, SCO's public statements are at best misleading and irresponsible. SCO has profited handily from the work of free software contributors throughout the world. Its current public statement constitute a gross abuse of the principles of the free software community, by a participant who has employed all our work for its own economic benefit. The Free Software Foundation calls upon SCO to retract its ill-advised and irresponsible statements, and to proceed immediately to separate its commercial disagreements with IBM from its obligations and responsibilities to the free software community. Copyright © Free Software Foundation, 2003. Verbatim copying of this article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. Eben Moglen is General Counsel to FSF, and serves on its board of directors Return to GNU's home page. Support FSF's work by becoming an associate member. Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu(a)gnu.org. There are also other ways to contact the FSF. Please send comments on these web pages to webmasters(a)gnu.org, send other questions to gnu(a)gnu.org. Updated: $Date: 2003/06/27 22:02:10 $ $Author: bkuhn $ -- Sunil Abraham, sunil(a)mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org MAHITI Infotech Pvt. Ltd.'Reducing the cost and complexity of ICTs' 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 4150580. Mobile: 98455 12611 "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have one idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas" George B. Shaw _______________________________________________ commons-law mailing list commons-law(a)mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/commons-law

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Indic solution for *Government Distro* (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Jun '03

28 Jun '03

Interesting project. Anyone interested contact Jaco Aizenman <jaizenman(a)fsc.cc> The exchange below is self-explanatory. Kindly note that the release takes place on July 1. Apparently the links might be not yet working. Sorry for the lengthy post. FN >From fred(a)bytesforall.org Fri Jun 27 23:44:48 2003 Can someone on Indic Computing or Indian-eGov or even bytesforall_readers help with such work on Indianising this distro? Sounds interesting. FN On Fri, 27 Jun 2003, Jaco Aizenman wrote: > ,danirc(a)bulma.net, peter(a)fsc.cc > CC: marlon(a)debian-rs.org, michelle(a)cipsga.org.br > Bcc: vbarba(a)fsc.cc, slopez@fsc.cc,dalmolin@e-cology.ca,joe@fsc.cc, > denisonzl@hotmail.com,anderson@debian-rs.org, A.Molina(a)ed.ac.uk. > gami@linux-delhi.org,geoff@sales.org, property(a)racsa.co.cr, > jgb(a)gsyc.escet.urjc.es > Subject: Indiand and Chinese developers welcome - Draft of FSC Press > release - Re: Marie > > Fred, we cannot send you yet the *Government Distro* because it will be > available just after we finish some internacionalization features that > will maximize its efficiency in multilanguage countries like India, or > different typos like China. > > Thats why we are looking for the *Red Flag* developers, and we will > apreciate also if you can contact us with Indian developers specialized > on adapting GNU/Linux Debian to the different Hindu languages. > > Marlon who receives a copy is the *Government Distro* developers leader, > and Michelle, who also receives a copy, is the *Technical Government > Body* Coordinator. You may tell Cesar that Marlon and Michelle are > Brasilians.... ;-) > > Marlon is coming to Costa Rica in August because he is giving a > presentation of the *Government Distro* to Costa Rican Government officials. > > Please also find below the last version of the *Government Distro* press > release that will be announced next week. > > FSC PRESS RELEASE > ======================================================= > Free Software Distribution for Governments > > A Free Software Package known as the "Government Distro" was launched > on July 1st by the Free Software Consortium (FSC), a global organization > dedicated to the promotion and commercialisation of Free Sofware. > > The Government Distro is a compilation of programs widely used by > the public sector in Brazil, Argentina and Spain. It contains the > GNU/Linux Operating System, an Office-like suite called Open Office, email > and instant messenger, a calendar, a database, a web browser application > and many other programs. > > All these applications have been used and tested previously in dozens > of Latin American and European users, in order to certify their > functionality. They have all been designed by highly talented > programmers _from_ (all) around the world. > > The Government Distro is meant to be a common free government system > platform for governments worldwide, both server and > client-side. > > Therefore, "the Government Distro is a big step towards the implementation > of Free Software in the public sector around the world", says Marie > Lopardo, Communications and Marketing (Government Body) Coordinator. > > > To obtain a full version of _the_ Government Distro visit > > www.fsc.cc/governmentdistro and register for it. > > All the programs in _the_ Government Distro are user-friendly and > some have been in use since 1999. > > _The_ Free Software Consortium is offering technical assistance for > Government Distro users. > > For more information, please email governmentdistro(a)fsc.cc > ================================================================= > > Consortium Development > Free Software Consortium > FSConsortium.com -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Fri, 27 Jun 2003, Jaco Aizenman wrote: > Hello Karunakar, > > The *Government Distro* is based on Debian. In the future we hopefully > will have versions in other distros, as long as they are free...! ;-) > > The only requisite for any software component of this *Government > Distro*, to be included in this *Government Distro*, is that it is > *already* being used by any Public Sector Government in the world. So > for example, it is composed by www.linex.org , which is Debian and Gnome > based, and being used today by the Public School system in the state of > Extremadura, Spain, in 60,000 schools!. :-) > > It also has other software components from Brasil and Argentina, and we > will like to include some other software components from India and China > if possible for the first release... > > A software component can be code like a router (Ututo R router, being > used in Argentinian schools), customization features like the one > *LinEx* has, or even application packages, like Government purchasing, > Accounting, Tax collection, which as for today we do not have anything, > but hopefully through the time, with the collective cooperation of > several hackers working for free Governments projects, we may have a > collective plataform which may fill the basic needs of many governments > worldwide. > > We are releasing the first version until August, but anyone can have > access to todays version if he/she can help our developing team who is > leaded by Marlon Dutra. > > Best, > > Jaco > > > If you could give more detials on the distro then I can tell what can > > be done in it -esp what all packages it includes. A copy to test would > > be ideal! > > > > <snip> > > > > > To obtain a full version of _the_ Government Distro visit > > > > > www.fsc.cc/governmentdistro and register for it. > > > > The link is inaccessible! > > > > Regards, > > Karunakar > > > > -- > > --------------------------- > > * Indian Linux project * > > * http://www.indlinux.org * > > --------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Free software.. and software patents (on a CD)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Jun '03

