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Science India editorial
by Arun M 04 Apr '03

04 Apr '03

http://forum.gnu.org.in/1049371309/index_html The Columbia Tragedy The month of February started with a tragedy in the sky, a tragedy that could have been averted , like most others, if human knowledge had been more complete, or perhaps, if some individuals had taken more care. Science India pays homage to the seven space travellers who lost their lives as the space shuttle disintegrated high in the sky.We can add their names to the seven others who died when another space shuttle, the Challenger, blew up on the launch pad, or to thirteen others who died in various accidents involving spacecraft. Let us remember the jundreds or thousands of others, known and unknown, who had their lives prematurely terminated in our quest for the kind of technology that makes it possibel for us to go beyond the atmosphere. And a similar number of people who helped build up the scientific knowledge base for the development of technology. And, indirectly, the millions upon millions who helped all of us lead a life dvoted to science and technology by providing us the basic amenities of life. Let this remind us that knoledge is a product of social activity, contributed by one and all, and, as such, everyone is heir to all knowledge. Let this also remind us that knowledge is to be used for social good, and not for personal advancement. if the lives of the seven astronauts can remind us of this fact, they would have achieved far more than what they went to space for.

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GNUBeLUG... another report from Belgaum
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 04 Apr '03

04 Apr '03

URL : http://www.geocities.com/tonysingh4u/gnubelug.txt Minutes of GNU Be LUG Meet In an engineering college in Belgaum, called GIT, there are a few students who felt strongly about Free Software and its ideology. They wanted to eductae people around them and wanted to spread the message as we at Mumbai do. They took an obvious step, formed a formal LUG(ilug-belgaum(a)yahoogroups.com) about 6 months ago, and started introducing people to a new option. But they wanted to hold a big event, and event where they could have a larger number of people know of the option. So, they (Ashutosh Naik, Rohan, Rahul, Sanket Patil just to name a few) started to concieve this event which i'll describe in this article. Saturday, March 29th 2003, I and Bhaskar Ghosh another member of the Mumbai LUG reached the Belgaum bus station and called up the volunteers to pick us up. In no time they were there and I could notice the similar air of friendlyness that i'v always noticed with the Mumbai Luggerz. We quickly got fresh in a hotel wher we were put up and reached the college. The first look at the college made our jaws drop. We could notice lovely posters and banners al over the place with our own tux and GNU on them. Once in the lecture hall, we were introduced to all the the luggers of belgaum and we quickly looked over the arrangements that were loveley. The crowd started coming in and in no time we had main hall jampacked with around 150 minds, but this is not it. There was another hall arranged for the event and all the proceedings in the main hall were being streamed thru a web cam and displayed in the second hall. The first talk for the day was by Ashutosh Naik ofGIT who spoke about THE philosophy. He had er good presentation compiled which gave the taste of everything RMS talks about in his talks. So what if we didnt have RMS for the event, atleast we had a local RMS to take his place:). During the talk i was doing some face reading and noticed that the audience was a highly participating one and wanted to participate more. After Ashotosh's talk we had a very fruitful question answer session with people asking a lot about the differences of Free software and the Open Source Movements. We went on with some trivia for the audience and giving away of Knoppix CDs. I tried to make that very interactive from then on, and took things trevor ishtyle. Next speaker was Bhaskar Ghosh from DYPCOET kolhapur who did the installation of RH8 with specific stress on points like partitioning. He, actually went there as audience and wanted to use this as an opportunity to meet the luggers, but ended up speaking because due to some reasons Mr Dinesh Shah could'nt make it. After a quick snack break. we then had Rahul Iyer of GIT, belgaum talk about Kernel Modules. This talk was very informative and I must say that the LUG at belgaum is lucky to have a true kernel hacker with them right from its inception. Some more trivia and a few more knoppix CDs followed and then it was my turn. I was talking about using GNU/Linux for day to day use. As a part of that I also demoed knoppix and IndLinux. I could here a similar sigh from the audience that i heard at GNUnify, Pune, when they saw Gedit with hindi menus. I also got it across that the students sitting out there could actually contribute to this project. That was the end of the first days proceedings and we were again taken for a few snacks. Late in the evening a mini bus arrived at the hotel. We had a big contingent coming down from Goa for the event. I could see familiar faces like Fredrick Noronha, Dr. Anil Seth, Arvind Yadav etc and there were a few people i didnt know but got to know soon like Dr Gurunandan Bhat, Mr Dsouza, Amitay, Allwyn Noronha(no he is not FN's brother). Over dinner there was a lot of interaction and people were eating less and talking more. It was almost 11:30 by we finished dinner and a few people wanted to sleep, but a few people thought otherwise. FN made it a point to have Arvind Yadav and me otherwise we would have chatted all night and been drowsy the next day. Soon Trevor Warren and Warren Noronha from Bombay joiined the bandwangon(yes! another noronha. There was jokes of establising a noronha lug out there. lol) The next day was opened by FN who spoke about the status of the movement in India. I remember him stating that how we take the movement forward would make or break the movement, this made me feel more responsible. Next to speak was Dr. Anil Seth, an educationist as of now. He had compiled a very good analysis on "why GNU/Linux?". a new thing i noticed in his talk was that after he made the advantage clear he also touched an important point. he stated "What if I am wrong? you cant be trusting anyone like that. You still dont have anything to lose". The stage was then taken by the Trevor Warren who was speaking about Embedded Linux. Well we all know that Trevor gets to the stage, he is always amidst the audience. He and Warren Noronha demoed a few interesting Embedded equipment including a PDA and a box with a 512MB flas, a 486 processor and a wireless NIC that they had deployed on top of buses for the Karnatak Govt. We had the very knowledgable Dr. Bhat from Synapse Goa speak about SOAP and web services just before lunch. I have noticed this common thing when IITians talk, they have a fair amount of humour in their talks and thus make their highly technical talks the most engrossong ones.I have to add over here that Dr Bhat is the person who wrote the tex module of emacs and still he is the most humble man i have ever met. The last talk of the day was by Arvind Yadav from Goa who covered a lot of technical topics including .NET's counterpart in Free Software and a little more on the partitioning when dual boot systems are to be done up. His was a more of a question answer session and I was amazed atthe amount of questions that were pouring on. The last leg was a panel discussion where all the speaker were on the stage and one mic was always in the audience. Various topics were discussed including technical and topics related to ideaology and how could a i miss "making a living from free software". Bhaskar and I, the die hard fans of RMS spoke a lot about him and how the GNU project went about during this session. One more thing worth mentioning is that we had almost 200 copies of LFY march given away in the two days, which were sponsored by Mr. Rahul Chopra,editor LFY and we are very thankful to him for that. That apart we also had 87 copies of the knoppix CDs either sold or given away as prizes for trivia. 2 days of brain storming, almost 10 speakers, 200 magazines going out and almost 75 CDs of knoppix sold and an amazing amount of interaction with the audience of almost 250. How would one sum this all up? The only adjective that come to my mind is FRUITFUL, very very FRUITFUL. ^^^^^ LINKS ilug-belgaum(a)yahoogroups.com ilug-goa(a)yahoogroups.com fred(a)bytesforall.org(FN) guru(a)plusthought.org (Dr Gurunandan Bhat) GNUrpreet singh gnurpreet(a)softhome.net -------------------------------------------- Copyleft 2003 gurpreet. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.1 or later. -------------------------------------------

