- Fsf-friends - lists.fsci.in

W3C approves patent policy
by Kanti Jadia 23 May '03

23 May '03

hi, http://www.w3.org/ The policy http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20030520.html public Director's decision http://www.w3.org/2003/05/12-director-patent-decision-public.html the press release http://www.w3.org/2003/05/patentpolicy-pressrelease patent policy home page http://www.w3.org/2001/ppwg/ --------------------------------------------------- FSF's Position on Proposed W3 Consortium "Royalty-Free" Patent Policy http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/w3c-patent.html regards Kanti ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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Ghostscript: No longer GNU
by Amol Hatwar 23 May '03

23 May '03

Hi all, Ghostscript 7.07 is the last Ghostscript release as Free (GPL'ed) software. Future versions will be labeled GNU Ghostscript. They say in a story at their site that their development process has become incompatible with the goals of the GNU project as interpreted by Richard Stallman. The story can be read here: http://www.ghostscript.com/article/41.html Can someone shed light on this issue? Regards, ah ________________ It's most certainly GNU/Linux, and not Linux. Read more here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

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From Wharton: Social Entrepreneurship
by Amol Hatwar 22 May '03

22 May '03

Hi all, I remember sending a link to an article that talked about social-entrepreneurship again. I subscribe to wharton's newletter called 'Knowledge'. Instead of talking pure business, Wharton gives the issue apt focus. Accessing the resources may require registration. Point your browsers to: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/052103_ss.html Regards, ah

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Sarovar.org
by Nagarjuna G. 22 May '03

22 May '03

----- Forwarded message from Radhakrishnan CV <cvr(a)river-valley.org> ----- > Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 00:52:08 +0530 (IST) > From: Radhakrishnan CV <cvr(a)river-valley.org> > Subject: [OT] Sarovar.org > To: Nagarjuna G <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> > > > Can you post the following in an appropriate FSF List? > > Thanks for your assistance. > > Radhakrishnan > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > > We are happy to announce the release of Sarovar.org to the world! > > Sarovar.org is a portal for hosting FLOSS projects, similar to > sourceforge or Savannah. As far as we are aware it is India's first > and only site to offer such facilities. Sarovar.org has all the > features that you will expect from such a site, including web space, > mail lists, cvs etc. > > The root of the idea to have such a site can be traced back to the > Indic computing meeting at Bangalore, where there was a desire to have > some hosting space for Indic computing projects. We had some > discussions about it back in Trivandrum and we thought we can make > such a space for developers in India for hosting their work. The > result is sarovar.org. > > Sarovar.org is a Compaq machine running Debian Woody and a customized > gforge. It is hosted in Trivandrum and connected to BSNL, VSNL and > SingTel. All the traffic from it should come without leaving > India. We are also planning to mirror some important sites right here, > including Linux kernel and mail lists. We are also open to other ideas > to use this resource. Please let me know if you have any. > > Please feel free to pass this news to other lists or people who might > also be interested in such a facility. > > With warm regards, > > Radhakrishnan > ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun at hbcse tifr res in. http://www.gnowledge.org/ I support Public Library of Science http://www.plos.org/

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Confirmation regarding the Akhruti fonts
by Sayamindu Dasgupta 21 May '03

21 May '03

Hi, As you may know, the Free Bangla Fonts Project had converted all the fonts from Akruthi, and had released it under the package Mukti (Freedom). We are going to re-release the Mukti package once again under the release name Mukti Reloaded ;-), and it will contain the fonts *not* withdrawn by Cyberscape. However, now the fonts will be going into the distros, and can someone reconfirm the name of the fonts that were withdrawn by Cyberscape. -thanks- Sayamindu -- Sayamindu Dasgupta [http://www.peacefulaction.org/sayamindu/] Get my Public Keys at http://www.peacefulaction.org/sayamindu/keys.html : ####[ GNU/Linux One Stanza Tip (LOST) ]####################### Sub : Simple console calculator (#2) LOST #222 A command line calculator which also understands precedence: Try :$echo "(12 + 2) / (5 + 2) ^ 2" | bc ### integer maths Or :$echo "scale=4; (17 / 3) + 0.517" | bc ### 'real' maths Note:'scale' is the decimal round off figure (real numbers). ####<bish(a)nde.vsnl.net.in>#################################### :

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Geek fair
by Raj Shekhar 19 May '03

19 May '03

Free Geek (freegeek.org) is based in Portland, Oregon, FREE GEEK is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that recycles used technology to provide computers, education and access to the internet to those in need in exchange for community service. They are organizing a GEEK FAIR. Below are the details. Please spread the word around. ========= Sunday, June 29, noon-8pm FREE GEEK's 2nd Annual GEEK FAIR Block Party An all day event on the block in front of FREE GEEK. Hard Drive Shuffleboard, Live Music, Square Dancing, Food, Sidewalk Sale, Funny Hats. Wow, There is so much going on...Well, just rest assured that this will be the greatest day of your life. And if you decide to stop by, it will be ours too. We now return to you to our Donation FAQ, already in progress... -------------- Hi, Due to an overwhelming response, we are sending form replies to most inquires and some information given may not apply to your request, DONATIONS: We accept any computers and any related hardware, in any condition. We also accept: Video Monitors Software and manuals Printers Terminals Fax Machines Telephones We DO NOT Accept: Televisions Microwave Ovens Copiers Appliances COST: We have a fee of $10.00 per monitor (CRT) regardless of condition. If you are donating equipment that is known to be broken or a computer older than a 586 PC or PPC Mac, we do ask for a voluntary $5.00 donation per system, to help with our processing costs. DROP-OFF: We are located at 1731 SE 10th Avenue, Portland (2-1/2 blocks south of Hawthorne Blvd.). Our hours are 11a - 7p Tuesday - Saturday. PICK-UP: Unfortunately, we cannot provide pick up for donations at this time. We do hope to add pick-up services in the future. WHAT HAPPENS TO DONATED COMPUTERS AND EQUIPMENT: Pentium PCs and some 486-level machines are tested and refurbished if possible. Most of the refurbished computer systems are then made available to our clients in exchange for volunteer time at FREE GEEK. Some computers are given to local non-profit organizations. We do sell some equipment in our Thrift Store if it is not crucial to our mission of giving away systems. Older machines such as 286 and 386 PCs are salvaged for useful parts and the remainder is recycled, recovering the metals and plastics for re-use. Monitors, printers and other components are also evaluated for re-use, with all non-functioning or obsolete components being recycled. Apple Computers and Apple clones are also accepted, all computers older than a PPC are transferred to Mac Renewal, a Eugene organization that repairs and refurbishes the donations and makes them available to kids, seniors and the differently abled. WHAT HAPPENS TO INFORMATION LEFT ON COMPUTERS: All functioning hard drives are re-formatted at least twice during our testing and refurbishing process. Non-functioning or older, smaller drives are physically destroyed during the recycling process. TAX DEDUCTIBLE RECEIPTS: FREE GEEK is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization and can provide you with a receipt for your tax-deductible donation. PREPARING YOUR DONATION FOR DROP-OFF: Please bring as little packaging and boxes as possible. Please recycle the boxes for your equipment through your curb-side recycling program. We no longer recycle Styrofoam, but you can drop it off at the Metro Recycling Transfer Station, call 503-234-3000 for more information. RECYCLING SOFTWARE AND MANUALS: We no longer accept all software and manuals. The paper and cardboard packaging can be recycled in your mixed paper curb-side recycling bin. The portion that cannot be recycled through your curbside program can be brought to FREE GEEK, such as the floppy diskettes, CDs and jewel cases. If you have the manuals for specific pieces of equipment (i.e. motherboards) please bring them with the equipment. EXTRA CREDIT: Recycling computer is labor intensive. Doing any of the following to prepare your equipment for donation will help us speed the processing and recycling of your equipment. Untangle all cords and cables. Coil them up with a rubber band or twist tie. Attach power adapters (AC adapters, transformers) to their associated equipment (such as powered speakers, printers or external modems) as best you can, we suggest wrapping with clear packing tape. Specific Computer Equipment Needs: - Pentium II class (and faster) computers - Memory (72 and 168 pin) - Hard drives (2 GB and larger) - Modems (28.8k and faster) - 10 bT and 100bT network hubs - CAT5 network cable - RJ45 connectors/wall jacks - HP inkjet cartridges Technician needs: - Technician manuals (PC repair) - Linux/Unix Manuals - Phillips head screwdrivers - Flat head screwdrivers - Stardrivers (Torx) - Nutdrivers - Powerdrivers w/recharger - Multi-testors - Needlenose pliers - Wire cutters - Tin snips Other Misc. Needs: - Digital camera - Cleaning supplies - Food (snacks, Mountain Dew) - Office supplies - Rubber bands - Printer paper - Magic markers - Tape (scotch, masking, duct) - Storage shelving - Shop carts - Warehouse carts Thanks, Rev.Phil Sano Office Manager revphil(a)freegeek.org FREE GEEK Community Technology Center 1731 SE 10th Avenue Portland, OR 97214 (503) 232-9350 12p-8p Tu- Sa www.freegeek.org sign-up for our email newsletter: freegeek-news-request(a)romhat.net ===== FREE GEEK 1731 SE 10th Avenue Portland, OR 97214 (503) 232-9350 www.freegeek.org info(a)freegeek.org -- Raj Shekhar http://geocities.com/lunatech3007/

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Security in M$
by CK Raju 18 May '03

18 May '03

Another blow to security conscious M$ users Windows 2000 renders Windows XP passwords useless. Someone could dig out truth in this article http://www.brainsbuzz.com/w/030213/ CK Raju

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Mailman udpated
by Nagarjuna G. 18 May '03

18 May '03

Due to some unknown problems which could not be fixed with the old version, I decided to upgrade mailman to 2.1 version. This version seems to be more feature rich particularly for the administrators. During this repairing period all the messages posted were delivered yesterday early morning. Please let me know if you are facing any recent problems. this will help us to keep mailman working better. If any of you know mailman very well and are willing to coordinate with me the lists, please come forward. Thanks for your cooperation. Nagarjuna

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by Indranil Das Gupta 16 May '03

16 May '03

confirm 931595

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[Fsf-friends] Re: Fsf-friends -- confirmation of subscription -- request 931595
by Indranil Das Gupta 16 May '03

16 May '03

On Friday 16 May 2003 04:28 pm, fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in wrote: > Fsf-friends -- confirmation of subscription -- request 931595 > > We have received a request from 61.0.137.80 for subscription of your > email address, <indradg(a)cal.vsnl.net.in>, to the > fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in mailing list. To confirm the request, > please send a message to fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in, and > either: > > - maintain the subject line as is (the reply's additional "Re:" is > ok), > > - or include the following line - and only the following line - in the > message body: > > confirm 931595 > > (Simply sending a 'reply' to this message should work from most email > interfaces, since that usually leaves the subject line in the right > form.) > > If you do not wish to subscribe to this list, please simply disregard > this message. Send questions to fsf-friends-admin(a)mm.gnu.org.in. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GnuPG Keys : http://www.icbic.com/indradg/gnupg/ Fingerprint : 2F63 DFF3 939D 1988 99FD FF0E 4EAE A4B1 B196 C4DB -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Fsf-friends] Re: Fsf-friends -- confirmation of subscription -- request 224484
by Balaji N 16 May '03

16 May '03

>On Fri, 16 May 2003 15:32:09 0530 fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in wrote. >Fsf-friends -- confirmation of subscription -- request 224484 > >We have received a request from 203.145.186.2 for subscription of your >email address, <nbalaji(a)rootshell.be>, to the >fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in mailing list. To confirm the request, >please send a message to fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in, and >either: > >- maintain the subject line as is (the reply's additional "Re:" is >ok), > >- or include the following line - and only the following line - in the >message body: > >confirm 224484 > >(Simply sending a 'reply' to this message should work from most email >interfaces, since that usually leaves the subject line in the right >form.) > >If you do not wish to subscribe to this list, please simply disregard >this message. Send questions to fsf-friends-admin(a)mm.gnu.org.in. > nbalaji at rootshell dot be www.members.irtt.org/~balaji

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[Fwd: Kudumbasree]
by Arun M 16 May '03

16 May '03

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Test Message
by Nagarjuna G. 16 May '03

16 May '03

Please ignore, another test message, list is down it seems. Nagarjuna

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Kudumbasree
by Arun M 15 May '03

15 May '03

Hi, Kudumbasree project in kerala is planning to hold one day workshop on free software at various centers in Kerala. By 21'st this month a workshop will have to be done at Ernakulam, Pls mail me if some one from Ekm can help. Also a Northen region workshop will be conducted at Vayanad by 26th. Any volunteers ? . Arun.