27 Jun '03

--__--__-- Message: 9 Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:23:13 +0530 From: Suraj Kumar <suraj(a)symonds.net> To: ilugc <ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in> Subject: [Ilugc] Free Software speeches on CD I had the opportunity to download all the speeches on 'free software' and 'software patents' from gnu.org. I have cut a CD out of it. Unfortunately this collection does not contain RMS's speech at Chennai (Madras Institute of Technology) made on March 13th, 2002. However its worth noting that most of the speeches carry the same message (the only differences being the humour that he adds to various speeches). Especially the ones titled 'Free Software Movement' have little or no differences. For more information on the list of speeches, please visit: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html The CD also bundles two of GnuPress published books: 1. Free Software, Free Society - http://www.gnu.org/doc/book13.html 2. Free as in Freedom - http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ Also included are the web pages from http://gnu.org/philosophy/ and http://gnu.org/licenses/ Interested people can borrow the CD, copy the OGGs onto your disk AND/OR make a CD out of it. All this upon the condition that my CD be returned in a day OR two. (ideally, borrow on a saturday and return on sunday). glitches: I should have put the ogg vorbis decoder (vorbis-tools and ogg123), ogg vorbis plugin for xmms, too in the CD. Maybe someone can come up with an upgraded version of the same CD with windows interop in mind, that would be fantastic! On another note, I have three empty CD-Rs. I would be very much helped if someone can make three gratis copies of the same for my own personal circulation. -Suraj -- +--------------------------------------------<suraj(a)symonds.net>---+ | The chemise lace on the buxom breasts of this belle | | is like the face shield on a rutting tusker | | (love that beauty darts - 7), Thirukkural | +---<http://symonds.net/~suraj/>-----------------------------------+ --__--__-- _______________________________________________ ilugc mailing list ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in http://www.aero.iitm.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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NEWS-OFFTOPIC: Taking Hindi to the core of computers
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Jun '03