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NEWS: India neutral on Linux-MSN issue: Shourie
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- India neutral on Linux-MSN issue: Shourie By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service Bangalore, Apr 1 (IANS) India is neutral in the open source vs. proprietary software debate and will adopt a policy that will serve the country better, Minister for IT Arun Shourie said Tuesday. Making it clear that the government would not take a stand on supporting either the Linux or Microsoft platforms, he said no circular had been issued by his ministry to support either. Shourie's statement is the first categorical one from the government, which has been besieged by supporters of open source and proprietary software to promote their platforms. "I am not prepared to give a carte blanche. In India there is too much of 'either ... or'. There should be 'also' too", Shourie told reporters here. He was speaking on the sidelines of a function to dedicate Param Padma, a one teraflop super computing cluster that is the largest in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan. Decisions on the MSN-Linux issues would be taken on a "case by case basis. For instance, CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) will decide what will serve the country better," Shourie maintained. The open source platform provides the code for developers to modify for their applications. This code is not available in proprietary software. The campaign has been termed freedom against dependency. The debate on the issue got a fillip when Microsoft head Bill Gates visited India last year to push for proprietary software in the wake of the growing inroads by Linux among India's 500,000-strong developer community. Gates as well as supporters of open source like IBM and Sun Microsystems have committed millions of dollars to promote their platforms. "If there is a security product that we need and supposing it is required immediately and someone else has it, are we going to say we will develop it ourselves?" Shourie asked. Speaking after inaugurating the C-DAC facility, Shourie said "sensitive organizations should use indigenous software and hardware because bugs can develop several years later". --Indo-Asian News Service

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SITEWATCH: What exactly is gnowledge?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 Apr '03

02 Apr '03

URL : http://www.gnowledge.org Welcome to Gnowledge! By `gnowledge' we mean the knowledge accessible freely for the community in general, and to the users of the WWW in particular. We expect that the `g' in the term `gnowledge' is pronounced hard, and is not silent as `k' in `knowledge'. The possible Sanskrit and Greek roots of the term `knowledge' and the ideal of GNU to share knowledge in general and software knowledge in particular inspired us to use this term. At this site we will publish software to manage gnowledge. We desire to make this a community portal for those who believe in sharing. We are developing a gnowledge management application called GNOWSYS. Find out more about it by navigating through the menu on the left side. Powered by GNOWSYS, [15]ZOPE, [16]Python, [17]GNU/Linux � Nagarjuna G.[18]Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

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help on hurd
by Arko Provo Mukherjee 02 Apr '03

02 Apr '03

Hello Friends, There are lots of documentations on how to write modules for the Linux Kernel. Can you help me to find any documentation that will help me to write modules for the Hurd kernel, specially about driver writing on that platform? Regards Arko

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LINK: Create your own mailing list
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

URL : http://lists.asiaosc.org [1]Promoting open source and free software in Asia [2]Asian Open Source Centre Promoting open source and free software in Asia AsiaOSC Mailing Lists Server Access the Mailing Lists For a full listing of the mailing lists that are hosted by this server, please click [3]here. Create your Lists AsiaOSC offers free mailing lists to open source / free software projects in Asia. If you are interested in creating a mailing list for your open source / free software project, please email [4]mailman-owner(a)lists.asiaosc.org with the following info : 1. Short name of list (e.g. OSS_Vietnam). 2. Short description (e.g. 'Open Source discussion in Vietnam'). 3. Long description (e.g. 'For anything related to open source and free software in Vietnam'). 4. Geographical distribution (Asia, worldwide, or countryname). 5. AsiaOSC registered username (click [5]here to register). Mailing lists are offered to you under these [6]terms and conditions. Please take note that someone from AsiaOSC will be a co-admin for every list. The admin from AsiaOSC will not exercise any admin previleges unless the list is abused. Please report problems to [7]mailman-owner(a)lists.asiaosc.org [8]MIMOS - [9]AsiaOSC AsiaOSC Mailing Lists Server References 1. http://www.asiaosc.org/ 2. http://www.asiaosc.org/ 3. http://lists.asiaosc.org/mailman/listinfo 4. mailto:mailman-owner@lists.asiaosc.org 5. http://www.asiaosc.org/user.php?op=register&module=NS-NewUser 6. http://www.asiaosc.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=legal&file=index 7. mailto:mailman-owner@lists.asiaosc.org 8. http://www.mimos.my/ 9. http://www.asiaosc.org/

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INDIA-BELGAUM: Day 1 - GNUBeLUg '03
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

This note is a somewhat delayed report from Ashutosh Naik <a7ash(a)yahoo.com> in Belgaum... Our ILUG-Goa team of eight just returned late last night from Belgaum (150 kms away), after a very interesting visit there. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Day 1 of GNUBeLUG was full of action. Remember, It was the first major event organised by ilug-belgaum. To begin with, the principal of GIT, Dr. D H Rao inaugurated the function by lighting the lamp. This was a really good way of starting the function because with one light, U can light another.. And that's the way the spirit of Free Software multiplies. The trend during the day was the GNu philosophy.. People were shocked to know that propreitory companies had taken their freedom for granted, And most definitely agreed that GNU/Linux was altleast worth a try..The Principles of Free, Open Source and Propreitory software were argued till length After the talk on GNU principles by myself, We had a brief Installation seesion, A talk on GNU/Linux in daily life by Gurpreet Singh, And finally a talk on Hacking Kernel Modules by a true hacker, Rahul Iyer. There were also loads of everyday questions answered by the panelists which included myself, Rohan, Bhaskar Ghose, Gurpreet Singh and Sanket Patil. Most of these questions were on switching to GNU/Linux and the configuration issues involved Finally the meet ended with a demo of the Indlinux v 0.37 project and a demo of Knoppix We do look forward to your company tommorrow.. which promises to be more action-packed as compared to today Tomm's Attractions : - Embedded Linux by Trevor Warren - Setting Up GNU/Linux as a WebServer - Dr. Bhat - GNU/Linux on the desktop - Arvind yadav - GNU/Linux in India - Frederick Noronha - Panel Discussions And much more You surely dont want to miss it !! Ashutosh Naik ilug-belgaum __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get 128 Bit SSL Encryption! http://us.click.yahoo.com/xaxhjB/hdqFAA/VygGAA/0XFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To Post a message, send it to: ilug-goa(a)yahoogroups.com To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: ilug-goa-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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Urgent: Call for Action !!!
by Arun M 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

Hi Freedom lovers, "Microsoft comes to Trivandrum..." dreaming of 'XPanding Horizons'. Venue: The South Park Hotel Date: 2-3rd April. 10.00 am - 5.30 pm Time to act and tell them Freedom Matters !! Lets join for a Demo. Happy Hacking, Arun. PS: If would like to help pls call me on 0471-2460250. We have just one day left. We welcome donations of blank media or GNU/Linux CDs to distribute.

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INDIA-BELGAUM: Day 1 - GNUBeLUg '03 (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

This note is a somewhat delayed report from Ashutosh Naik <a7ash(a)yahoo.com> in Belgaum... Our ILUG-Goa team of eight just returned late last night from Belgaum (150 kms away), after a very interesting visit there. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Day 1 of GNUBeLUG was full of action. Remember, It was the first major event organised by ilug-belgaum. To begin with, the principal of GIT, Dr. D H Rao inaugurated the function by lighting the lamp. This was a really good way of starting the function because with one light, U can light another.. And that's the way the spirit of Free Software multiplies. The trend during the day was the GNu philosophy.. People were shocked to know that propreitory companies had taken their freedom for granted, And most definitely agreed that GNU/Linux was altleast worth a try..The Principles of Free, Open Source and Propreitory software were argued till length After the talk on GNU principles by myself, We had a brief Installation seesion, A talk on GNU/Linux in daily life by Gurpreet Singh, And finally a talk on Hacking Kernel Modules by a true hacker, Rahul Iyer. There were also loads of everyday questions answered by the panelists which included myself, Rohan, Bhaskar Ghose, Gurpreet Singh and Sanket Patil. Most of these questions were on switching to GNU/Linux and the configuration issues involved Finally the meet ended with a demo of the Indlinux v 0.37 project and a demo of Knoppix We do look forward to your company tommorrow.. which promises to be more action-packed as compared to today Tomm's Attractions : - Embedded Linux by Trevor Warren - Setting Up GNU/Linux as a WebServer - Dr. Bhat - GNU/Linux on the desktop - Arvind yadav - GNU/Linux in India - Frederick Noronha - Panel Discussions And much more You surely dont want to miss it !! Ashutosh Naik ilug-belgaum __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get 128 Bit SSL Encryption! http://us.click.yahoo.com/xaxhjB/hdqFAA/VygGAA/0XFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To Post a message, send it to: ilug-goa(a)yahoogroups.com To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: ilug-goa-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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SITEWATCH: FreeMed
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Mar '03