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Test
by Nagarjuna G. 14 May '03

14 May '03

Test message, please ignore! Admin

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NEWS: 'Banned' Xbox hacking book selling fast
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 14 May '03

14 May '03

URL : http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/30627.html 9 May 2003 'Banned' Xbox hacking book selling fast By [39]Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Posted: 09/05/2003 at 09:32 GMT Hacker-engineer Andrew "Bunnie" Huang says he's already pre-sold between 400 and 500 copies of his self-published tell-all "Hacking the Xbox: an Introduction to Reverse Engineering," weeks before its scheduled May 27th publication date, despite -- or perhaps because of -- looming suspicions by some that the book skirts the edges of legality. "It' s about getting the book out there on principle, because I can't find a publisher willing to publish it," says Huang. "I think it's controversial, but not illegal." With chapters on "Soldering Techniques" and "Installing a Blue LED," Huang's how-to may not seem an obvious candidate for joining Huckleberry Finn and Harry Potter on history's sad list of once-banned books. But Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox, has taken a dim view of home modifications of the game console, focusing its litigious ire in particular on "mod chips" that allow Xbox owners to run software that Microsoft hasn't approved and licensed. With a mod chip installed, users can run everything from virtual juke boxes to the Linux operating system on the game platform -- as well as pirated copies of Xbox games. Last year, a Microsoft lawsuit temporarily shut down the Hong Kong-based company Lik Sang, which sold mod chips over the Internet. And last month, mod chip entrepreneur David Rocci was [40]sentenced to five months in federal custody for conspiracy to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Rocci was the proprietor of a U.S. website that sold mod chips and helped users locate pirated copies of Xbox games to run on their modified machines. Huang says his book describes some types of mod chips -- explains how they work, and what lessons they offer designers of secure hardware platforms. For example the "Matrix" chip installs solderlessly over a test port manufacturers left on the Xbox motherboard. "You don't leave these test structures on the motherboard, if you want it secure," says Huang. Another chapter helps readers replace the machine's firmware -- a mod chip trick used by sophisticated pirates and tinkerers. "They can be used by the pirating community, and they can be used by the Linux community -- so that one chapter that talks about firmware devices plays to the Linux community," says Huang. "I believe that should be a legal activity." DMCA Fears The book also revisits a technique that cemented Huang's reputation as a hardware hacker last year, which involves building custom hardware to intercept an encryption key as it crosses the Xbox's internal high-speed bus. To avoid legal complications, Huang published his research paper on the technique only after receiving permission from Microsoft, negotiated with the help of EFF attorney Lee Tien. "To get the paper published in the first place we had to negotiate a legal mine field," say Tien, who went on to contribute a chapter on the legalities of reverse engineering to Huang's book. But Huang didn't get Microsoft's blessing for Hacking the Xbox, which goes beyond discussing a single hacking technique. The book aims to teach readers how to think like a hardware hacker, using the internal secrets of the game console the way a med school teacher uses Gray's Anatomy. With the boundaries of federal copyright law, particularly the DMCA, unclear, Huang says tech-publishing house John Wiley & Sons got cold feet and withdrew its plans to publish the book sometime after Rocci's guilty plea. Wiley didn't return phone calls on the matter. Unable to find another publisher, Huang elected to sell the book himself through the Web. He dug into his own pockets to fund a print run of 1,000 books, which he says will be delivered to his home later this month. "It'll be only a matter of two weeks when a pallet of books comes to my doorstep," he says. "Every book will be boxed by my own two hands." Huang began accepting credit cards through his [41]website this week, after already selling nearly half of his initial print run through a PayPal account. He says he's barely reached the break-even point. "He's not going to make a huge amount of money," says Tien. "He thinks that it's worthwhile stuff. That it's interesting, and it's teaching people." "Mainly, at this point, it's boiled down to a political battle, for the freedom to tinker," says Huang. "For my entire life I've been playing with hardware. This is the first time someone's told me I can't play with hardware because it's illegal." Related story [42]MIT grad student shows how to read Xbox security key" [reg_bullet.gif] [43]Cash'n'Carrion Reg Shop [44][hardhome;area=hardhome;pos!=2;sz=160x600;tile=1;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5 ;ord=100054?] 41. http://hackingthexbox.com/

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Re: Report Re:GNU/Linux awareness meet
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 14 May '03

14 May '03

Details from Jabalpur and Girish <girish(a)apnajabalpur.com> about a recent GNU/Linux event there. FN > herez the details, pardon me if Ive slipped in writing. > We have taken a month's off from our regular weekly meets due to various > reasons, however, the interactions continue informally. > > The detailed report about the event is enclosed. We are yet to recieve > the few photographs we took. > > If you have any queries, please do write back, > > Thanks for your encouragement and support, > With best regards, > > -Girish Shukla > ========== > Linux Users' Group Jabalpur > Website: http://jbplug.sf.net > Mail-list: http://yahoogroups.com/group/jbp-lug > > The Event: > The GNU-Linux awareness meet was held on 20th April, 2003 at premises of > Dubey Chemistry Classes, Wright town, Jabalpur. The event was arranged > at a short notice of less than a week. > > The Objective: > The event was first for jbp-lug marking one year of the lug here. > The objective was to create awareness about software issues and > importance and advantages of GNU-Linux beyond our weekly Sunday meetings. > The event has opened new channels for larger events and activities of > such nature. > > How it went: > 1.Event began around 15 minutes late at 4:45 pm with a brief > introduction about the LUG, Linux and FLOSS. > 2.Linux as a Desktop and server was demonstrated using RedHat8 and MDK9. > 3.This was immediately followed by screening of The Code Linux movie. > ~At intervals, explanation with examples was given in Hindi about what > the movie is saying for those not comfortable with English medium.~ > 4.A technical discussion session followed with discussions from Clusters > to Sockets related to Linux. > 5.The event concluded at around 8 pm with informal interactions and > hands-on experience by newbies on Linux. > > Most of the publicity was through 'tell your friend' i.e. word of mouth. > The event had attendence of around 40-50 people and 10 active LUG > members. No commercial sponserships were solicited for the event and no > fee was charged to anyone. > Only dampening factors being the extremely hot weather, and technical > discussion stretching for longer than scheduled. > The event was attended mostly by students. Engg. students from as far > as, Bhopal had come. There were students from BCA, MCA, Science, > Commerce and Engg. > > Lessons learnt from the event: > ======Light================ > 1.Half baked Techies from MSN's Ovens must be kept in separate box from > the general public. > 2.Seminars Still cause headache. > 3.Free chai is not always a good idea. Instead, Everyone has the Freedom > to buy their own cut-ting. > =======Sober=============== > 4.Good orators, or even good techies can help promote GNU/Linux better. > If few mentors, experts can visit smaller lugs once a while, it will help. > 5.Mentors needed for small lugs. > 6.Distro CDs and demos help a lot in creating awareness and are > essential for LUG. > Somehow, we should ensure that we get the latest distros here in time. > [Presently, Karunakar has been of great help to us in contributing for > the same]. > 7.Large numbers may or may not necessarily be good and fruitful. It is > essential that the message of FLOSS and Linux is effectively communicated. > 8.A LUG works best as a Linux Fans' Club. It accomodates everyone and > everyones' views and concerns in an open and sincere manner. > 9.Events facilitate new ideas and new friends. > 10.Localisation efforts are an important factor for growth of Linux. > > Based on post event response, and the laudable efforts of members, > despite the few glitches, the event objective was achieved but lot > remains to be done. >From girish(a)apnajabalpur.com Wed May 14 09:46:14 2003 I must add,names of members[in no particular order]who made it possible: Mr.Neependra Khare BE Comp. GRKIST Mr.Arnab Ganguly BE IT JEC Mr.Shubham Mishra BE Comp. JEC Mr.Sarvesh Rathore BE Comp. JEC Mr.Anurag Gautam & Mohit BCA JCC Also,Mr.Piyush Shukla BE JEC, Mr.Himanshu Ahirwar B.Com.GKC and many other people who contributed directly or indirectly. Thanks also due to Mr.Pradeep Dubey for providing us space and facility. -Girish

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HP's people notebook running GNU/Linux
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 13 May '03

13 May '03

URL : http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2134514,00.html The HP 'people's notebook' runs Linux 09:40 Monday 12th May 2003 [21]Winston Chai, CNETAsia HP has launched a low cost 'people's notebook' in Asia that is preloaded with Linux Hewlett-Packard is selling a low-cost "people's notebook" running Linux, believed to be the first time that the US IT giant has sold a consumer computer with the open-source operating system installed. HP custom-made the Linux notebook to support a Thai government drive to increase computer ownership, reported the English-language Thai dailies The Bangkok Post and The Nation. The authorities have subsidised the cost of the portable, along with a desktop PC made by a Thai firm. Crowds thronged a Bangkok convention centre on Friday to view and buy the machines. HP's budget laptop will retail for 19,500 Baht (�285). It features an 800 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 128MB of RAM and a 20GB harddisk. There is no CD-ROM or floppy drive. The desktop, made by local computer makers Belta, SVOA and Computec, costs 10,900 Baht (�159). It sports an Intel Celeron 1GHz processor, 128MB of RAM, a 52x CD-ROM drive, 20GB of hard disk space and comes with a 15-inch monitor, speakers and a keyboard. Both machines were introduced by Thailand's Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) ministry and are loaded with Linux TLE, the Thai-language version of the Linux operating system. The ministry will offer 100,000 computers at first but they plan to ramp up to a million in subsequent phases, said the reports. The Ministry has also worked out an easy-pay instalment plan with local banks for buyers. About 30,000 people showed up Queen Sirikit Convention Centre in Bangkok on Friday to view the machines, with some waiting in line from 3am. While the machines appealed to those who could never have afforded a computer before, more sophisticated shoppers were put off by the basic configurations, reported The Nation. HP in Singapore could not offer more details about the Linux notebook at press time. Until now, the use of Linux has largely been confined to servers and not in consumer desktops, a space which is still dominated by Microsoft's Windows OS and to a smaller extent, Apple's Macintosh. None of the large US-based PC makers -- HP, IBM and Dell -- are known to sell consumer desktops or notebook with the Linux OS pre-installed. Smaller makers such as ECS from Taiwan offer Linux as an option in their low-cost, batteryless notebooks, also known as desknotes. US-based manufacturer Lindows also offers Linux-based desktops and a $799 (�496) notebook. _________________________________________________________________ Is Linux really a viable alternative to Windows on the desktop? Read the latest headlines at ZDNet UK's [22]Operating Systems News Section. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,,t285,00.html