27 Jun '03

How does GNU/Linux compare? FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Taking Hindi to the core of computers By Sanjay Suri, Indo-Asian News Service London, June 27 (IANS) It was nice, wasn't it, to use the Devnagari script on Microsoft Word? Nice, but not good enough, says Vijay Kumar Malhotra, a former director for official languages with Indian Railways, and now in pursuit of taking Hindi to the core of computers rather than just the face. Malhotra, now language consultant to Microsoft for developing applications in Hindi, is taking Hindi to more than the Word programme. He is working with his team to make all applications in the Office XP system in Hindi. That means Word, Excel and Power Point, all with Hindi integrated into the system. And with Word too, not just Hindi as an option but with Hindi built into the core system. So that right from the menu bar with its options of 'file', 'view', 'help' and what not, everything will be in Hindi. Now his team is working to introduce sorting facilities in Hindi, according to the Hindi alphabet. Malhotra, who has worked on these programmes earlier with York University in Britain and with the University of Pennsylvania, has developed an auto-correct facility and templates already in Hindi. The through-and-through Hindi composition is coming up in the Office 2003 programme shortly, where "the whole environment will be in Hindi", Malhotra told IANS. "Now we will be able to handle all data applications in Hindi," he says. "Like dictionary, thesaurus, indexing and other functions like this." Malhotra is in London these days to take possible uses of Hindi further. One is to develop models available on computer to teach Hindi to students learning it as a new language. That is taking him to Hindi learning centres in Britain to study needs, and ways of meeting those needs. "The new applications will also be a major new tool for e-governance in India," Malhotra says. "Programmes for promoting this have been launched in Haryana, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. This is a big new field." The implications will be that use of computers will gain new scope in villages where the English interface for primary functions was a restriction. "This will open the gates for e-governance and e-learning," says Malhotra. He is also studying the Cobuild project developed in Birmingham University that takes millions of words in text and draws from them principles of usage. Teaching material is developed on that basis. The Indian government is tying up with Microsoft to develop Hindi further in Microsoft systems, he says. --Indo-Asian News Service

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Novell moves networking services to Linux
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 26 Jun '03

26 Jun '03

Novell is to move its networking services to the open-source Linux platform. Paul Krill Nterprise Linux Services will consist of Novell's file, print, messaging, directory, and management services tailored to the Red Hat and SuSE distributions of Linux. It wil ship at the end of the year. Also being announced are partnerships with IBM, Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard, who will offer the suite to their PC-based customers with full training and support, according to Novell. The company has been eyeing up datacentre environments deploying Linux, according to Jeff Hawkins, vice-president of the Linux business office at Novell. One analyst said Novell's Linux move was a logical one. "Novell has a long history of providing scalable, reliable, secure and manageable products," said analyst Dan Kusnetzky, vice-president of system software research at IDC. "It has a long history of being a part of the enterprise infrastructure. This is exactly what end-users tell us they want from Linux. So, Linux users or prospective Linux users who feel that these things are important just might feel a little more comfortable when Novell's directory services software, combined with Novell's management and security software, are combined with Linux." A closed beta program for Nterprise Linux Services, for approximately 150 customers, will begin next month. With the file services in the product, users can manage files based on Samba, an open-source software platform providing compatibility with Windows clients on file protocols, Hawkins said. The iFolder function in the package will protect personal information and enable file-sharing between PCs. Enterprise print capabilities in Nterprise Linux Services, hosted on Linux servers, will enable users to access multiple printers via a listing set up on a company's website. Paul Krill writes for InfoWorld

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Linux Security: The Seven Most Deadly Sins
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 23 Jun '03

23 Jun '03

Linux Security: The Seven Most Deadly Sins JUN 20, 2003 By Bob Toxen. Article is provided courtesy of Prentice Hall PTR. The difference between Linux and Windows, according to Bob Toxen, is that with knowledge and a little effort, Linux can be made very secure. However, there are seven problems that affect all unhardened Linux systems regardless of their use. Indulge any of these seven sins and almost certainly your systems will be broken into in one to twelve months. In this detailed excerpt from his book, Real World Linux Security, Bob lays out no-nonsense, thoroughly explained, practical advice that will boost the security of an "out of the box" Linux system by an order of magnitude. More at http://informit.com/content/index.asp?product_id={5E5625C1-0F22-4A8D-94D4-3… Source: InformIT

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DEBIAN: Plans in India for 10th anniversary?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 Jun '03