29 Mar '03

URL : http://freemedsoftware.com About Contact Software Support Links Demo [1]About | [2]Contact | [3]Demo | [4]Links | [5]Software | [6]Support Site created by [7]jeff � 2003 by the FreeMED Software Foundation References 1. http://freemedsoftware.com/about.php 2. http://freemedsoftware.com/contact.php 3. http://freemedsoftware.com/demo.php 4. http://freemedsoftware.com/links.php 5. http://freemedsoftware.com/software.php 6. http://freemedsoftware.com/support.php 7. mailto:jeff@ourexchange.net

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LINK: Debian desktop user's guide... (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Mar '03

28 Mar '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TekMate <tekmate(a)nospam.hotmail.com> Subject: Debian Desktop User's Guide Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:40:40 CST The Debian Desktop User's Guide is a project to bring up-to-date and effective documentation to new Debian users. This document is based on the Progeny user's guide. This guide is planned to be released in conjunction with Sarge. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with some of the sections check the proposal and changelog for more information. http://cafecomputer.com/guide/users-guide.en.html -- ===== Yet another Linux FAQ 2.2 http://www.cafecomputer.com/faqindex.htm ########################################################################## # Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: cola(a)stump.algebra.com # # PLEASE remember a short description of the software and the LOCATION. # # This group is archived at http://stump.algebra.com/~cola/ # ##########################################################################

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COMMENT: Why India looks to GNU/Linux with hope and anticipation..
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

WHY INDIA LOOKS TO GNU/LINUX WITH HOPE AND ANTICIPATION.... By Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan venky1 at vsnl dot com www.indlinux.org Today, I am going to talk about why GNU/Linux is god's gift to India. To my mind, GNU/Linux represents one of the finest opportunities for taking the benefits of this wonderful technology to the masses. From the standpoint of cultural, political and economic freedom, there are enormous reasons why the GNU/Linux operating system is relevant to India's future in the digital age. That's the reason why my friend Prakash Advani and I started IndLinux.org to localize GNU/Linux to Indian languages. I am therefore happy to announce that we are launching the first release of IndLinux Hindi, called Milan at this event. Milan represents the culmination of three years of work and we plan to localize GNU/Linux in Marathi, Gujarathi and other Indian languages soon to spark off a revolution in computing in Indian languages. This talk is divided into two parts. In the first part, I aim to visualize the future of computing in India and in the second part, I talk about what free software can do for the future of India. >From a research standpoint, my interest is in the history of technology and in the impact of technology on society. Based on past history of technology, I predict that there will be a hundred million computers in India. To work backwords from this number, let me draw an analogy with a technology that is fairly recent so that you can relate to what I am saying. The domestic software industry today reminds me of the TV industry around 6-7 years ago. Around six years ago, most of the TV channels were either in English or in Hindi. How does that compare to the domestic IT scenario in India? Today, almost all applications and operating systems are in English, a language spoken by a mere five percent of India. Even if you run Indian langauge software, it is usually within an environment that is predominanatly in English. Compare this with the situation around six years ago when regional languages were broadcast in two-hour slots on channels that were mostly in English or Hindi. How things have changed! In the last six years, the explosion of regional channels has been absolutely incredible. Today, each of India's regional languages has at least two TV channels. At one point in time one could never have imagined an elitist channel like Star TV broadcasting in Hindi. Now, they are looking beyond Hindi to other Indian languages. Who had heard of channels like Zee or Asianet or Lashkara six-ten years ago? Who could have vizualised 60 million TV sets in India? This reminds me of an old saying in the technology industry. Old hands in this industry say that in the near term we always overestimate its impact and in the long term, we always underestimate it. The reason for the explosion in TV channels is simply because that's where the markets lay and a similar thing is going to happen to the computing industry in India. Many countries for example, do not have populations that add up to a single language in India. A few years ago, when I was in Hungary, I saw that most operating systems were in the Magyar script. Think about it! A mere 14 million people speak the Magyar language, yet they have an operating system of their own. Yet the third largest spoken language in the world-Hindi, which is spoken by 402 million people-has no operating system! How can we call India an IT superpower when we do not even have an operating system in our largest language? When Prakash and I looked at the situation, we thought it was absolutely crazy. If you look deep into the computer, the only language it understands is the binary language that consists of zeroes and ones. It is India that developed the concept of the zero and gave it to the world. And we cannot even develop an operating system of our own! We wanted to create an operating system for India and when we looked around, there was only one choice-GNU/Linux because we could not modify proprietary operating systems. If I wanted to translate "file" into the Hindi equivalent, I had no freedom to do that. The GNU/Linux operating system was a natural choice because it gave us the freedom to add interfaces in any language we chose. Now, take a look at the top twelve Indian languages Language Spoken by Hindi 402 Bengali 83 Telugu 78.7 Marathi 74.5 Tamil 63.2 Urdu 51.8 Gujarati 48.5 Kannada 39 Malayalam 36.2 Oriya 33.5 Punjabi 27.9 Assamese 15.6 Each of these languages are spoken by populations larger than the population of Hungary! The first freedom I mentioned was cultural freedom. From a cultural standpoint, GNU/Linux was an attractive alternative because when lingusitic groups come together to localize GNU/Linux in a transparent manner, localization can be done in a manner that is far more culturally sensitive than any centrally controlled process. For example, should "file" be called a "file" in Hindi because the word is now part of the popular lexicon among Hindi speakers or should it be called something else? Who should decide this? Should a software company decide this or should local linguistic groups decide this? Apart from this, there are even deeper cultural issues that are so deeply embedded in computers that we are not even aware of it. For example, the whole metaphor of "desktops" and "files and folders" evolved from the work of Ben Schneiderman who argued that the interface of the computer must reflect the real world around us. In rural India, where most people have never owned a desk and are used to squatting on the floor, "desktops" and "files and folders" clearly do not reflect their reality. Yet, rural India is where 70 percent of India lives. Therefore, an enormous amount of research needs to be done to invent appropriate user-interface metaphors for India and GNU/Linux is an ideal platform to do this. The second freedom I mentioned was political freedom. We all know that we are in the digital age and one of the most fundamental platforms of the digital age is the operating system. Therefore, any sovereign nation has to make vigorous efforts to control this platform. From a political standpoint, GNU/Linux is one of the most attractive platforms for a sovereign India, because of its openness. The third freedom is economic freedom. In developing countries like India, the per capita income is around $410. If the cost of operating systems and application software itself add up to this number, it is impossible for the vast majority of India to afford this technology. In countries like the US, where per-capita incomes are around $30,000, it may be affordable but not in India. What India therefore needs is software that's priced in rupees and not in dollars and GNU/Linux fits the bill since it is available free. Therefore, it is clear that there are compelling reasons for the adoption of free software. At IndLinux.org, we are committed to keeping our software free - free as in freedom of speech, free as in free beer and free as in free chai! We want to empower every Indian with this technology and believe that this effort is fundamental to India's future. I therefore invite you all to visit our web site at www.IndLinux.org and volunteer to localize Linux to Indian languages. I look forward to working with all of you to take this wonderful technology to the Indian masses. Thank you and Jai Hind! -0- This talk was delivered recently by "Venky" Hariharan at the February 2002 GNUnify festival in Pune, central India. (ENDS)

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NEWS: What is MS decides to go Open Source?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWSFORGE: WHAT IF MICROSOFT DECIDES TO GO OPEN SOURCE? "Someone at Microsoft must realize that Office will eventually be cloned (OpenOffice is a start), ruining their market; if IBM can speculate that someday AIX may be dropped because Linux has grown up, wouldn't it be better for Microsoft to enter the Open Source software industry and survive...?" COMPLETE STORY: http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/03/17/1233239&mode=thread&tid=19 More Developer stories: http://linuxtoday.com/developer ------------------------------------------------------------------