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Fwd: [lahar23@hotmail.com: [LIG] GNU- Lesser General Public License- Help Needed]
by Nagarjuna G. 12 May '03

12 May '03

Could some one help him? Nagarjuna

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Akruti fonts
by Kanti Jadia 12 May '03

12 May '03

http://www.gnu.org.in/ Cyberscape ,the company which released the first set of Indic fonts under GPL has withdrawn some of the fonts due to possible copyright issues. Cyberscape ,which released the Akruti fonts under GPL has withdrawn the following fonts due to possible copyright issues. Devnagari - dev1-n.ttf and dev1-b.ttf Gujarati - guj2-n.ttf and guj2-b.ttf Bengali - bng1-n.ttf and bng1-b.ttf Kannada - knd2-n.ttf and knd2-b.ttf Tamil - tml2-n.ttf and tml2-b.ttf Telugu - tlg1-n.ttf and tlg1-b.ttf Punjabi - pnj1-n.ttf and pnj1-b.ttf Oriya - ori2-n.ttf and ori2-b.ttf Malayalam - mal1-n.ttf and mal1-b.ttf FSF-India discourages the use of the above mentioned fonts for your work, particularly GPL based work. We regret for the inconvenience caused ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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Re: Re: [Fsf-friends] Prof Nagarjuna G
by Kanti Jadia 12 May '03

12 May '03

i don't know which cat per se. Lets get the syllabus for the various universities first. (in soft copy preferably) regards Kanti On Sun, 11 May 2003 Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote : >Okay, but who will bell the cat? This could be an important 'cat' >to >spread Free Software in our colleges. FN > >On Fri, 9 May 2003, Kanti Jadia wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > It would be better to customize knoppix for this. > > > > regards > > > > Kanti > > > > On Fri, 09 May 2003 Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote : > > >Prof Nag, I'm going to mention this at a college talk in >Goa. > > >We're > > >waiting anxiously for it ;-) And I'm going to bug you till >you > > >get > > >there... FN > > > > > >--- > > >I am presently planning a single CD distribution containing >the > > >applications > > >and goodies requiered for a regular engineering college >student. > > >I would > > >like to keep in mind the syllabus and projects students do. >Can > > >some of you > > >tell us what kind of applications are used/needed by >students? > > >We can build > > >the list and sit on one sunday and make the distro. Debian > > >GNU/Linux has > > >special scripts to make custom CDs from their original >master > > >distribution. > > >I am planning to use this. --Prof Nagarjuna G > > >http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/search/college-distro/ > > > > > >-- > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >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 > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > > >Fsf-friends mailing list > > >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > > > > > ----------------------------------------- > > Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. > > http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html > > ----------------------------------------- > > > >-- >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >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 >------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >_______________________________________________ >Fsf-friends mailing list >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Prof Nagarjuna G
by Suresh Titus John 12 May '03

12 May '03

Syllabi for some of the courses at IITs are available online. IIT Madras: http://www.iitm.ac.in/academics/curriculum.html IIT Bombay: http://www.iitb.ac.in/courses/index.html IIT Kharagpur: http://www.iitkgp.ernet.in/acadsnew/curric.php Hope these are useful. /Suresh Titus On Mon, 12 May 2003 Kanti Jadia wrote : >i don't know which cat per se. > >Lets get the syllabus for the various universities first. >(in soft copy preferably) > >regards > >Kanti > >On Sun, 11 May 2003 Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote : >>Okay, but who will bell the cat? This could be an important >>'cat' to >>spread Free Software in our colleges. FN >> >>On Fri, 9 May 2003, Kanti Jadia wrote: >> >> >> > Hi, >> > >> > It would be better to customize knoppix for this. >> > >> > regards >> > >> > Kanti >> > >> > On Fri, 09 May 2003 Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote : >> > >Prof Nag, I'm going to mention this at a college talk in >>Goa. >> > >We're >> > >waiting anxiously for it ;-) And I'm going to bug you till >>you >> > >get >> > >there... FN >> > > >> > >--- >> > >I am presently planning a single CD distribution containing >>the >> > >applications >> > >and goodies requiered for a regular engineering college >>student. >> > >I would >> > >like to keep in mind the syllabus and projects students do. >>Can >> > >some of you >> > >tell us what kind of applications are used/needed by >>students? >> > >We can build >> > >the list and sit on one sunday and make the distro. >>Debian >> > >GNU/Linux has >> > >special scripts to make custom CDs from their original >>master >> > >distribution. >> > >I am planning to use this. --Prof Nagarjuna G >> > >http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/search/college-distro/ >> > > >> > >-- >> > >> >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > >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 >> > >> >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > > >> > >_______________________________________________ >> > >Fsf-friends mailing list >> > >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >> > >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends >> > >> > >> > ----------------------------------------- >> > Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. >> > http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html >> > ----------------------------------------- >> > >> >>-- >>------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>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 >>------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Fsf-friends mailing list >>Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >>http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > >----------------------------------------- >Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. >http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html >----------------------------------------- > >_______________________________________________ >Fsf-friends mailing list >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Prof Nagarjuna G
by Suresh Titus John 12 May '03

12 May '03

Syllabi for courses at IITs are available online. IIT Madras: http://www.iitm.ac.in/academics/curriculum.html IIT Bombay: http://www.iitb.ac.in/courses/index.html IIT Kharagpur: http://www.iitkgp.ernet.in/acadsnew/curric.php Hope these are useful. /Suresh Titus On Mon, 12 May 2003 Kanti Jadia wrote : >i don't know which cat per se. > >Lets get the syllabus for the various universities first. >(in soft copy preferably) > >regards > >Kanti > >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends

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[Fsf-friends] Fwd: Issue #49 of Georg's Brave GNU World, the monthly GNU forum has been relea
by Kanti Jadia 12 May '03

12 May '03

Note: Forwarded message attached -- Orignal Message -- From: "Georg C. F. Greve" <greve(a)gnu.org> To: Brave GNU World Announcement Mailinglist <brave-gnu-world(a)gnu.org> Cc: "comp.os.linux.announce Moderator" <linux-announce(a)sws1.ctd.ornl.gov> Subject: Issue #49 of Georg's Brave GNU World, the monthly GNU forum has been released. ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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The social enterprise
by Amol Hatwar 12 May '03

12 May '03

Hi all, Perhaps budding Entrepreneurs might want to read this article at C|Net. Here's a link: http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-999961.html The article talks about making technology deliver maximum good the people first, and then worrying about finances later. Jim Frutecherman (the author) describes the social enterprise as a technology venture run like a business but structured as a nonprofit with two bottom lines: social and financial. The goal is not to make lots of money, but instead, to deliver the maximum good while operating in a sustainable manner (generally at breakeven). The technology user is treated as a customer--not the recipient of charity--and the enterprise must meet his or her needs or lose revenue. ___________________ It's most certainly GNU/Linux, and not Linux. Read more here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

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Second Consultation in Delhi (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 10 May '03

10 May '03

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Trillion dollar dreams
by Amol Hatwar 10 May '03

10 May '03

Hi all, I had decided to stop M$ bashing, but this recent article at salon.com that talks of possible aftermath of a security vulnerability at hotmail.com. I now feel motivated to use this in more material that I write and speak about from now on. Perhaps, you'd want to do the same. Here's the URL: http://salon.com/tech/wire/2003/05/08/passport/index.html It's most certainly GNU/Linux, and not Linux. Read more here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Prof Nagarjuna G
by Kanti Jadia 09 May '03

09 May '03

Hi, It would be better to customize knoppix for this. regards Kanti On Fri, 09 May 2003 Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote : >Prof Nag, I'm going to mention this at a college talk in Goa. >We're >waiting anxiously for it ;-) And I'm going to bug you till you >get >there... FN > >--- >I am presently planning a single CD distribution containing the >applications >and goodies requiered for a regular engineering college student. >I would >like to keep in mind the syllabus and projects students do. Can >some of you >tell us what kind of applications are used/needed by students? >We can build >the list and sit on one sunday and make the distro. Debian >GNU/Linux has >special scripts to make custom CDs from their original master >distribution. >I am planning to use this. --Prof Nagarjuna G >http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/search/college-distro/ > >-- >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >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 >------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >_______________________________________________ >Fsf-friends mailing list >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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Prof Nagarjuna G
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 09 May '03

09 May '03

Prof Nag, I'm going to mention this at a college talk in Goa. We're waiting anxiously for it ;-) And I'm going to bug you till you get there... FN --- I am presently planning a single CD distribution containing the applications and goodies requiered for a regular engineering college student. I would like to keep in mind the syllabus and projects students do. Can some of you tell us what kind of applications are used/needed by students? We can build the list and sit on one sunday and make the distro. Debian GNU/Linux has special scripts to make custom CDs from their original master distribution. I am planning to use this. --Prof Nagarjuna G http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/search/college-distro/ -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 department plans Rs 1.5-cr Linux push
by searchlight＠sancharnet.in 09 May '03

09 May '03

IT department plans Rs 1.5-cr Linux push SUDHA NAGARAJ Source: 'Economic Times' dt May 09, 2003 TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MAY 09, 2003 12:37:57 AM ] NEW DELHI: IBM chief Samuel J Palmisano's 'learning' visit to India may have gone off more silently than expected. But his pitch to the Centre on the benefits of using Linux was not wasted. While maintaining that its stance is of strict technology, platform and vendor neutrality, it is equally true that the Department of Information Technology has also crafted its own Linux India Initiative. Minister for information technology, Arun Shourie informed Lok Sabha that a proposal for the same has been submitted to the Planning Commission for budgetary support during '03-04 as part of DIT's annual plan for '03-04. Government sources reveal that Rs 150 lakh is proposed for the Initiative now. Funds will be spent after formal approval. Opportunities and relevance of open source, more specifically, GNU/Linux in the Indian context has been discussed among DIT officials, industry, academicians, state governments, developers and NGOs late last year. All of them were interested in pursuing the initiative. While it is becoming clear that the authorities are not interested in getting into a proprietary and open source software tussle, Mr Shourie has stressed that the DIT has not prescribed preferential treatment of one over the other. But the fact is that there is space for both and the choice must be exercised by each user. The Linux India Initiative emerged out of the multi-stake holder meeting as a consensual action plan, after specific steps such as setting up of resource centres, special interest groups, suitable provisions in the procurement policy of the government and government institutions, R&D, labs of various educational institutions, especially engineering colleges. Interestingly, some work was already on in DIT societies in the area of open source software. C-DAC, Mumbai (erstwhile National Centre for Software Technology) has developed Linux with Hindi language support and development is now underway for supporting other Indian languages also. Funds allotted for development of INDIX localisation of Linux - Phase I during '00-01 was Rs 39 lakh. In '02-03, Rs 50 lakh has been spent for Phase II. In the overall trend, support for Indian language has also been developed by IT vendors - specifically IBM middleware. Efforts are now on to roll out support that adheres to Linux standards by unifying individual efforts by IITs and C-DAC. It is learnt IBM is in touch with these developers and as soon as the support confirms to standards, not only the operating system, but also the applications will have Linux support. ====================================================== posted by NSS