21 Jun '03

_______________________________________________ Debian soon to be 10 years old The Debian GNU/Linux distribution will have been around for a decade on August 16th, and project members have planning celebrations on several continents. While few details have been confirmed at this stage, debconf.org has put together a page to coordinate efforts. In the UK, a party in Cambridge has been proposed, but there's still time for alternative proposals. http://www.debconf.org/10years/ _______________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indialists.org: Taking the development debate online to discuss issues related to India's health, education, environment and more... -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Fsf-friends] NEWS: New initiative packages Free Software for Governments
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

New initiative packages Free Software for Governments SOMEWHERE IN CYBERSPACE, June 20: Governments bold enough to opt for the freedom that comes with Free Software now have another tool in their armoury that will make their switchover easier. A Free Software package know as Government Distro was launched on June 19th by the Free Software Consortium (FSC), a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and distribution of Free Sofware. Free Software gives its users the freedom to run, study, redistribute and improve the vital code that goes into the software programs, and a number of governments across the globe have been either opting for it or seriously studing its potential in anticipation of a switch-over. Some governments have favoured Free Software not just for its technological prowess, but also for the transparency it offers, its affordability and its very 'sharable' nature without being encumbered by licensing restrictions. Government Distro is a compilation of programmes that are already being widely used by the public sector in Brazil, Argentina and Spain. It contains the GNU/Linux Operating System, an Office suite called Open Office, email and instant messenger, and many other applications, according to a statement from the Free Software Consortium. "Government Distro is meant to be the first big step towards the implementation of Free Software in the public sector around the world", says Jaco Ainzenman, one of the FSC founders, and current Business Development Government Body Coordinator. "All these programs have been used and tested previously, in order to certify its functionality. They have all being designed by highly talented hackers all around the world," said Ainzenman. The a full version of Government Distro is available for download at www.fsc.cc/governmentdistro. All the programmes in Government Distro are user-friendly and have been in used since 1999. Besides, Free Software Consortium is offering technical assitance for Government Distro users. More information is available from governmentdistro(a)fsc.cc

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Robot... walking on GNU/Linux
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- >From the PRC (Project Resource Centre) mailing list on sarai.net (Delhi): --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 23:51:02 +0530 From: Sagar Behere <behere(a)sancharnet.in> To: prc(a)mail.sarai.net Subject: [PRC] final update: project successfully completed :-))) Reply-To: prc(a)mail.sarai.net Hello all, We are the robotics guys. For those who were not following the initial posts (but clicked on this one after reading the subject ;-), here is a quick recap. "We were planning to build a robot and control it using free software." Now let's move on to the results. We have build a 4 degree of freedom SCARA type robot. SCARA stands for Selective Compliance Assembly Robotic Arm. A SCARA robot has an elbow and a forearm (both rotate) and a vertical linear arm. There is a last roll axis which is used for orientation of the tool. The joints used stepper motors as their actuators. We adapted the Enhanced Machine Controller software for our purposes. We wrote the robot kinematics module and the same has been successfully integrated into the mainstream code. Here is what the control software can make the robot do: 1) The robot can be programmed using the CNC industry standard G and M codes. You can create a drawing in a CAM software, it generates these codes. The codes can then be fed to the robot controller and the robot starts moving. Effectively, you draw a shape in the CAM software, and the robot will trace out exactly the same path. 2) The robot has pick-and-place capabilities and point-to-point motion. 3) It is also possible to have "continuous path control" over the robot. This means that the tool tip can be made to follow a desired trajectory in space. 4) Of course, the velocities and accelerations and other things are adjustable. 5) The software is capable of other things like driving servo motors, backlash compensation, PID control etc. 6) Ther eis a backplotter which graphically shows the motion of the tool tip as it moves. 7) Many, many other features :-) A few applications the robot will be useful for are: 1) Spot welding 2) arc welding 3) Applications like applying sealants, glue etc. in manufacturing processes. 4) vertical assembly operations. 5) certain types of machine loading and unloading. 6) painting and coating two and a half degree surfaces 7) light machining operations like drilling, boring, reamming, tapping etc. 8) Engraving. -------------- In conclusion, the robot has successfully achieved its design goals :-) If there are any questions, we'll be glad to answer. Sagar --__--__-- _______________________________________________ prc mailing list prc(a)mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc End of prc Digest