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ILUG-Belgaum... an event this weekend
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

ILUG-BELGAUM, ONE OF the younger LUGs around the place, is to hold its first major GNU/Linux meet in the north Karnataka town of Belgaum on the weekend. It is being held over Saturday afternoon and the entire of Sunday. If you'd like more details, contact rohankangralkar(a)hotmail.com or check out the discussion and announcements at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-belgaum. We from the Goa LUG wish them all the best for and this and other forthcoming events. FN -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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[Fwd: Re: [GOV-LIST] Governo do Brasil Ceritifica Navegadores Livres]
by KG Kumar 25 Mar '03

25 Mar '03

-----Forwarded Message----- > From: Rodrigo Stulzer <rodrigo(a)conectiva.com.br> > To: Phil Hughes <fyl(a)a42.com> > Cc: gov-list(a)ssc.com > Subject: Re: [GOV-LIST] Governo do Brasil Ceritifica Navegadores Livres > Date: 24 Mar 2003 14:51:49 -0300 > > On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, Phil Hughes wrote: > > > This article was recommended by Jaco <jaco(a)fsconsortium.com>. > > Assuming you are s good at Portugense and I am, he offers the > > following clues as to the content: > > *The Brazilian Government digitally certified Mozilla and Galeon* > > > > The text, the Presidential secretary explains why it is important to have > > browser who comply with open standards. > > In any case, another free software win in government. > > Hi Phil and fellows of gov-list! > > The Brazilian Government and Conectiva signed last week this deal to > include in Conectiva Linux the ICP-Brasil digital signature. The event was > a very good one and several key people from the Government was there. The > speech of the National Technology Institute President, Sergio Amadeu, was > very clear: the government wants Linux and all the open standards. They do > not want closed protocols and solutions from just One Company. > > I was there signing the deal and the whole speech from the government side > was _very impressive_. They are very commited to Open Source/Free > Software. > > I think that signature was a milestone in the Linux history here in > Brazil. > > Regards, > > Rodrigo Stulzer, > Marketing Director > Conectiva S.A. > > Links: > http://www.iti.gov.br/ > http://www.icpbrasil.gov.br/ > http://www.icpbrasil.gov.br/certificadoACRaiz.crt > http://www.conectiva.com.br > > This Linux in Government list is sponsored by Linux Journal. > -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Free software news feeds...
by Frederick Noronha 24 Mar '03

24 Mar '03

------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW UK FREE SOFTWARE NEWS FEED AFFS has started publishing its news items as an RSS feed and invites members, computer users and other web sites to start using it. COMPLETE STORY: http://linuxpr.com/releases/5679.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ 20 STUDENTS WORLDWIDE, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WIN IBM'S 2ND LINUX CHALLENGE; Participation doubles globally, mission critical applications increase COMPLETE STORY: http://linuxpr.com/releases/5689.html ------------------------------------------------------------------

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CollegeTodos
by zoyd 24 Mar '03

24 Mar '03

"Following are some simple things you can do to spread awareness about free software in your college: Georg Greve maintains a very good column of free software reviews called the Brave GNU World, it's ideal for printing and putting up on college or hostel notice boards. Check Issue #48." http://nodegroup.com/vinay/wiki/index.php/Main/CollegeTodos Above is the URL to the wikipage on my personal wiki. Feel free to edit the wikipage and add your ideas. Thanks, Vinay Pawar(aka zoyd) http://nodegroup.com/vinay/

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| LinuxForYou... March 2003 | Connecting GNU/Linux and Windows |
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 23 Mar '03

23 Mar '03

JUST AN UPDATE of what's in issue # 2 of what claims to be Asia's first [GNU]Linux magazine, covering the technology for beginners, power users, IT implementers, developers and the industry. CONNECTING [GNU]LINUX & WINDOWS Tools explained: Explore2fs and WinaXe CYGWIN A friendly application VMWare Go the emulation way GRUB The dual boot metho WINE Windows on [GNU]Linux SAMBA Network [GNU]Linux across platforms o QUOTE: LFY: How do you like the magazine? RMS: I have to say this. I am very, very unhappy with the magazine. You really should not be doing this. The magazine should not be named LINUX For You. It should be GNU/Linux For You. You've got to change this. (Richard M Stallman, quoted in an interview) o Editor Rahul Chopra says of the last issue: "Day three of our all-India launch and we had sellouts from top three cities!" o SUBSCRIBE TO LFY for Rs 370 per year, instead of Rs 600. Valid uptil 31 March 2003. o OpenOffice.ORG is sure to give other proprietory office suites a run for their money, writes Sharminder Singh. o SuSE LINUX 8.1 is easy to install and fun to operate. It can be used on your home and office desktop, comes with fundoo games and educational software. For the server administrator, there are several useful tools available, says Vijaya Kittu. o COOL HANGOUTS FOR DEVELOPERS www.sourceforge.com www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/ www.freshmeat.net www.python.org www.kernel.org www.sun.com/developers/ www.perl.com o IF YOU HAVE had that (anti-'piracy') knock on your door, and are considering the move to GNU/ Linux or have migrated since then, write to freedomyug(a)linuxforu.com with your story. o INDIA NEWS - Red Hat India to expand - Interview: V Khanna, CEO, Ampersand, Delhi - LinuxInIndia: extracts from a report by Nasscom (some on the GNU/Linux found it ironical that one of India's pro-Microsoft, and pro-proprietorial code bodies is tom-tomming GNU/Linux) - C-DAC taking the open source route. - Open Source: a disruptive technology? - Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital, 180 beds with advanced diagnostics, has opted for GNU/Linux. - Symantec AntiVirus, Mumbai - Rainmail Intranet from Carizen Software Chennai - GroupX2, groupware soln from Blore - Elx, much undernoticed, from Hyderabad - Legato's NetWorker from Delhi - eSpark's Realtime, Bangalore - Atlantic's sales force automation, Delhi - Arava's Arcon -- mail, Internet, intranet server o ENTERPRISE MESSAGING... Firms that use GNU/Linux for e-mails find it feature-rich, stable and easy to upgrade. News from Sahara India (1500 offices... using Qmail), Bharati-Teletech, Bry-Air (RedHat for e-mail and proxy servers since 1999), Arcus Ltd. o Q-MAIL SERVER IN THE ENTERPRISE. Use the step-by-step instructions given here to implement a Q-Mail server in your organisation. It will take only a few hours to do so. o MITHI cOnnect server: Offers a corporate email solution with the "performance of [GNU]Linux and the ease of Windows'" o WHAT's NUMA got to do with clusters? o INTRODUCING PERL.. Perl is a script language that can help you carry out a variety of tasks. Learn aboutPerl data types and variables. Perl expressions, loops in Perl and more. o LINUX databases. MySQL, POSTGRESQL. InterBase. Non-relational databases. Four page article. o THE SHELL CORNER, beginning with interactive scripts o CVS for developers: This software helps developers living across the world to pool data in a central location, access it, make changes to the content, and save it. (Pages 80-81). o [GNU]LINUX IN EDUCATION: An article that doesn't do justice to its subject. Lot more depth is required to tackle this. GLUE by Ajith in Delhi is not mentioned. LIFE of Prof Nagarajuna doesn't get noticed. RedHat is wrongly credited for "working closely" to deploy GNU/Linux in 42 schools (if this is in Goa, the company did only very little) and BytesForAll.org (something which I'm directly involved -FN) doesn't focus on these kind of projects and has never claimed to have worked on it ;-) o Design of a diskless client terminal o Report on GNUnify in Pune ('RMS was there') o Linux World Expo 2003, a report o SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 edition is available from sales(a)seascope.co.in o LISTING OF Asia's and India's LUGs and GLUGs... pretty useful. Accuracy and depth of info could improve. o ROBERT J CHASSELL on why software freedom empowers the developer, enables the user, and offers students something they love. (ENDS) LOOKING AHEAD: What's your opinion on a suitable distro to be included in a future edition of LFY? My suggestion? FreEduc. -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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NEWS: Sun Microsystems pledges $300 million donation to India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 23 Mar '03