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NEWS: IBM invests to develop open source software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 08 May '03

08 May '03

IBM invests to develop open source software By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service Bangalore, May 7 (IANS) IBM India Wednesday formally agreed to set up its Linux-based centre of excellence in Hubli, 400 km from here, in a bid to develop talent and technology devoted to open source software. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Karnataka and IBM India provides the framework for the discussions that IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano had with Chief Minister S.M. Krishna Monday. "The Hubli branch of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Bangalore) is the single largest point of over 100 students working on open source in India," IIIT-B director S. Sadagopan told IANS. "IBM would help guide its emergence as a open source hub for not only talent but also technologies." The importance that Big Blue attached to the MoU signing ceremony could be gauged from the presence of Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, software group, IBM Corp. Frank Luksic, IBM country executive, software group and developer relations, signed the MoU with Karnataka IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni in the presence of Krishna and Abraham Thomas, managing director, IBM India. "IBM has developed several open source technologies that have been accepted by the world," Mills told reporters after the ceremony. "We could, perhaps, look at some of those developed at the centre of excellence after some time. Our investment spans a whole range of activities, including developing software skills and financial elements." However, both Mills and Luksic declined to specify the amount of the investment. "Investment in education cannot be quantified. We go by building skills and talent," said Krishna. The Hubli unit consists of 100 students drawn from seven engineering colleges of north Karnataka, all of whom are working on open source software projects. The branch is linked to IIIT on the outskirts of Bangalore through a virtual private network and the students listen to live lectures daily. The Hubli branch had already received a donation of Rs.10 million from Sudha Murthy, chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. "The setting up of the centre for excellence is a small effort to convert a downloading nation to an uploading nation," Sadagopan said. Said Mills: "IBM is committed to education and skill building. We are excited about this centre of excellence so that we can upload new ideas." "Customers now expect their technology infrastructure and solutions to work with hardware, software and solutions from multiple vendors, bringing to an end the era of proprietary systems. "Industry and governments will now cooperate closely to create innovative and reusable solutions through open source software," Mills added. --Indo-Asian News Service

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Keep an Open Mind About Open Source: It's the Law!
by searchlight＠sancharnet.in 08 May '03

08 May '03

Keep an Open Mind About Open Source: It's the Law! By Tiernan Ray E-Commerce Times May 07, 2003 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/21454.html Representative Phil Barnhart of the Oregon state legislature in March introduced a bill that would compel the state to pledge to strongly consider Linux and other open source programs in all future purchase decisions. Barnhart's bill doesn't require that the state purchase Linux or any other software. It simply calls for an examination of the merits of open source software during the buying process. Regardless of what you think of Microsoft's newly released Windows 2003 server, Linux or any other piece of software, it's worth taking a closer look at what Barnhart is asking of the state. It may be throwing oil on the fire to add yet another complication into the practice of shopping for IT, but there are good reasons to consider instituting similar referenda inside most corporate IT shops. Chief among those reasons: to keep vendors honest. ******************************************************************** If companies were to take an oath to consider open source, it would be yet another spur to competition in the marketplace. ******************************************************************** Flying Without a Net A big part of the Oregon proposal has to do with saving money by buying freely available software. Barnhart writes in a comment on the legislation posted on his Web site that open source could save the state "millions of dollars." With IT spending growth worldwide still forecast to be between negative 1 percent and positive 6 or 7 percent in 2003, it's no surprise that programs that cost little or nothing are appealing to many. In that sense, Barnhart's bill really does take "free software" to mean "free as in beer," as Richard Stallman feared many would. Nonetheless, Barnhart's bill is not just about saving money. It's also about maintaining control over the software you buy. With Windows NT reaching "end-of-life" this year in terms of its support contracts from Microsoft, many IT shops are realizing that the software they bought from the big, reliable company will soon be unacknowledged by that same company. It's kind of like the old Mission Impossible caveat: "We will disavow any knowledge of this product." The Oregon proposition states in its findings that "It is also in the public interest that the state be free [...] of restrictions imposed by parties outside the state's control on how, and for how long, the state may use the software it has acquired[...]" It goes on to say that "Open source software contains no restrictions on how, or for how long, it may be used." The legislation does not say explicitly that Windows NT will cease to function after its end-of-life, but the formal language, and the comparison of open and closed source, serves as a tacit acknowledgment that proprietary software is essentially dead once the big, reliable vendor that sold it abandons its creation. Imagine No Vendors Even control, however, is not the ultimate issue. Companies still may find third parties that can help them with their aging software installations. In fact, many companies have been running Windows NT, Windows 2000 Server and other products for long enough that they have uncovered many of the bugs and discovered solutions they can implement without Redmond's help. Instead, the greater reason underlying the bill is contained in the simple proviso to "consider" the alternatives. "Consider," the bill says, "acquiring open source software products in addition to proprietary software products." No requirements, in other words, to buy open source, but rather a mandate to entertain the alternatives in a market. After more than five years of judicial football over the effects of monopolies, there is no better advice for the world's software users than to consider the alternatives. One of the most potent effects of Linux, StarOffice, the GNU codebase and the Mozilla browser, among other open-source projects, is to ensure an indestructible competitive presence in the marketplace. In answer to the proprietary vendors' caveat -- We may make your software obsolete -- open source is a memento mori: Remember that you may be passed over by customers. Amid the crazed turf battles and daily horror shows of building critical infrastructure, the exhortation to consider open source is a reminder that there are alternatives, and that users should always desire choice. Building such resolve into official IT practice is probably a good idea for every company that will buy software in coming years posted by N.S. Soundara Rajan, Mysore, India

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The Remote IT Village Project
by Raj Shekhar 08 May '03

08 May '03

I came across this project on Slashdot. The Remote IT Village Project attempting to connect several isolated villages deep in the Laotian Jungle to the rest of the world using wireless networks, pedal-power and Laonux (customized Linux installs translated into the Laotian language). Power surges can be a hassle when the nearest computer store is hundreds of miles away, but they're shooting for a May 18th "go live" date." <http://www.jhai.org/jhai_remoteIT.html> The conditions are almost(or exactly) like the Indian villages, so I thought to bring this to everyones notice. Please spread the word and if someone can whisper a word about this to our GREAT INDIAN BUREAUCRACY, it would be nice. -- Raj Shekhar http://geocities.com/lunatech3007/

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NEWS FROM BRASIL: Announcing SOLIS, a Free Software Co-operative (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 May '03

07 May '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- SOLIS, Free Software Co-operative Lajeado, RS, Brazil May, 7th 2003 What is a Co-operative? "Co-ops are based on helping each other and caring for others. A co-operative is a a type of business or organization. It is a group of people who are working together to solve their own problems and meet their needs. Co-ops are different from other types of organisations since they abide by three main rules: * Co-ops treat people fairly and respectfully; * Co-ops encourage people to work together towards solving their mutual problems; * Co-ops provide products and services to meet people's needs rather than solely for the purpose of making money." (Extracted from http://www.ica.coop/kids) What is Free Software? "Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software: * The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this." (Extracted from http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) Reading the definitions above, you will see Co-operative and Free Software share a common set of principles, based on community building and freedom. It seems natural to use a co-operative organization to produce Free Software. This is what SOLIS does. Started at the UNIVATES IT department (www.univates.br/freesoftware), SOLIS is formed now by almost 30 people who make their living producing free software (half of them working directly with free software development in projects such as SAGU, GNUTECA and others) and selling training, customization and services to customers who are able to understand and share the Free Software phylosophy. All software produced by SOLIS is licensed under the GPL. UNIVATES, an University Center in the South of Brazil, actually helped the startup of SOLIS by allowing the University's IT department to provide services and training on the software produced originally for the University. Amazingly enough, if you search Google (www.google.com) with the keywords: Free Software Brazil -- you will see UNIVATES pages as the first ones being displayed. Instead of capitalizing on top of free software services itself, UNIVATES decided to outsource its own IT services to the group already providing these services to the University, allowing the inauguration of SOLIS. By doing this, UNIVATES expects SOLIS will grow and provide a workplace for its computer science and other students, fostering regional development, once money spent on free software solutions stay in the region and won't go to proprietary software companies outside Brazil. SOLIS starts with a full set of products for academic administration, library automation and others, and it is setting up local partnerships in order to "free" (GPL) a comprehensive set of solutions for small and medium enterprises. "We understand by offering free software for our local industries and commerce, we will allow them to better automate their business and become more competitive, at the same time we create job positions for people who will be supporting this software and further developing it. Right now, the existing proprietary software solutions don't allow the automation of several businesses in our region.", says João Alex Fritsch, President of SOLIS. Because SOLIS is a cooperative, not a corporation, there is no danger that SOLIS will accept outside investment from people who have no ethical attachment to the principles of free software. Such investment has been the downfall of many free software companies, since the outside investors often decide to develop non-free software. For more information, please contact Cesar Brod, Executive Vice-President, at cesar at brod.com.br, or visit www.solis.coop.br Cesar Brod Executive Vice-President cesar at brod dot com dot br SOLIS, Cooperativa de Soluções Livres www.solis.coop.br 55 51 3714-7040

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Linux Desktop Myths Exploded
by searchlight＠sancharnet.in 07 May '03