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The Peacemaker
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

The Peacemaker How Linus Torvalds, the man behind Linux, keeps the revolution from becoming a jihad. By David Diamond It's no accident that Linus Torvalds has been calling the shots for Linux longer than most world leaders have been in power. In the 12 years since he uploaded his operating system and became de facto master of the open source universe, the 33-year-old programmer has endured waves of attacks from developer zealots seeking to hijack open source to further their own agendas - toppling Microsoft, fighting the music industry, stopping the commercialization of open source software. Through it all, Torvalds has maintained a Zen-like ability to defuse political opposition and saved Linux from being either co-opted or abandoned. Torvalds, who holds down a day job as a software engineer at chipmaker Transmeta, told Wired how he keeps the peace. WIRED: The open source community has all manner of rabid devotees. What's your strategy for keeping these forces at bay? TORVALDS: My basic strategy has always been to not care too much. It actually ends up working wonders - avoiding confrontation by just walking away. The thing is, I don't usually feel as deeply about some of the issues they feel strongly about, and that makes it easier just to ignore the politics - and as a result, the political consequences. That also allows me to concentrate on the things I do enjoy, namely the technical discussions. How long will that work? Well, it's worked so far. Every once in a while an issue comes up where I have to make a statement. I can't totally avoid all political issues, but I try my best to minimize them. When I do make a statement, I try to be fairly neutral. Again, that comes from me caring a lot more about the technology than about the politics, and that usually means that my opinions are colored mostly by what I think is the right thing to do technically rather than for some nebulous good. You got royally flamed for a recent statement on Slashdot.org in which you defended digital rights management, which is hated by many in the open source community because it allows hardware to lock out some applications. Why did you stick your neck out? I rewrote that post three times. I expected to offend some people, but I wanted to make sure I was fairly noninflammatory. I used humor and tried not to make it a black and white thing. You basically said you're OK with DRM. What effect will that have? The whole point of that post was to set developer expectations right. We've allowed a lot of the technology that DRM requires for a long while already, but from my discussions with some kernel developers, it was clear that not everybody was on the same page as to what that meant for Linux. To avoid future clashes and disappointment, I would much rather bring the issue into the open and make sure people know about it. That way developers can make up their own minds about whether they want to work on a system that may someday be used in ways they don't agree with. Have you lost any sleep over the DRM flamefest? I lose sleep if I end up feeling bad about something I've said. Usually that happens when I send something out without having read it over a few times, or when I call somebody names. I like being on friendly terms with most people. This time it's been a fairly amicable discussion. I expected much worse. Most leaders expend a lot of energy trying to stay in power. What do you do to maintain support? To me, the most important part has always been a certain aura of neutrality. By staying neutral, I end up being somebody that everybody can trust. Even if they don't always agree with my decisions, they know I'm not working against them. People know that when I make a technical decision, it's not politically motivated. Obviously, I also try to maintain support by just being good at what I do. Don't you run the risk of alienating supporters out on the fringes? Part of my job is managing expectations. I have a nagging fear that someone will come up to me years from now and say, "I gave you the best five years of my life, and look what you've let Linux become." You seem pretty thick-skinned and even-keeled. Do you ever doubt yourself? Not really. But I think part of that is because I'm fairly comfortable with the notion of saying "Sorry, I was wrong," even in public. Another way of putting it: I don't have to doubt myself, because to some degree I don't have to care whether I'm right or wrong. If I'm right, I'm right, and if I'm wrong we can go back and fix it. The only thing you generally can't go back and fix later on is that small detail of trust, which is another reason I'd rather bring these things out in the open, so that people know what I think. You've said that you're "just an engineer." What do you mean by that? I wear that as a badge of honor. I think of myself as an engineer, not as a visionary or "big thinker." I don't have any lofty goals. I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Diamond (ddiamond(a)well.com) wrote about Philippine labor exports in Wired 10.06. He's the coauthor, with Torvalds, of Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.