23 Mar '03

First Microsoft megabucks, now Sun's. Given that giving copies of software licences is only a notional transfer, one could debate the real value of such "donations". Incidentally, does anyone have an idea of what must be the worth of Free Software "donated" to India over the years? Billions of dollars? At the end of the day, it all depends on how one values it. FN - - - - - - - Sun Microsystems pledges $300 million donation to India >From Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Mar 20 (IANS) Sun Microsystems, a global giant in computer networking, Thursday said it would donate software worth $300 million for non-commercial usage to Indian education institutes. "The donation will be with respect to online training for universities and academic use," Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer of the U.S.-based Sun Microsystems told media persons here. McNealy, on a three-day visit to India to boost Sun's market presence, said the donation would help raise the level of IT research in the country and would encourage widespread adoption and use of all its products. He said India and China had the potential to be growth engines with their remarkable growth rates as compared to Japan, the U.S. and Germany, whose growth was flat for the last few years. McNealy promised more investments in India, especially in research and development and education and training to tap the country's vast IT talent pool. Reacting to reports that the open source Linux was badly affecting Sun's business, McNealy said: "I cannot disagree with that more. The company that is going to be hammered by Linux is Microsoft." He said Sun Microsystems believes in offering value added and packaged services on open source technology. McNealy said Sun was keen to work with Indian firms to develop cheap personal computers running on Linux. --Indo-Asian News Service

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[LINK] - Localisation
by Kanti Jadia 22 Mar '03

22 Mar '03

http://www.cdacindia.com/html/press/spot283.asp _______________________________________________________________________ Odomos - the only mosquito protection outside 4 walls - Click here to know more! http://r.rediff.com/r?http://clients.rediff.com/odomos/Odomos.htm&&odomos&&… ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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Misuse of Knowledge
by CK Raju 22 Mar '03

22 Mar '03

After going through the contents at WarGains.zip (19KB) I find enough reasons to get worried over whether the efforts of Free Software Foundation would one day be hijacked and used against mankind. Do we need to explore on how to eliminate such a possiblity ? CK Raju

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YOUR LINUX TODAY NEWSLETTER FOR March 20, 2003 (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 Mar '03

21 Mar '03

------------------------------------------------------------------ PCWORLD: QUIET PROTEST MARKS OPEN SOURCE EVENT "Free software advocates protesting the decision to include Microsoft Corp. at an open source and government conference showed up in American Revolutionary War uniforms and passed out a few flyers Monday but otherwise didn't cause much of a ruckus..." COMPLETE STORY: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109857,00.asp More Developer stories: http://linuxtoday.com/developer ------------------------------------------------------------------

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China's Goal to Train 1Million + in Linux (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 Mar '03

21 Mar '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- I don't know the specifics of the program....someone else might be able to enlighten us further....at the egovos conference in Washington D.C. this week it was mentioned that the government of China and I believe IBM are working on a joint effort to train more programmers than you can "shake a chop stick" at. This is the software equivalent IMHO of the pc revolution being fueled by low cost, pacific rim based chip and component manufacturing capability. So any bets on when the tsunami hits the stock prices of the usual suspects? Joseph -- +=======================================================+ | Joseph Dal Molin | E-mail: dalmolin(a)e-cology.ca | | President | Web: http://www.e-cology.ca | | e-cology Corporation | Phone: 1.416.232.1206 | +=======================================================+

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bandwidth throttling (fwd)
by Manu J 20 Mar '03

20 Mar '03

Hi, Can anyone help me out with bandwidth throttling using squid i used delay access,but it didn't quite work out I'm using squid bcos bandwith throttling has to be done based on url's.Only specific types os site access needs to be throttled. there is an appropriate acl and delay_access i have one delay pool of class 2 type and in delay parameters is like this delay_parameters 1 15000/15000 3000/3000 ideally this should allow individual users to access sites at 3KB/s and total bandidth should'nt exceed 15KB/s. when there is only one user this works fine but when three or more are connected speed drops below 1KB/s.I checked it by accessing an internal ftp server with normal transfer rates around 1 MB/s.So the problem lies with squid. Any idea as to how to sort this out??Or where can i get more help?? Thanks Manu -- 353 Tapti IIT Madras website-http://www.ee.iitm.ernet.in/~ee01b044

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WANTED: Programmers to localize Mozilla
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 19 Mar '03

19 Mar '03

One of India's prominent Internet companies has been looking for programmers who will help localize Mozilla to Indian languages. Those who apply need to have at least 2-3 years experience, but above all, a passion for the Internet and for free /open source software. The objective of Indianizing Mozilla is to revolutionize computing in Indian languages, especially on the Internet. The selected individuals will be based in Mumbai. Contact venky(a)indlinux.org or karunakar(a)indlinux.org. For more details, see the attached job description. Regards, Venky ===== Mozilla Indianization ===================== 1) Goal: Enable Mozilla browser to display & handle indian languages properly, with proper font technology available. Localize Mozilla interface also to indian languages. 2) Project Requirements: All work done should be contributed back to Mozilla codebase, so that it becomes part of it. Solutions arrived at should make into main tree, rather than be done as adhoc hacks / addons / patches. i) i18n part (involving changing mozilla codebase) : a - Should be able to render Indian languages encoded in Unicode/UTF-8 b - Use a standardized font technology - eg OpenType. c - Support any encodings standardized for a language eg ISCII, TSCII, KSCLP (KGP) ii) l10n part (no code change - UI customization, translations of UI and Help text): a - Incorporate locale support (chrome level) b - Translate Mozilla UI into indian languages c - Making indianized mozilla theme - custom graphics,logos 3) Skill sets req a - Knowlegde of at least two Indian languages - reading & writing, script & language processing level 2.i & 2.ii.b b - C, C++, XML, Java for 2.i c - Graphics expertise for 2.ii.c d - For translator - good vocabulary in English & at least one Indian language, previous exp in translation also helpful. e - Proj. mgmt skills, ability to work with volunteers remotely, coordinate work through email/IM/group meetings. f - Interest in localization and passion for having indian languages on mozilla. g - Work experience of 2-3 years in the IT industry Current status: Mozilla supports Unicode, so all indian languages represented in Unicode work at unicode level - no proper rendering, if a suitable unicode font is available. ie proper vowel sign positioning, conjuncts etc are not avialable. Some work is on by Prabhat Hegde from Sun Microsystems on adding devanagari support, basically by using Pango (www.pango.org) rendering engine. He is exploring doing it using Opentype fonts. (Any one working for this should work with Prabhat for guidance & review, as he already has experience in Mozilla codebase ) Some hindi translation work has been done by a group based in Mumbai, available at http://www.bttlindia.com/mozilla/ . Some translation work for Tamil is also on. (These translations should be reused, instead of starting from scratch) Notes: 2.i has to be done in active participation with Mozilla developers & done at those forums ( mozilla-i18n , mozilla-l10n ) 2.ii.b is pure translation work, can be done in centralized or distributed fashion. 2.i.c - Since ISCII, TSCII etc are not registered character sets, it may not be possible to use them with Mozilla autodetection feature. Some workaround could be suggested. ISCII text will basically be converted to Unicode internally for display, enabled through use of \\\'iso8829-12\\\' ( reserved for Indic - ISO is waiting for us to settle to something :) . (The rationale to support ISCII is since ISCII chars will take 1byte, UTF-8 indic characters take 3bytes, or 7 bytes when used as named character references - The debate will pick up heat when indian languages are fully supported ) --------------------------- * Indian Linux project * * http://www.indlinux.org * --------------------------- -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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T-Shirts
by Arko Provo Mukherjee 19 Mar '03