07 May '03

STUDY: Linux Desktop Myths Exploded By James Maguire NewsFactor Network May 05, 2003 http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21431.html Hype about Linux on the desktop is increasing, according to Gartner's recent study, "Myths of Linux on the Desktop." The goal of the research was to enable enterprises to be objective in understanding the benefits of the Linux OS on the desktop, separating open-source fact from fiction. "I want to stress that I didn't mean to be negative about Linux," Gartner analyst Michael Silver, the report's author, told NewsFactor. Linux's appropriateness for any given population has a lot to do with the specifics of each business' environment and its architectures of applications in use, he said. To understand the real benefits, enterprises need to realize that some common assertions will prove to be myths, Silver says. =================================================================== "Supported versions of Linux are not free," Gartner analyst Michael Silver notes. Consumer versions of Linux are basically free, but "enterprises that require vendor support for their client OS will need to pay for it." =================================================================== Myth: Linux Will Be Less Expensive Many Linux proponents argue that using Linux instead of Windows saves a substantial chunk of change because StarOffice/OpenOffice.org then can be used instead of Microsoft Office. "This is a bad argument," says Silver, because "StarOffice and OpenOffice.org can run fine on Windows." He noted that if users believe they will save money running StarOffice instead of Microsoft Office, they can run it on their current version of Windows without spending a fortune to migrate all of their applications to a new platform. Myth: Linux Is Free "Supported versions of Linux are not free," Silver notes. Consumer versions of Linux are basically free, but "enterprises that require vendor support for their client OS will need to pay for it." While these costs may work out to be less than the cost of a Windows license and support, they need to be understood. Many free, open-source applications ship with Linux distributions, but Silver raises this question: Are they the applications the enterprise needs? "Thus far, we have not heard of open-source movements to replace large enterprise resource planning systems ... and most current vendors do not charge less for a Linux user than a Windows user." Myth: Linux Means No Forced Upgrades "Many users complain that Microsoft forces them to upgrade to newer releases of Windows," Silver wrote. "However, we believe that things will not be that much different in a Linux environment." Linux vendors only support their consumer releases (and free distributions) for a maximum of two years, Silver noted. "Linux independent software vendors realize that they cannot support their products on every version of Linux that has or will ever ship," the report says. "So while there will always be the option of support from the open source community ... we believe Linux users will feel forced to move to newer releases of Linux just as Windows users feel forced to upgrade to new versions of Windows." Myth: Linux Management Is Easier Significant reductions in staffing are not likely to be achieved "simply by switching OSes without changing policies, lockdown or the degree of management tool implementation," according to Silver. He notes that from a software break/fix perspective, many support calls are due to users doing something that misconfigures their system. He expects Linux to have a slight edge over Windows for three reasons: 1) the existence of fewer viruses targeting Linux desktops; 2) fewer problems caused by conflicting applications; and 3) difficulty of understanding and repairing the Window registry. Since Linux is purely file-based, administrators may be able to troubleshoot application problems more easily. Myth: Linux Has a Lower TCO Management tools have been available for Windows for years, Silver observed, but many enterprises still have not been able to manage their Windows environment. This has often been due to too much complexity, lack of sufficient policies or standards, or cultural and political issues, according to Silver. If this is true with Windows, "we see little reason to believe that the cultural or political issues will change just because the enterprise is now using Linux," he observes. Myth: Linux Means Longer Hardware Life "It is true that a three- or four-year-old PC that is not powerful enough to run Windows XP and Office XP may be able to run Linux and StarOffice," Silver says. "However, enterprises need to budget for some additional costs to maintain older PCs." He points out that a new PC bought with Linux today with a goal of a six- to eight-year lifespan likely will require an expenditure for at least one OS upgrade during that time. Furthermore, "enterprises should realize that if they buy two different model notebooks and two different model desktops and keep their PCs for four years, they will have 16 different varieties of hardware to manage," the report says, and more varieties of hardware and software will be more difficult and expensive to manage. Myth: Skills Are Transferable "Although Unix skills are transferable to Linux, Windows skills are not as similar," Silver observes, noting that "most enterprises' Unix skills today exist in a server-oriented department in the IT reporting structure, which is usually separate from the desktop support group." Enterprises should consider whether their current structure will prevent them from leveraging skills across desktops and servers, Silver advises. Bottom Line The bottom line is that Silver sees some cost savings in migrating to the Linux desktop but says the move "will probably not eliminate all of the costs the enterprises expects." But there is undisputedly healthy market interest in this migration. Significant sales growth is expected within a three- to five-year time frame, according to Forrester analyst Ted Schadler. There are a number of market segments for the Linux desktop, he told NewsFactor, including Asian and Eastern European governments that want an alternative to Microsoft; direct point-of-sale Linux PCs -- what Schadler calls "the dedicated desktop"; and small enterprises. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © Copyright 1998-2003 NewsFactor Network. All rights reserved.

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SITEWATCH -- Indic Computing: Design Axes for the Indian Language Computing Market
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 May '03

07 May '03

URL : http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/designaxes _________________________________________________________________ [12]The Indic Computing Project > [13]Design Axes for the Indian Language Computing Market _________________________________________________________________ Design Axes for the Indian Language Computing Market Joseph Koshy The Indic-Computing project Copyright � 2003 by A. Joseph Koshy $Date: 2003/04/30 07:23:50 $ Abstract Despite nearly four decades of work, computing in local languages remains unavailable to the common man in the Indian subcontinent. In this article we identify seven core issues, namely [14]power, [15]usability, [16]interoperability, [17]locality of information, [18]value addition, the effect of [19]social structure and the quality of the supporting [20]development ecosystem, that need to be addressed before pervasive Indian language computing can become a reality. We analyse a few existing projects and show that the levels of success achieved by these is consistent with their tackling of these seven core issues. Finally, we present a ``road map'' for making computing pervasive in Indian society and list the areas where the [21]Indic-Computing Project hopes to make a contribution. Document status: Third draft. _________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1 [22]Introduction 2 [23]The Design ``Axes'' 3 [24]Analyses 4 [25]Road map 5 [26]Acknowledgments 1 Introduction The so-called ``digital divide'' remains a yawning gulf today for most Indian citizens. In a country with over one billion citizens, 99 out of 100 do not use computers. Numerous organizations have attempted in the past to increase the penetration of information processing technologies in the Indian sub-continent. Until date, these efforts have been relatively unsuccessful (see [27]the sidebar The Case of the Missing Market). Local language computing has not made inroads into mainstream Indian society. We believe that this situation has arisen because prior efforts have not taken cognizance of the core characteristics that underlie the Indian context. Rather unsurprisingly, these characteristics turn out to be different from those in the so-called ``developed'' societies--in other words, a successful product or service for the Indian subcontinent has necessarily to be designed differently from one aimed at a ``developed'' market. The major contributions of this article are as follows: * We identify seven core areas that a computing technology needs to address before it can succeed in the Indian context. * We provide a model explains the lack of success of prior initiatives to bridge the digital divide. The model can be used to evaluate the impact a new technology would have in the Indian context. * We offer for discussion, a ``road map'' for pervasive Indian language computing that has a higher probability of success than current efforts.. The Case of the Missing Market Estimates of the size of the Indian language computing market vary widely. A survey conducted by the [28]Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore described the existing Indian language market as predominantly DTP and print driven, with a market size of about INR 64 Crores (INR 640 million). However, an article in the [29]June 24th, 2002 issue of DataQuest, author Yograj Verma estimated that the potential size of the Indian language market to be as large as INR 65,260 Crores (INR 652.6 billion). According to this estimate, the potential size of the indigenous market rivals that of the existing ``export oriented'' software industry. In reality, computing infrastructure has yet to make significant headway into Indian society. The use of computers remains an essentially urban phenomenon, mostly restricted to the English speaking elite in the country. There clearly is a gap between what the market could be and what today's market players are able to provide. 1.1 Target Audience This document has been written with the following audiences in mind: * Planners designing computing infrastructure for developing societies. Many of issues highlighted here would be present in other developing societies, and the solutions developed would be of use there too. * Software developers and development managers interested in developing software for the Indian language software market. * Educationists, especially those in Indian technical colleges. * Open-source developers attempting to add support for Indian languages to open-source software. 1.2 Prerequisites Awareness of the technical issues in Indian language computing is assumed. The reader wishing to refresh his or her knowledge may find tutorial sections of the [30]Indic-Computing Handbook, and some of the questions and answers in the [31]Indic-Computing FAQ to be of help. 1.3 What this article is not A few statements about what the article does not cover would also be in order. * The article does not cover the benefits that a pervasive computing infrastructure brings to Indian society. It also does not go into the issues of the appropriateness of information technology; as with all tools, the use of information technology would be appropriate in certain contexts and inappropriate in others; the judgment call on this matter would need to be taken by the stakeholders involved. * We do not identify specific end-user solutions that are needed in the market today. Though there are many opportunities that we can see, discussing these would be out of scope for this article. In this document, we sketch the broad architectural characteristics that successful solutions in the Indian context would possess. 1.4 Structure of this document The rest of this article is structured as follows: * In [32]Section 2 we look at the seven core issues that need to be solved before any computing technology can succeed in a large-scale in the Indian context. * We then analyse a few existing projects in [33]Section 3 in the framework of our model. * [34]Section 4 lists some of the next steps that need to be taken up before pervasive computing can become a reality in the Indian context. This section also provides the rationale for the tasks that the Indic-Computing project has taken up. ______________________________________________________________________ [35]Next The Design ``Axes'' This, and other documents, can be downloaded from [36]http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/. _________________________________________________________________ [37]Built With WebMake [38]Copyright � 2001--2003 The Indic-Computing Project. Last Modified: Wed Apr 30 12:56:11 2003 Webmaster: [39]jkoshy((a))users.sourceforge.net

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KDE has tea with Stallman... one view
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 May '03

07 May '03

URL : http://phil.freehackers.org/writings/tea-with-stallman.html KDE has tea with Stallman [1]Philippe Fremy Tea with Stallman For Linux Solutions 2003 (see my [2]report) , the french KDE team thought that we could take the oppurtunity to improve our relationship with RMS. He seems to accepts KDE as fully free software now. So we invited him for a tea, to show him the latest KDE and discuss. He accepted. As promised, RMS came to visit us and see KDE after his conference. We thought he would just had a quick look but it turns out that he stayed for an hour! We had tea, we had biscuits, we had chairs, knoppix with KDE 3.1 and a laptop for demonstration. One question I wanted to ask him for a long time is how often he runs X . The answer was the one I had forcast: "sometimes". Most of the time, he is using emacs in terminal mode for more or less everything. He asked me what I was doing and I talk about [3]KVim. He said something like: "I can't tell if I am more sorry for vim or for KDE". We then talked a bit about emacs and if an embeddable version could be made for KDE, like for the vimpart. Gerard ask him if emacs was using gettext and could be translated. It turns out emacs is not using gettext, which is a reason why it can not be translated. There are incompatible API for this but someone can tackle the problem. He asked whether KDE people were saying "Gnu/Linux" or just "Linux", and Open Source or Free Software. I told him some of us are using KDE/Gnu/Linux which pleased him as an answer. We told him quickly what was in KDE 3.1 and gave him a Knoppix with KDE 3.1 and OpenOffice, all in french. We thought he would then leave but he was willing to see KDE running. So Sebastien started demonstrating him Konqueror and other stuff. Sebastien was willing to make a quick overview of everything but Richard quickly stopped him, asking him to go very slowly, explaining each key he types and what exactly happens on the screen. He spotted a bookmark named Linux and asked immediately what was in it, Linux or Gnu software ("Should not that be Gnu/Linux) ? It turns out it was just a list of bookmark related to Free Software (freshmeat, linuxfr, dot.kde.org, ...). While discussing, we discovered that he was not subscribed to the linux kernel mailing list, he just receives cc: sometimes. He did not know about Kernel Traffic so we showed him (with konqueror of course). He was disappointed not to see his recent thread about Linux and Gnu/Linux mentionned. He receives something like 300 mails every day, and one third of that is spam. We showed him the konsole embedded into Konqueror. The first thing he did was to run emacs in text mode, which was successful. So we had emacs inside konsole inside konqueror. Fun! After that, he took the mouse and start wandering throught the control center. He checked a few things and seeemed to find it interesting. He had problems with the french keyboard, so we enabled a dual french/english keyboard. Since he was mainly a terminal user, I showed him the multi-terminal capability of konsole. This highlighted a bugs in emacs: it does not notice that the konsole window is resized. I told him vim could do that but he did not let the flamewar start :-) . I told him there is a kind of signal emitted by the terminal when it resizes (I don't remember exactly) and he wants me to send him more information on that. He asked for a C binding that would be used equally with Gnome/Gtk or KDE/Qt. I told him that this was more or less what WxWindows does, and that apart from that, this is not a good idea. First, both toolkits, although they have the same api, are internally very different. Second, it would prevent people from using the real interesting features of KDE or Gnome. He insisted quite a lot on that. This allow him to remind us that KDE is C++ and C++ is still not recommended for Gnu Software. I asked if C was still the recommended language and he answered negatively. He just points out that the FSF actually does not recommend C but recommands against C++! After one hour, he had to leave to visit other booth. All in all, this was a very nice and interesting meeting. He consider now KDE as a fully free desktop and we even discussed the possibility of getting into the Gnu project. He did not oppose the idea although many KDE hackers would probably not accept. Philippe Fremy

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SITEWATCH: www.ilug-cal.org
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 May '03