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WinFS horn in Longhorn
by Amol Hatwar 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

I remember M$ touting a new file system called CIFS. I wonder what happened to that... This time they're playing the WinFS horn in their new OS codenamed Longhorn. WinFS is supposed to be M$'s new file system that will make searches faster by maintaining multiple indexes. Also, it also has a built-in RDBMS engine for tracking files... More here: http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20030617/index.html Ciao, ah

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[En Avance] PDF is vulnerable
by Amol Hatwar 19 Jun '03

19 Jun '03

Those who follow security will find the following amusing: An anonymous person has again posted vulnerability information gleaned from the Computer Emergency Response Center (CERT) approximately 10 days in advance of CERT's intended release of information to the public. The vulnerability involves Adobe PDF files; the files might be able to execute arbitrary commands on a system viewing a PDF file that contains malicious hyperlinks. In past months, the anonymous poster who goes by the alias "Hack4life," has somehow managed to obtain private information from CERT without the company's knowledge and subsequently disclosed that information to the public before vendors were ready to do so. CERT works with vendors who experience security problems to coordinate patch and information release. The anonymous person's antics undermine that process. More here: http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=39320 -------- CERT walks the middle ground and does a good job of it, but it is a little humorous to see an entity dedicated to security struggle to protect its own information. The anonymous being behind the leaks even tells the world when new information will be released, and yet his or her identity remains a mystery. The lesson here is that security is only as good as your ability to discern the lack of it. If you ever reach a point where you think you're secure, you are at your most vulnerable then. Ciao, ah

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Linus ... the peacemaker
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 18 Jun '03

18 Jun '03

>From: "Soundara Rajan N.S." <searchlight(a)sancharnet.in> >Subject: [Fsf-friends] The Peacemaker >To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >The Peacemaker >How Linus Torvalds, the man behind Linux, keeps the revolution from >becoming a jihad. >By David Diamond >It's no accident that Linus Torvalds has been calling the shots for Linux >longer than most world leaders have been in power. In the 12 years since >he uploaded his operating system and became de facto master of the open >source Linus Torvalds is an amiable guy, granted. But, it is perhaps a grave mistake to reduce an entire movement to simply building a technically more-efficient solution. Loaded terms by the media don't help either (e.g. "keeps the revolution from becoming a jihad"). Free Software is no more about software alone. It has grown far beyond that. Today, it is challenging the manner in which artificial blocks are used to control the spread of knowledge and information in fields ranging from education to music, from journalism to scientific knowledge. We need to take the boundaries of this debate further. This is an issue that affects the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of millions. We in the information-deficit, knowledge-scarce regions face this daily. Linus seems to look at the word "politics" as something negative. One could argue that even the decision to "keep out politics" is a very political stand in itself. Last year, when I visited Finland in connection with the FLOSS-in-the-developing-world study, there was quite some debate on Linus "just for fun" approach. Someone came up with the suggestion that he was keen to make himself seem less political, so as not to become unacceptable in the US. Sam Williams biography of RMS has an interesting point. To quote Williams: "Most importantly, the MacArthur (genius grant) money gave Stallman more freedom. Already dedicated to the issue of software freedom, Stallman chose to use the additional freedom to increase his travels in support of the GNU Project mission. "Interestingly, the ultimate success of the GNU Project and the free software movement in general would stem from one of those trips. In 1990, Stallman paid a visit to the Polytechnic University in Helsinki, Finland. Among the audience members was 21-year-old Linus Torvalds, future developer of the Linux kernel -- the free software kernel destined to fill the GNU Project's most sizable gap." (Okay, one can expect disagreement here from Free Software enthusiasts over the "sizable gap"...) Williams continues: "When it was time to release the 0.12 version of Linux, the first to include a fully integrated version of GCC, Torvalds decided to voice his allegiance with the free software movement. He discarded the old kernel license and replaced it with the GPL. The decision triggered a porting spree, as Torvalds and his collaborators looked to other GNU programs to fold into the growing Linux stew." Without intending to turn this into a Linus-versus-RMS or Linux-versus-GNU tug-of-war, we must not reduce the entire idealism (or politics, if you want to call it that) that has gone into this movement which is nearly two decades old. Should we diminish the goal to just building technically efficient software? Or is this a battle over whether knowledge itself becomes another commodity, sold to the highest bidder? FN PS: They say, reasonable men change to the ways of the world. Therefore, all progress depends on unreasonable men.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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