19 Mar '03

Hello Everyone, I am also a member of ILUG-CAL which can go for T-Shirt production to raise fund. FSF-INDIA is a registered organisation. So I think that we can also go for T-Shirt Production to collect fund. We can even add caps to the list. We can put ads on Freedom Matters. We can request to the different LUGS,GLUGS,FSUGS etc to buy them. I think it will be a success. Waiting for comments Arko

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Tvm phone directory story in LWN.net
by KG Kumar 18 Mar '03

18 Mar '03

http://lwn.net/Articles/25694/ -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Unilever switching to GNU\Linux
by KG Kumar 18 Mar '03

18 Mar '03

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,79330,00.html?… -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Check This Out
by Arko Provo Mukherjee 18 Mar '03

18 Mar '03

Hello Guys, Check this out. URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-992824.html Arko

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Check This Out
by Arko Provo Mukherjee 18 Mar '03

18 Mar '03

Hello Guys, Check this out. URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-992824.html Arko

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Hindu Business Line on free software & Tvm phone directory
by KG Kumar 18 Mar '03

18 Mar '03

http://www.blonnet.com/2003/03/18/stories/2003031801531700.htm -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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The Hindu on Free Software & Tvm. tel. directory
by KG Kumar 17 Mar '03

17 Mar '03

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003031707890300.htm -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Tvm in AsiaOSC
by KG Kumar 17 Mar '03

17 Mar '03

www.asiaosc.org/article_23.html -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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TACO Alert - FSF India site slashdotted
by unmadindu＠softhome.net 17 Mar '03

17 Mar '03

Subject sez all :-) http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/16/2222254&mode=thread&tid=117

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TeX and Free Software helps print Trivandrum telephone directory
by KG Kumar 16 Mar '03

16 Mar '03

FREE SOFTWARE HELPS IN TIMELY PUBLICATION OF BSNL'S TRIVANDRUM TELEPHONE DIRECTORY The latest edition of the Thiruvananthapuram telephone directory, officially released yesterday, was processed and typeset with a range of free software tools that gave substantial savings on costs and time, and allowed the publisher, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), to produce 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 (SSA) from March 25, has 1,200 pages and 3.2 lakh entries. Four lakh copies of the directory are currently being printed by the city-based St. Joseph's Press (SJP), using typesetting software and programs provided by River Valley Technologies (RVT), a Thiruvananthapuram-based software house that has vast expertise in offering typesetting and publishing solutions using free and open-source software. (Free, open-source software is software whose source code is freely available for scrutiny, modification or distribution, unlike proprietary software, which is privately owned and closely held.) For BSNL, this is the first complete directory to be published since 1999. According to K. Sreekantan Nair, Principal General Manager of the Thiruvananthapuram telecom district, BSNL has spent Rs 3.5 crores on printing the directory. For SJP, this was a particularly prestigious order since it is the single largest printing job to be ever undertaken in Kerala. Says Fr. Mathew Thekkel, the then Manager of SJP, who supervised the project, "This was a bold drive aimed at the future and meant to prove the capability of St. Joseph's Press." In the normal course, an order of this magnitude -- a print run of 4 lakh copies, each of 1,200 pages 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. However, in this case, SJP was able to beat the March 15 deadline set by BSNL and, according to Fr. Thekkel, will be able to finish the entire printing in four months, using a small 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 directory printing. The secret to the swift processing of the job was in the typesetting work done by RVT, says Fr. Thekkel. "But for the technology skills they have, we would not have quoted for the job," he adds. "Had we used the normal programs like PageMaker or QuarkXPress, we would have needed three months time," says Fr. Thekkel. RVT, on the other hand, used a combination of free software programs to extract BSNL's data, process it and typeset it into camera-ready copy. According to C. V. Radhakrishnan, Managing Director of RVT, 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 then entirely recreated. RVT then wrote a Java program to pipe this newly generated database into TeX, a powerful typesetting engine and programming language, written by Donald Knuth of Stanford University and released in the public domain. From TeX, RVT produced the final output as Portable Document Format (PDF) files, using pdfTeX, also free software. "So powerful is TeX that it was able to process nearly 1,200 pages in just four minutes," says Radhakrishnan. "Not only that, since it is also a programming language, it is able to do several things automatically, like the generation of header markers, for example," he adds. To incorporate corrections and editorial changes to the proof sheets, RVT designed a graphical spreadsheet interface for SJP. This also helped to save time in updating around 10,000 entries which had changed since the last directory was printed four years ago. Fr. Thekkel forsees a great potential in the directory business, so much so that SJP is thinking of setting up a separate division for such work. The Department of Telecommunications has recently told its SSAs to print directories on their own, rather than rely on outside publishers, who often fail to deliver on time and in the required quantities. The Thrissur, Pathanamthitta and Tiruvalla SSAs are also due to publish their directories soon. -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Re: Malayalam
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Mar '03

16 Mar '03

Arun, Aren't you posting this to the other lists too? It's important to share even the small milestones along the journey. Who knows, this might *not* be such a *small* milestone anyway. FN On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, Arun M wrote: > Hi, > > > Today we did a pilot test of the Malayalam Gnome in a panchayath near > Trivandrum. We got very good response. The participants of the program > was mostly women(around 36 people from nearly 50 participants) from > panchatyath. More than 50 % of participents had some formal intriduction > to computers. And a few without any computer Knowledge. We have > collected the feed back on language uses and benfits of a malayalam > localised platform. Result is very much encouraging. The half day > session planned got extended to one complete day. Details i will send > soon. > > regards, > arun. > > > > -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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GNU/Linux Month
by Amol Hatwar 15 Mar '03

15 Mar '03

Hi all, I read a seperate e-mail about RMS' bithday on 16 of March. Why not all of us celebrate it in the following manner: All of us who beleive it must be GNU/Linux and not Linux, carry an email signature indicating this, and a link where one could get more information for about a month. This should be equivalent to wearing a badge in the net-era. Let's declare March 16 - April 15 as the GNU/Linux month. I'll be glad to see more of such badges floating around :). ------------ It's most certainly GNU/Linux, not Linux. Read more at http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html. ------------- And oh yes, Happy Birthday Richard (en avance). Warm wishes, Amol Hatwar.

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Arkoprovo's suggestion(s) and thoughts thereon
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

hi, arkoprovo makes some valid points about the presence and footprint of the GNU/Linux movement in the country. But i think we better take a good look at what is happening in reality. instead taking the platform as a viable, stable, economically beneficial and socially altruistic alternative to proprietary/closed source software, state governments are actually using this as a bait to drive/hammer down prices of you-know-what software. this does not serve the movement nor the purpose of the activism. on a truly national level, opinion must be created alongwith awareness about the stability and the viability of the system. for more on what is happening, i suggest the mar'03 issue of the [most unfortunately named] LinuxForYou. Frederick Noronha in one part of his column [nice one FN btw !!] outlines the malaise that is slowly creeping through. *free as in speech and not as in beer* might have been a rallying cry towards critical mass, but *freedom matters* should be the wardrums that roll. freedom matters and ideas matter. throughout history, man has risen against all odds, braved mighty challenges, driven by the sheer will and desire to be free. if such strong is the quest for freedom then i see no reason why we will not have people contributing. the only hitch is that in all FSF cause espousals we see the same faces. this is good as it reinforces belief and faith in the system. but we need to see new faces, new ideas, new projects and more importantly national awareness of such events. we need to synergise and form symbiotic relationships with related efforts and grow in unison. regards sankarshan --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/03

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Distributing mirrored data on CD to low bandwidth people.
by Imran William Smith 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