07 May '03

URL : http://www.ilug-cal.org Logo [1]home � [2]meeting minutes � [3]faq � [4]list messages � [5]articles � [6]list faq � [7]lug cds � [8]mailing lists � [9]pictures � [10]sponsors � [11]polls � [12]search � [13]user account � [14]links Welcome to iLUG-Cal Submitted by [15]webmaster on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 14:46 * About us: The Kolkata chapter of the Indian Linux Users's group (ILUG-CAL) is a non-profit, volunteer driven organisation dedicated to the propagation and usage of GNU/Linux in Kolkata, and in West Bengal. The organistion tries to provide suppport to the GNU/Linux community in Kolkata, as well as to increase the usage of GNU/Linux among the general computer users community in the city. It also organises workshops, seminars, etc for the local student community. * Membership: Anyone who is interested in GNU/Linux, or wants to try it out, or wants to learn more about it is welcome to join. One can become a member in two ways - either by joining the [16]mailing lists or by attending a [17]meeting. * Meetings: Meetings are held every month, usually on the 2nd Saturday - and the venue is usually announced on the mailing list. Meeting on Saturday, 10th May 2003 Submitted by [18]webmaster on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 16:30 We have a meeting on the 10th of May, 2003 (Saturday) from 16:30 (IST) onwards. Please click on the "Read More" link below for more details. [19]add new comment � [20]read more [21]Meetings Slap the credits everywhere! Submitted by [22]sankarshan on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 19:50 Sankarshan (sankarshan(a)ilug-cal.org) writes as: A recent article on [23]Newsforge, by Hank Reiser (the architect of the Reiser filesystem and founder of namesys)makes for interesting reading. The article is posted below, while for the newsforge link click [24]here Slap the credits everywhere! by [25]Hans Reiser - [26]add new comment � [27]read more "Exec Shield", new Linux security feature Submitted by [28]webmaster on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 17:04 Here's the announcement: We are pleased to announce the first publically available source code release of a new kernel-based security feature called the "Exec Shield", for Linux/x86. The kernel patch (against 2.4.21-rc1, released under the GPL/OSL) can be downloaded from: [29]http://redhat.com/~mingo/exec-shield/ The exec-shield feature provides protection against stack, buffer or function pointer overflows, and against other types of exploits that rely on overwriting data structures and/or putting code into those structures. The patch also makes it harder to pass in and execute the so-called 'shell-code' of exploits. The patch works transparently, ie. no application recompilation is necessary. [30]add new comment � [31]read more [32]News Gitobitan Online - a noteworthy effort Submitted by [33]sankarshan on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 11:39 [34]Somendra M Bhattacharjee of Bhubaneshwar has finally gone ahead and done it. Over an extended period of time, Somendra has been toiling over the important project of putting Rabindranath Tagore's Gitobitan online - something the Bengali speaking population worldwide would appreciate. It is finally available [35]here. [36]add new comment � [37]read more Get ready for another 'office suite' shakeout Submitted by [38]cybersiddhu on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 10:59 It seems that we are in the verge of watching the battle of best 'office suite' - combo-pack of softwares to perform common tasks like word processing, spread sheeting, presentation and e-mailing. And this time, hopefully it will not be a smooth sailing for the market leader Microsoft's "Office". [39]Full story [40]add new comment [41]Home Users Linux is... The Bachelor! Submitted by [42]webmaster on Saturday, April 19, 2003 - 05:52 [43]O'Reilly Net is featuring a hilarious article called "Linux is... The Bachelor!", which begins with..... Sun stood with one hand on her hip and the other twirling her long, pretty blonde hair. "I really like Linux. I think he's really got it together. I mean he has so much energy. I can definitely see myself as Mrs. Linux." . Read the entire article [44]here. [45]add new comment [46]News Bitstream/Gnome Release Vera Font Family Submitted by [47]webmaster on Friday, April 18, 2003 - 13:53 [48]Bitstream, a leading developer of font technology and digital fonts and our very own good old [49]GNOME have released the Vera font family under an open source/free license. The set of 10 fonts can be downloaded from [50]http://www.gnome.org/fonts/. I have personally downloaded the fonts, and to be honest - they rock!!! For the full press release on the deal, click [51]here. [52]add new comment [53]News Website updated Submitted by [54]webmaster on Thursday, April 17, 2003 - 02:02 As many of you know, [55]www.ilug-cal.org is run on a Free (GPL'ed) content management system called Drupal ([56]www.drupal.org). We had started with Drupal 4.0.0, and this morning I upgraded the system to Drupal 4.1.0. This upgrade adds a number of new features and optimization (including better performance and faster response). I expect the transition to be as smooth as possible. However, I would request all who are visiting the site to notify me immediately if they find any error (if a page is not rendered, or if a comment cannot be posted, or if there is any error from PHP). My email address is [57]webmaster(a)ilug-cal.org. In case of *extreme* emergency, ring me up at 24632431 and lemme know (I am at home throughout the day now). [58]add new comment [59]LUG News Review of "The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX2" Submitted by [60]Indranil Das Gupta on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - 10:58 A review of "The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX2" done by [61]Rohit Vishal Kumar. The reviewed resource is an useful starter's guide to learning LATEX 2 by any TeX/LaTeX newbie. The review covers the structure of the above book and mentions where to get hold of this rather handy resourse. You can download Rohit's review from [62]here. [63]2 comments [64]Study Material

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[Fsf-friends] Invitation to join the Free Software Consortium www.fsc.cc
by Jaco Aizenman 05 May '03

05 May '03

The Free Software Consortium is a new initiative and business model to promote and comercialize free software. It is Global, descentralized and coordinated through the net. The FSC is very interested to have Indian members. There is a need for lawyers, technical people, political advisors, marketing people, etc. For more details and inscriptions please visit www.fsc.cc Feel free also to ask any questions to jaco(a)fsc.cc

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COMMENT: Slap the credits everywhere
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 04 May '03

04 May '03

URL : http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/04/28/1859244 Slap the credits everywhere! Friday May 02, 2003 - [ 03:00 PM GMT ] [20] Print this Article Topic - [21]Open Source - by [22]Hans Reiser - Free software is ego-propelled. People don't get paid, they get famous. Yet we as a community do far too little to prominently credit the names of the authors. I propose we change that by adopting a few simple practices. Free software is like radio and broadcast television -- easily accessible and available to anyone who wants it. As software programming gets to be as big as entertainment programming, it begins to copy it in other ways. We should consciously pick which of those ways we want and as a community create taboos to enforce them now before we drift into bad habits that take become de facto rules. Do we want free software projects to be as well-funded as soap operas? It would be nice if it were so. Do we want ads inserted into people's screen backgrounds suggesting they lose weight and look stylish by smoking Camels? I think not. Do we want people to know the names of the authors of all of the software that they frequently use? Sure -- it would result in more and harder-working authors. I propose that we as a community insist that all distros make the default screensaver be one that randomly displays a different detailed credit for one of the authors of Linux software every 60 seconds. I propose that we insist the default splash screen for booting also display a random detailed credit describing the software one of the authors wrote. I think we should make this crediting of authors a license requirement for our free software. Why is it necessary to make it a license requirement? Won't everyone just go along with it if it is a good idea? If you think that, you have not met many marketeers in suits. To a marketeer, consumer awareness is money, and there is no reason why anybody but their company should have any. Their job is to ensure that they get the highest possible fraction of consumer awareness. Marketeers tightly control credits on their products so that only the company gets credit on anything they can control. This is why distros install splash screens with their name and no one else's on them into kernels they mostly did not write. The splash screens serve the purpose of emphasizing their brand name and obscuring everyone else's. A very minor reason, but the only one they speak of publicly, is that it obscures information average users don't understand with a nice graphic by a third-rate corporate artist. (Anyone else think we ought to have an open art contest for that boot splash screen?) This is why distros drop the K from all the KDE programs: somebody else is trying to establish a brand name, and that is a market threat they want to cut off. This is why they change the user interface of desktops they didn't write to display their logo instead of the desktop authors' logos. Using the work of others without giving them credit is plagiarism. Academia has long had in place mechanisms for dealing with plagiarism and other failures to attribute. In academia, authors' work is examined by an independent review board before publication. If you don't attribute, your reviewers laugh at you, you have to add the attribution, and you might not get published at all if the error was not an honest one. There is a constant continuing struggle to catch failures to attribute, but the social mechanism is in place and fairly effective. By contrast, with free software publishing, the distros -- and appliance vendors -- determine the proper share of the credit. Because the distros have a vested interest in their brand, they don't even bother to try to give appropriate credit to the creative talent, let alone the people and companies that fund the work. Perhaps you think that those who contribute only money should get less mention than those contributing code? I disagree. Have you ever worked a day job to fund other coders? Pure hell, let me tell you, especially if you are also so essential that time off becomes unacceptable. Money is unimportant only to those who don't work to create it. Steps in the right direction This proposal is just the first round of struggle over this issue. There are going to be lots of issues to solve in the details of how authors ensure that their credits are not stripped out of their work. For instance, how do you define what is fair crediting if there are many authors? What if you don't agree with someone's assessment of what is their fair share of the credits? Do you either suffer with it or do without their software? This is not a new problem -- or don't you think actors argue over the size of their name on the screen? At some point we'll need an arbitrator to solve these disputes. At first, this will probably be the original author, but since the original author is not disinterested, it will eventually need to be someone else. Original authors who name their software after themselves (ahem) have an advantage as an arbitrator of credits in that it is easier for them to worry less about their presence in the rest of the credits. (I encourage more people to do as Linus and I have done. It is mostly the guys working for me who need the kind of mention I'm suggesting if they are to get their deserved due. Naming software is the best possible way to credit authors. Look for pieces of reiserfs to acquire programmer names in the future.) The Free Software Foundation has finally begun to do something about giving proper credit. As a prelude to V3 of the GPL, the Free Software Foundation has moved to the GNU Free Documentation License. The [23]GFDL allows authors to make their credits or their political statements irremovable. That's a step in the right direction, but what about making the credits visible? It seems V3 of the GPL only protects credits in the source code, and does nothing to guarantee that users actually see the credits of the authors instead of the credits of the marketeers. In other words, it is 99% irrelevant. Fewer than 100 people have read the source code to reiserfs, and while those 100 are important, they aren't as important as 99% of the public. Nobody responsible for deciding whether to sponsor us has ever read the source code that I know of. Protecting credits only in the source is inadequate. If you agree, perhaps you can help me influence V3's authors to provide relevant protection from plagiarism. If that doesn't happen, I will try to convince the community that we need to move to an anti-plagiarism license instead. Unfortunately there are those who don't want their software burdened with even credit for the authors. Debian, for instance, seems to be leading the resistance to the GFDL. But maybe this is a burden we should shoulder if we want better software. What do you think? I would love to see an arbitrator determine who gets what mention on the outside of GNU/Linux distribution boxes. When Richard Stallman isn't even mentioned on the box as an author because doing so does not further the mindshare capture effort of the distro, well, this is just wrong. I don't have to agree with Stallman's socio-economics to abhor seeing his voice obscured by suits who don't equal his contribution in code and leadership. I hope you agree with me. Hans Reiser is architect of the Reiser filesystem and founder of [24]namesys .