We are in the process of creating a mirror of some open source / free software in Malaysia, since the local mirror situation is not good. What is the mirror situation like in India / South Asia? My main question: Broadband rollout is currently low in Malaysia. We could help open source here by sending out CDs of the key open source apps / distros / packages. They'd probably be sent free since we have some funds for Malaysian open source development. But we don't want to be taken advantage of. Also, we'd like to encourage the software to spread further than just the people we send to. Can anybody see some way of turning this into a pyramid? I am thinking, maybe we could send 1 or 4 copies. If 4 copies, your name gets added to a database on the web, and others near you can come and get the other 3 copies. Something like that. It could be heavily engineered (credits for helping out on a web site, credits for sending copies to extra people, debits when we send people CDs) or all based on trust. Trust is probably better. But we want to make sure that the people who benefit are those who really don't have the bandwidth, rather than somebody who has access to the data in other channels but prefers us to send to them. We also have to make totally sure that we are distributing legally (for GPL, would we have to bundle source with binary, or just make the URL for the source very clear on the CD with the binary?) Thanks for your thoughts.... Imran -- www.AsiaOSC.org | Asian Open Source Centre www.mimos.my | MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia

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FM Relaunch
by Amol Hatwar 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

Hi all, Many of you may be aware of the Freedom Matters re-launch. The goal is not only to give Free Software developers/users a voice in India, but also to make a social and political impact on issues relating to Freedom. The job is not easy, and I'll require all the help from you guys can give me. Attached, please find the initial proposal that RMS, Arun and I have been through. I'll be glad to hear any additional suggestions and comments on the same. People who are ready to volunteer and work for the cause can mail me personally indicating this. Warm wishes, -ah

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Re: Re: [Fsf-friends] FM Relaunch
by Arko Provo Mukherjee 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

On Mon, 2003-03-10 at 17:23, Kanti Jadia wrote: > hi arko, > > We need people who believe in our philosophy. > > Suggest u to go through > > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy > > Also do register on the Volunteers directory of FSF-India. > > regards > > Kanti > Hello, I am already registered in the volunteers directory of FSF-India. Regards Arko.

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Re: Re: [Fsf-friends] Languages of India
by Kanti Jadia 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

Hi all, The only point here was to give a link to the official site of the our government. We should as Free Software supporters have a perspective on our governments policies. regards Kanti Jadia On Tue, 11 Mar 2003 Raman.P wrote : >But why do hindi prachar here. Please tell us what you >are trying to convey to free sofware community. > >Raman.P > >--- Kanti Jadia <j_kanti(a)rediffmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > > > There are around 18 languages recognized by the > > Indian > > Constitution. These languages are > > > > 1. Assamese > > 2. Bengali > > 3. Gujrati > > 4. Hindi > > 5. Kannada > > 6. Kashmiri > > 7. Konkani > > 8. Malyalam > > 9. Manipuri > > 10. Marathi > > 11. Nepali > > 12. Oriya > > 13. Punjabi > > 14. Sanskrit > > 15. Sindhi > > 16. Tamil > > 17. Telgu > > 18. Urdu > > > > Hindi is the national, official and main link > > language of India. > > Its homeland is mainly in the north of India, but it > > is spoken and > > widely understood in all urban centers of India. It > > is written in > > the Devanagri script, which is phonetic and, unlike > > English, is > > pronounced as it is written. Hindi is a direct > > descendant of > > Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It has > > been influenced > > and enriched by Dravidian, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, > > Portugese and > > English. It is a very expressive language. In poetry > > and songs, it > > can convey emotions using simple and gentle words. > > It can also be > > used for exact and rational reasoning. > > > > > > > > URL: http://indiaimage.nic.in/languages.htm > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Fsf-friends mailing list > > Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > >________________________________________________________________________ >Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! >TV. > visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com

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Languages of India
by Kanti Jadia 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

Hi, There are around 18 languages recognized by the Indian Constitution. These languages are 1. Assamese 2. Bengali 3. Gujrati 4. Hindi 5. Kannada 6. Kashmiri 7. Konkani 8. Malyalam 9. Manipuri 10. Marathi 11. Nepali 12. Oriya 13. Punjabi 14. Sanskrit 15. Sindhi 16. Tamil 17. Telgu 18. Urdu Hindi is the national, official and main link language of India. Its homeland is mainly in the north of India, but it is spoken and widely understood in all urban centers of India. It is written in the Devanagri script, which is phonetic and, unlike English, is pronounced as it is written. Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It has been influenced and enriched by Dravidian, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Portugese and English. It is a very expressive language. In poetry and songs, it can convey emotions using simple and gentle words. It can also be used for exact and rational reasoning. URL: http://indiaimage.nic.in/languages.htm

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Fwd: [linuxlingam@bhairon.com: [LIG] [draft] open letter to indian finance minister]
by Nagarjuna G. 08 Mar '03

08 Mar '03

----- Forwarded message from LinuxLingam <linuxlingam(a)bhairon.com> ----- > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 15:52:28 +0530 > From: LinuxLingam <linuxlingam(a)bhairon.com> > Subject: [LIG] [draft] open letter to indian finance minister > To: ilugd(a)wpaa.org, linux-india-general(a)lists.sourceforge.net, rms(a)gnu.org, > fred(a)bytesforall.org, karunakar(a)freedomink.org, rahul(a)electronicsforu.com > Reply-To: linux-india-general(a)lists.sourceforge.net > X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.3.1] > > [first draft: please submit your suggestions, changes. once a final draft is > ready, will post it so those interested may sign or contribute their name to > it. will then forward this to the indian finance minister and others in the > government.] > > [cross-posted, > and further cross-post, especially to other mailing lists, if required] > > *** > > Dear Sir, > > Re: Levy Excise Tax on All Commercial Software Sold in India. > > > We, the undersigned, propose the Indian Government levy excise tax on all > commercial software sold in India. Reasons: > > 1) Commercial software (C.S) is a big cash drain for both the Indian > government and Indian corporates. > > 2) Almost all commercial software are non-free. This means, they do not give > the end users the freedom i) to use the software for any purpose ii) to study > the source code of the software iii) to make changes and improvements to the > source code iv) to legally share copies of the software with their neighbours > and colleagues. v) to pass on such freedom to those who further receive the > software. > > 3) these freedoms are important for a developing, poor, country like India, > where every citizen, organization, and state, dreams of harnessing the > opportunities offered by IT. > > 4) these freedoms also significantly curtail strong anti-competitive > behaviour in the software industry. > > 5) countries like China are moving away from non-free software to > freedom-based software. India has no such significant, clearly-defined > initiative in place for adopting freedom based software. > > 6) in the lack of such a clear initiative, commercial software vendors raise > the stakes for both their competitors and for freedom based software. this > further kills innovation in the industry. > > 7) a large and significant percentage of commercial software is usually sold > as bundled, OEM software. end-users find they are *forced* to use such > software, since their requests to buy machines with such software uninstalled > is usually turned down. > > 8) indian customers usually find their *only* option is to buy the computer > with the bundled software, then carefully disagree the end user license > agreement (eula) of the bundled software preferably in front of witnesses, > then contact the OEM software vendor independently and press for a refund. > this is clearly anti-competitive. and the computer is perceived in cost as > (hardware+OEM software as One). > > 9) Commercial software companies are usually quite rich. Not taxing them > allows them to hoard their wealth even more and give them more implicit power > to quash their competition in commercial software and in freedom-based > software. > > 10) by taxing them, the indian government will immediately have more powers > to i) accelerate the adoption of freedom based software. > ii) fund the development of much-needed indigenous solutions in IT for india > using freedom-based software (indian language technologies, education > projects, free and freedom-based education software, more secure and > transparant software for indian defense industries, lower IT infrastructure > costs for indian government and businesses, etc.) > > 11) by taxing commercial software and funding several projects in india on > freedom-based software, the indian government also creates a quantum leap in > the number of jobs and opportunities available to the indian developer > community and IT industry, thus creating and sharing more wealth. > > 12) the adoption of free and freedom-based software allows indian corporates > to save considerable sums of money towards commercial non-free software, > where the Return on Investment is loudly questioned. this money can then be > used for further job-creating opportunities such as expansion of new units of > industrial manufacturing, factories, etc. shareholders of indian companies > will also benefit from stronger dividends due to stronger profit margins due > to the adoption of free and freedom-based software. > > 13) the already financially-starved education sector in India will gain, > since the large allocation of funds for software in education can be used > more productively, even for opening more schools instead. > > 14) finally, as a statement of leadership and values, india must adopt > freedom-based software that is being proposed to the UNICEF to be declared as > a world-culture heritage. > > We hope the Indian government sincerely considers these suggestions. For more > information on what is freedom-based software, please check out www.gnu.org. > > Bizarre as it sounds, when it comes to software: > Give us Freedom, or Give Us Taxes. > > > Your Sincerely, > > <signatures...> > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Etnus, makers of TotalView, The debugger > for complex code. Debugging C/C++ programs can leave you feeling lost and > disoriented. TotalView can help you find your way. Available on major UNIX > and Linux platforms. Try it free. www.etnus.com > _______________________________________________ > Linux-india-general mailing list > Linux-india-general(a)lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-general ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/ Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7 ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