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RMS in France with the KDE team
by Amol Hatwar 04 May '03

04 May '03

Hi all, The KDE team recently exhibited their stuff to RMS. RMS gave a nod and called KDE Free :). More info can be found at this link: http://phil.freehackers.org/writings/tea-with-stallman.html ah. ______________ It's most certainly GNU/Linux, and not Linux. Read more here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

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Slapping Credits on Free Software
by Amol Hatwar 04 May '03

04 May '03

Hi all, I recently caught this story on slashdot. It's about Hans Reiser's (ReiserFS fame) view about making software author's names more visible. He also talks about FSF and V3 of the GPL. I'd suggest people who develop software to have a look :). Here's the link: http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/04/28/1859244 Regards, ah. _____________ It's most certainly GNU/Linux, and not Linux. Read more here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

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Survey for Free Software/Open Source developers... (attn: South Asia)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 03 May '03

03 May '03

URL : http://siepr.stanford.edu/programs/OpenSoftware_David/FLOSS-US_announcement… FLOSS-US The Free/Libre/Open Source Software Survey for 2003 [1]http://www.stanford.edu/group/floss-us/survey.fft A Survey of Software Developers FLOSS-US is an online survey currently being conducted by researchers at Stanford University's Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). It is a part of the study of the Economic Organization and Viability of Open Source Software undertaken by SIEPR's Knowledge, Networks and Information for Innovation Program (KNIIP) which is being supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. This survey has been designed in cooperation with Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (MERIT and Infonomics, University of Maastricht), who led the FLOSS survey of Open Source/Free Software developer communities, carried out with the sponsorship of the European Commission during 2002. [[2]http://floss1.infonomics.nl] To establish comparability with the previous sample of voluntary respondents, FLOSS-US asks questions on the same range of topics that the original FLOSS survey addressed, including: � Motivation: monetary / non-monetary, reputation, pleasure, creativity, jobs � Expectations: what do you expect of others? What do they expect of you? � Organization: efficiency, quality, comparison with commercial software � Law: intellectual property licenses, authorship, public domain � Technology: preferred programming tools In addition, developers are invited to provide information about their experiences and opinions on several other issues, such as: extent and intensity of OS/FS activities and project roles; relationships with commercial enterprises based on Free/Libre/Open Source software; support of OS/FS projects by proprietary software firms. Announcements of this new online survey will be posted in languages other than English, and at sites likely to be visited by developers in regions outside as well as within western Europe and North America. We will make public tabulated responses for each of the questions as soon as the survey period is closed, and the results of our further analyses will also be published on the SIEPR/KNIIP website. We are committed to protecting respondents' privacy: no personal identifiers will be stored with your answers and responses will be reported in aggregates that will prevent inferences about individual identities. If you are an Open Source/Free Software developer, please assist this research: go to the questionnaire at [3]http://www.stanford.edu/group/floss-us/survey.fft and fill it out! At the end of the questionnaire you will find links to to the SIEPR/KNIIP website and further information about our project. When you have submitted your response there will be an opportunity to comment on the questionnaire itself, and to request any of the publications that will be based upon analyses of the survey data. References 1. http://www.stanford.edu/group/floss-us/survey.fft 2. http://floss1.infonomics.nl/ 3. http://www.stanford.edu/group/floss-us/survey.fft

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Hi Friends
by Tarun Gaur 02 May '03

02 May '03

Hi New and old friends, Was out on a trip. could not contribute much to the amazing world of fsf. A short note to say hi to all my friends who believe in the spirit of free software. Regards to all, Tarun _________________________________________________________________ Hot new gizmos. Check 'em out. http://www.msn.co.in/Computing/Gizmos/ Right now!

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Re: Educational case studies
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 May '03

02 May '03

Could FSFIndia help to make this possible? Tks, FN On Fri, 2 May 2003, Doug Loss wrote: > Frederick, > > Could you ask the responsible people at Trivandrum and at Kannur to > make case study entries for their Linux implementations at > <http://casestudy.seul.org>? I'd appreciate it. Thanks! > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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[link] school tool
by Suraj 02 May '03

02 May '03

There is this wonderful project that is starting off. The reason why I'm posting this here is that this tool, though is technical good, seems very shady - in that 1. it wants to dual license its code, 2. the site claims the free version "might" be under the GPL. So we should all participate in this projects and vote for GPL and make sure that if this tool reaches the same fate as that of source forge we can atleast fork off a new free project and take it further. -Suraj -- BEGIN LINK -- [1][mainlogoleft2.png] [2][mainlogotsf.png] Navigation: [3]Home [4]Documentation [5]Vision [6]Specification [7]Architecture [8]Roadmap Community [9]Mailing Lists [10]Resources [11]Contact [12]SourceForge.net Logo [clear.gif] Welcome to the SchoolTool Project SchoolTool is a project to develop a common school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence. Our vision is to create a platform that is equally compelling for schools and colleges in First and Third World countries, that supports best practices in school administration and which is readily customised to suit local regulatory requirements. Our hope is that the first version of SchoolTool will: * be available under a variety of licences including at least one Open Source licence (probably the GPL). * support critical school administration tasks: student registration, timetabling, attendance tracking, test results tracking, report writing and web portal functionality * support a web interface for remote deployment and administration * meet regulatory requirements and local customs in South Africa, the UK and the USA You can read more about the SchoolTool Vision, and the detailed SchoolTool Requirements. We are developing SchoolTool largely in Python, which makes it platform-independent (it should run on Linux, UNIX, the Mac OS and Windows). Key target platforms for support are Linux and WindowsXP. You can read about the SchoolTool Architecture. Development of SchoolTool is hosted on the SourceForge network. If you have an interest in effective school management then please join the mailing list and help us to make this a robust tool that suits your needs. SchoolTool development is funded by [13]The Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports social innovation based in Cape Town, South Africa. We are always looking for new and innovative ways to improve education, please take a look at our web site and send us a proposal! Latest News: 2003-04-27: Mailing List Created. Please see our SourceForge Project Summary page and join the schooltool-devel mailing list if you would like to participate in the discussion. 2003-04-21: SchoolTool Reborn. Development recommences, Mark Shuttleworth will lead project from London. Initial target is system that meets basic requirements for schools in US, UK and SA. References 1. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/ 2. http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ 3. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/index.html 4. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/docs.html 5. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/vision.html 6. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/spec.html 7. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/arch.html 8. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/roadmap.html 9. http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=63502 10. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/resources.html 11. http://schooltool.sourceforge.net/contact.html 12. http://sourceforge.net/ 13. http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ -- END LINK -- -- +-------------------------------------------------<suraj(a)symonds.net>--+ | Besiege the seekers, if they have to seek, not | | to seek those who have no qualms in hiding | | (dreading alms - 7), Thirukkural | +--<http://www.symonds.net/~suraj/>------------------------------------+

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LINK: Association for Free Software, annual conference 17 May 2003
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

Association For Free Software AFFS Annual Conference, 17 May 2003 Norfolk, England, 29 April 2003 -- AFFS is pleased to confirm details of its first Association For Free Software Annual Conference (AFFSAC), to be held at Aston University in Birmingham on Saturday 17 May 2003. This is a great opportunity for free software supporters and developers to meet, share experiences and plan activities for the year ahead. AFFSAC is a one-day plenary conference, with sessions about topics such as networking, multimedia and activism. The conference is free to AFFS members and those who have applied to join, with small charges for optional extras. Online registration and electronic ticketing is available on the AFFS web site at http://www.affs.org.uk/ Uniquely, the talks give priority to people developing and using free software, with speakers announced by project rather than company. Talks range from the 5-minute "lightning talk" to 40-minute keynotes, followed by question-and-answer sessions. The full programme will be published shortly before the conference and more applications from speakers are welcomed until then. The conference has been welcomed by the developer group, the Association of Free Software Professionals. Neil Darlow of AFSP said: "AFFS and AFSP can, through cooperation and individual effort, promote the recognition of free software to a level where enterprises and consumers of software will routinely consider free software as a viable solution." Later, at the same venue, the AFFS Annual General Meeting will hear reports on the first year's work and current members will make key decisions about the year ahead. Association For Free Software The Association for Free Software is a non-profit association with the primary goal of promoting the adoption of FSF free software in the UK, formed in 2002. The Free Software Foundation says that free software is software that gives users the rights to use, distribute, modify and redistribute modifications of it. AFFS is the UK associate body of the Free Software Foundation Europe. Aston University The Aston University Campus is in the centre of the exciting and vibrant city of Birmingham, home to over 50,000 students. Birmingham, Britain's second city, is flourishing and is now internationally recognised as a leader in leisure, entertainment, business, shopping, industry and sport. ENDS Notes 1. For more information about AFFS see http://www.affs.org.uk/ 2. For more information on FSF Europe see http://www.fsfeurope.org/press/ 3. For more information on Aston University see http://www.aston.ac.uk/ 4. Email contact: frontdesk(a)affs.org.uk

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EVENT-GOA: LaTeX, TeX, Free Software in the Enterprise... network security (5.5.2003)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

SIX PROPONENTS of Free Software from Kerala are to visit Goa shortly, and to interact with those interested in issues they're working on. Those coming are CV Radhakrishnan, CV Rajagopal, E Krishnan, Anil Kumar, S. Rajkumar and KG Kumar. Some of the presentations planned for Monday, May 5, 2003 from 4 to 6 pm at the Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna are: o Introduction to LaTeX and digital typography o TeX as a business solution: a case study of the BSNL Trivandrum telephone directory o GNU/Linux and Free Software in the Enterprise: with a case study of the online bill payment system of BSNL Tvm. o Free Software and its relevance in higher education (subject to confirmation) o Network security using Free Software tools. All are invited to this interesting meet. If you'd like any particular emphasis, kindly send your feedback to KG Kumar of the Indian TeX Users Group at <kg at tug.org.in> See you on May 5 at Verna! FN PS: Below is a feature relating to the work of some members of the team, which puts the issue in context... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6738 Currents: Free Software Makes Telephone Users' Lives Easier in India Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2003 Large prep and printing job made manageable and affordable with free tools. Thanks to free software, one-third of a million telephone users living in Southern India will no longer find locating phone numbers such a complex process. Telephone directories often take a notoriously long time to be published in India, meaning phone subscribers are lost when trying to locate numbers they need. GNU/Linux increasingly is attracting attention in Corporate India, not only for its usually lower costs but also because of its high quality products. Last weekend, the latest edition of the Thiruvananthapuram telephone directory--from the regional capital of the south-western province of Kerala--was processed and typeset using a range of free software tools. These tools provided substantial savings in cost and time, while producing a neatly laid-out and elegant publication ahead of schedule. The two-volume directory, to be distributed to all subscribers of the Thiruvananthapuram secondary switching area as of March 25, contains 1,200 pages and 320,000 entries. Some 400,000 copies of the directory currently are being printed by the locally based St. Joseph's Press, using typesetting software and programs provided by River Valley Technologies (RVT), also based in the Kerala capital. RVT specialises in typesetting and publishing solutions using free and open-source software. For the phone directory publishers domestic telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), this is the first complete directory to be published since 1999. K. Sreekantan Nair, Principal General Manager of the Thiruvananthapuram telecom district, said BSNL has spent Rs 35 million on printing the directory. Normally, an order of this magnitude -- a print run of 400,000 copies, each with 1,200 pages printed on 48 GSM white paper in three columns of Helvetica Narrow 7 point typeface, with 94 lines per column--would have taken six months and involved around 50 employees wholly dedicated to the work. In this case, however, the press was able to finish the entire printing process in four months, using a smaller team. At present, SJP's printing presses are operating 21 hours per day at their maximum capacity of 20,000 copies per hour to finish the printing. Using software like PageMaker or QuarkXPress could have taken a longer time, said RVT. Instead, they used a combination of free software programs to extract BSNL's data, process it and typeset it into camera-ready copy. RVT managing director C. V. Radhakrishnan said the BSNL data of telephone numbers, subscribers names and addresses was supplied as files in dBase, an outdated database software that goes back to the days of the DOS operating system. Using a set of free software libraries downloaded from the Internet and locally customised, this data was extracted into the PostgreSQL relational database, also free software, and was then entirely recreated. RVT wrote a Java program to pipe this newly generated database into TeX.

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NEWS: Free Software protests Microsoft's participation
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

URL : http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6784 [50]Linux Community NYFairUse representatives staged a peaceful protest at last month's DC conference supposedly aimed at exposing free and open-source software to government officials. [51]NYFairUse representatives, costumed as the American Founding Fathers, left the warm comfort of their homes at 4:00 in the morning on March 17th, 2003, to go down to Washington DC. We left for George Washington University in full colonial regalia in a 15-person passenger van. The purpose of our trip was to protest the mismanagement of the EGOVOS conference taking place that morning. The central issue that galvanized NYFairUse in this situation is the increasingly irresponsible manner in which free and open-source software advocates have been putting together conferences and events. EGOVOS was supposed to be a showcase for free and open-source software in government, be it local, national or international. The conference had the potential to open up a stubbornly closed market by laying out the legal, moral and practical foundations for the use of free software in everyday government operation. Instead, it became a platform and photo opportunity for the Microsoft organization--the inevitable result when the $40 billion company dedicated to destroying free software is invited to make a presentations. As expected, Microsoft didn't let their shareholders down. The few news items that came out of this conference were about Microsoft's "Shared Source". Microsoft's money buys real loyalty in the technology press, and in a conference with little media coverage the only mainstream press was from E-Week, which ran a full article on Microsoft's misdirections under the headline, "Microsoft's Matusow: No Right Way to Create Software". The article did everything it could to blur the differences between free software and the closed, anti-competitive methods of monopolists. All of this becomes fodder for their next $100 million campaign aimed at every CTO in the nation. Worse than that, it takes food off the table of our free software consulting industry and the developer community it supports. Their presence crippled people who sell free software for a living. It damaged those who could offer the uninitiated (such as the attendees of the conference) a solid, firsthand presentation of the benefits of free software. It leaves the public confused about the benefits of free software in their businesses, jobs and lives. Bad Leadership versus Good Advocacy NYFairUse first heard about the problem with EGOVOS through the NYLXS mailing list, as part of a follow-up on our experiences with the 2003 Linux World Exposition in New York. At the Expo, NYLXS member David Sugar voiced his confusion about his product (the GNU/Bayonne telephony system) losing the award for Best System Integration Software to Microsoft's Services for Unix. NYLXS had its annual dinner after the convention, and we spoke with Linux Journal editor Don Marti about the award and its implications to our membership. Something didn't seem right, but Don offered a reasonable explanation for the turn of events. NYFairUse had an impromptu discussion about the award and about the rumblings coming from SCO that suggested they might be preparing lawsuits against the GNU/Linux community for infringing upon UNIX patents. We decided to keep an eye on upcoming developments on both fronts. A few days later. David Sugar e-mailed the NYLXS list about Microsoft's presentation at EGOVOS. We quickly had a broad and lively discussion about the situation, with the participation of the Washington DC-area LUGs, developers from California and Canada, members of the Free Software Foundation, NYFairUse, GNU Enterprise, The Open Office Marketing List, a few interested journalists, NYLUG and eventually Bruce Perens (who happens to be a member of the group hosting the EGOVOS conference, the Cyber Security and Policy Institute). I watched my e-mail account fill with hundreds of private messages from people across the east coast, all volunteering to protest Microsoft's inclusion. NYFairUse had an internal discussion and decided that the last thing we wanted was an unwieldy demonstration in front of hundreds of government officials who might be investigating free software for the first time. We need to reverse the trend of Microsoft getting a free public relations boost at the expense of free software developers and advocates, particularly at our own venues, so we decided that NYFairUse would go in with a focused message presented by a small and prepared group. We rejected the calls for a broad and raucous protest: if all the volunteers showed up we would have outnumbered the actual conference participants. We had to figure out how to attract attention, raise the necessary issues, put the open-source "leaders" on notice and still not turn the conference completely upside down. The answer NYFairUse came up with was exciting, fun and effective. We are fortunate to have associates working on Broadway, and they introduced us to costume designers who dressed us as Colonial Americans, circa 1776. Suddenly everything came together, and NYFairUse was ready to move ahead in a constructive manner. The core of the NYFairUse action included Joe Grastara, Dave Williams, Cesar Vargas, Sunny Dubbey, Adam Kosmin, Tim Wilcox, Marco Scoffier, Vincenzo L., Ray Connolly and myself. Dave Williams and Joe Grastara helped us construct an effective message that became our pamphlet. Ray arranged for transportation and drove both to and from the event, a total of twelve hours. Cesar, Sunny, Ray, Tim, Adam and myself dressed as Founding Fathers. Marco and Vinnie helped everyone prepare. The entire enterprise was underwritten by NYLXS. Most of the participants met in Brooklyn and stayed overnight at my home, where a weekend-long InstallFest was taking place. Ray, as the driver, got several hours sleep while the rest of us made final preparations. At 4:00 AM, NYFairUse embarked on the trip to Washington. We arrived safely at 9:30 in the morning, fully dressed in costumes and ready to make our case. figure Reaching our Audience: Confronting Hostile Guards Upon our arrival at George Washington University, the appearance of seven historic American heroes astonished people, and cameras flashed all around. After we picked up our badges and began handing out our pamphlets, people flowed out of the main auditorium to surround us and inquire about who we were and what we were handing out. We brought 400 pamphlets, and all but a dozen where given away. Each NYFairUse member became a center of attention. We managed to talk personally with nearly every member of the conference accept for Bradley Kuhn, who refused to talk to any of us for some reason. Our pamphlet strongly condemned the organizers of the conference for not appropriately representing the free software movement and for caving in to self-interest over the good of the community. We explained that they were giving Microsoft a free public relations opportunity to confuse the issues and to promote their "Shared Source" disinformation campaign. The conference itself, although filled with luminaries from the international Free Software Community, was limited in its attendance. During our visit, no more than 500 people were at the presentations, but the numbers might have been closer to 300. The small gathering proved useful, as NYFairUse was able to contact nearly every participant directly. We had nearly 100% penetration of the conference, including both attendees and speakers. Many of us spent several minutes talking to individuals, and I personally had the pleasure of speaking about the problem with European Union Minister Philip Aigrain, whom I had previously met in Bordeaux last year. I also spent a few minutes talking to Georg Greve of the European FSF, David Axmark of MySQL, Sarah Brown from Public Knowledge and many others whose names I failed to get. The same was true for all of the NYFairUse members. At one point while giving out pamphlets, the security guards came over. Searching for the leader of the protest, one guard approached me and asked who was in charge. I waved him off, and he became very annoyed. He asked me my name, so I smiled and said, "George...like in Washington, and you're in my University." I spotted journalist Grant Gross and said, "Look Grant, they're throwing us out of here!" Grant took out his notepad and the cameras gathered around. The guard retreated and went to speak with Tony Stanco. They decided that it was better to let us proceed than to face the bad press. A few minutes later Tony Stanco came over to talk to me. I spent a couple of minutes with him, during which he asked me if I got everything I wanted out of the event. I told him that we'll know in a few months, if Microsoft still is getting a free ride courtesy of the Open Source community. Mr. Stanco reassured me that what we were doing was okay. Having his approval was not reassuring. I made it clear that it wasn't our intention to have a blood-letting. Our purpose was to get a message across to the open-source leadership, explaining what we require of them and what standards we expect. Mr. Stanco then pointed to the crowd, saying, "You see these people? You'll never get through to them with screaming and yelling." I replied, "Maybe -- it depends on the need. In this case, we don't need to scream. In another situation, a louder voice might be useful." Mr. Stanco then said, "Have you ever heard Microsoft talk? They're going to be the best promoters of Free Software when they open their mouths." I reiterated my points: Microsoft's presence at the EGOVOS conference takes attention away from other, more deserving individuals and focuses it on themselves. Mr. Stanco refused to recognize the situation he created. He also failed to understand that this was part of a broader trend the community faces: the increasing encroachment of Microsoft in venues designed to sell free software to the public. The public deserves better. By 2:00 PM, we essentially had spoken to everyone at the conference. We made a lot of contacts, and in addition to handing out pamphlets, NYFairUse members handed out literature about their own government and business projects. In fact we took about 30 folders representing the Free Software Chamber of Commerce, our New York Free Software consultants network. Every folder was given out. We had a long discussion with the head of Hewlett Packard Research in Europe, who was very upset with us because he believed we opposed the commercialization of Free Software. We spent some time explaining how this was not the case, that we were upset because someone was giving Microsoft a free pass to the Open Source movement without making them contribute anything. The NYFairUse Position People often have asked why NYFairUse discriminates against Microsoft. The truth is that NYFairUse has no such bias. Our approach to Microsoft is the same as it is toward any company that warns businesses to avoid the GPL (as if a standard Microsoft EULA would withstand legal scrutiny). After all, they publish detrimental lies, such as this one from the current Microsoft web site: The GPL is designed to prevent commercial development of software distributed under the license. It does this largely by requiring licensees to make available, at little or no cost, the entire source code for any program that incorporates any amount of GPL code. Given that requirement, commercial developers cannot recover their research and development investments by charging reasonable and appropriate fees for their original software if it uses any GPL code. Free-software developers have every right to pursue this anti-commercial objective. Microsoft's concern is the resulting degradation of the software ecosystem that would be triggered by widespread acceptance of the GPL, particularly within the governmental and academic research sectors. This ecosystem has sustained unparalleled innovation throughout the industry for the past quarter-century. The principal role of government and universities in the ecosystem is to undertake basic research and to dispense the findings both into the societal base of technical knowledge and to private enterprises and individuals capable of developing these innovations commercially. Commercial enterprises, in turn, engage in applied research to develop products that advance the state of technology, generating jobs, profits and tax revenues that boost the economy (funding additional basic research in the process). Commercial enterprises also disseminate innovations directly into the larger technical-knowledge base. Microsoft uses its monopoly to thwart free software projects, such as SAMBA when it bans companies from releasing CIFS tools under the GPL, and when it participates in the Digital Rights Management scam that will end the practical use of free software through the Palladium "trusted computing" platform. But it wasn't Microsoft that we were upset with on this occasion. We are mad at people such as Tony Stanco, who discriminate against free software developers and distributors for their own personal advancement. And we let them know about it. As a footnote, after our trip to George Washington University, NYFairUse made a trip to Capitol Hill while still dressed in our costumes. We got big smiles all along the halls of Congress, especially at Congressman Weiner's office. He's a member of the the sub-committee on Intellectual Property and the Internet. We have a handshake deal to install a GNU/Linux system in his office, so stay tuned.

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few errors in new design
by Sameer N. I. 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

hi, I just saw the FSFIndiaPoster.pdf the colours used are fine except on the "weave your own code". the text that reads "Weave your own code". the colour of "Weave" is green you used. It appears on top and the colour for "Code" is saffron. It should be interchanged because saffron is on top in our national flag and green is at bottom. please check. Best regards. Sameer.

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