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Mozilla Localization
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 Mar '03

07 Mar '03

This note is from Venky Hariharan. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- One of India's most respected Internet companies is looking for programmers who will help localize Mozilla to Indian languages. Those who apply need to have at least 2-3 years experience, but above all, a passion for the Internet and for free /open source software. The objective of Indianizing Mozilla is to revolutionize computing in Indian languages, especially on the Internet. The selected individuals will be based in Mumbai. Those interested are invited to apply to venky@indlinux.org/karunakar@indlinux.org. For more details, see the attached job description. Regards, Venky ===== Mozilla Indianization ===================== 1) Goal: Enable Mozilla browser to display & handle indian languages properly, with proper font technology available. Localize Mozilla interface also to indian languages. 2) Project Requirements: All work done should be contributed back to Mozilla codebase, so that it becomes part of it. Solutions arrived at should make into main tree, rather than be done as adhoc hacks / addons / patches. i) i18n part (involving changing mozilla codebase) : a - Should be able to render Indian languages encoded in Unicode/UTF-8 b - Use a standardized font technology - eg OpenType. c - Support any encodings standardized for a language eg ISCII, TSCII, KSCLP (KGP) ii) l10n part (no code change - UI customization, translations of UI and Help text): a - Incorporate locale support (chrome level) b - Translate Mozilla UI into indian languages c - Making indianized mozilla theme - custom graphics, logos 3) Skill sets req a - Knowlegde of at least two Indian languages - reading & writing, script & language processing level 2.i & 2.ii.b b - C, C++, XML, Java for 2.i c - Graphics expertise for 2.ii.c d - For translator - good vocabulary in English & at least one Indian language, previous exp in translation also helpful. e - Proj. mgmt skills, ability to work with volunteers remotely , coordinate work through email/IM/group meetings. f - Interest in localization and passion for having indian languages on mozilla. g - Work experience of 2-3 years in the IT industry Current status: Mozilla supports Unicode, so all indian languages represented in Unicode work at unicode level - no proper rendering, if a suitable unicode font is available. ie proper vowel sign positioning, conjuncts etc are not avialable. Some work is on by Prabhat Hegde from Sun Microsystems on adding devanagari support, basically by using Pango (www.pango.org) rendering engine. He is exploring doing it using Opentype fonts. (Any one working for this should work with Prabhat for guidance & review, as he already has experience in Mozilla codebase ) Some hindi translation work has been done by a group based in Mumbai, available at http://www.bttlindia.com/mozilla/ . Some translation work for Tamil is also on. (These translations should be reused, instead of starting from scratch) Notes: 2.i has to be done in active participation with Mozilla developers & done at those forums ( mozilla-i18n , mozilla-l10n ) 2.ii.b is pure translation work, can be done in centralized or distributed fashion. 2.i.c - Since ISCII, TSCII etc are not registered character sets, it may not be possible to use them with Mozilla autodetection feature. Some workaround could be suggested. ISCII text will basically be converted to Unicode internally for display, enabled through use of \\\'iso8829-12\\\' ( reserved for Indic - ISO is waiting for us to settle to something :) . (The rationale to support ISCII is since ISCII chars will take 1byte, UTF-8 indic characters take 3bytes, or 7 bytes when used as named character references - The debate will pick up heat when indian languages are fully supported ) --------------------------- * Indian Linux project * * http://www.indlinux.org * ---------------------------

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Debian...KDE programming... dynamic images (DEVELOPERiq * March 2003)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 Mar '03

07 Mar '03

THIS ALL AND more is included in the March 2003 issue of DeveloperIQ. Check the issue for THEN THERE ARE [GNU]Linux fanatics. I admire Linux pros a lot, and I know that using the OS needs more than mere mouse management. But what puts me off is an attitude, which many have for Windows users, developers and the rest of the community. I know many who have thrown away (actually they formatted the hard disk and loaded a new distro) Windows boxes and switched to [GNU]Linux and continued being happy. Great! But you just cannot stamp all Windows users and developers as mentally retarded. -Editorial, S. Ramdas Contact: ramdas(a)developeriq.com o DEBIAN 3.0 -- the first of five CDs. (Readers can avail of the other four at Rs 149, incl courier. But the CDs will be shipped with DeveloperIQ over the next year too.) o READER'S QUERY on why the installation program could not write to the MBR... o JAVA IN the enterprise: "Java's heritage is more aligned with the Open Source movement and community process. In fact, many would argue that free software forms an important part of the dynamic Java..." 4-pg.article o STATE OF WEB services: One of the biggest myths, which many developers especially coming from the Microsoft camp have, is that Web Services means .Net. This is not true... Where Sun and Microsoft score is they have ready-made roadmaps and product offerings.... Soon all the products from MS, including MS Office, will be .Net enabled, locking the customers to a .Net environment as far as possible... The Open Source world still does not have a combined solution... But there are lots happening, read the next article. o OPEN ROLE in Web services. Open Source (Free Software?) is fast catching up with their Web services portfolio. Axis from Apache, jBpm, OBE, Powerfolder, TestMaker, Rotor ("this is not exactly Open Source and is more Shared Source"), NetAything, The Go Mon Project, DotGNU. o DotGNU; The GNU version of the .Net initaitive. GNU branding is big, but the project somehow is lagging behind Mono. DotGNU is being developed jointly under the auspices of FreeDevelopers and the GNU project. The DotGNU system will be a well- integrated part of the GNU system and it will also be available to the users of all other wisely used OSs. It sounds very ambitious since the final goal is to create an operating system for the Internet. Currently a primitive beta version of the framework is available. See http://www.dotgnu.org o APACHE AXIS, the leading FLOSS tool kit for implementing Web services, gets two pages. o MASTER EMBEDDED Linux/Linux drivers from experts. Projects on porting, writing BSP for embedded GNU/Linux, network, wireless LAN, SCSI, fibre channel, USB device driver. Fees Rs 12,500-30,000. Four to six months course. Grace Systems, Bangalore contact(a)gracelabs.com http://www.gracelabs.com (ad) o TERMINAL CAPABILITIES of UNIX. By Arun Sundar. http://www.geocities.com/delightfularun/index.html o INSTALLING Pear:Soap o LINUXMAGINDIA on a CD. 18CDs in a year, customised for you, at Rs 1499. o KDE Programming Part 2. The KDE project had the goal of simplifying the use of GNU/Linux, very much like the Windows OS. This looks at how one can program using KDE in a typical GUI environment. o CREATING dynamic images, using PHP and GD.These are images that are generated on-the-fly by the server. o PLAYING AROUND with Python buttons. "Windows programmers may be warned that if you are comparing Python GUI with Visual Basic, it's like ptiching the Australian cricket team against the Bangladesh team." There are several widgets, which the Tk module supports. Mastering them is quite easy and infact learning Tkinter is as easy as learning Visual Basic. -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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Free Software Business Strategy Guide
by Vinay Pawar 07 Mar '03

07 Mar '03

Free Software Business Strategy Guide http://FreeStrategy.info "Abstract:This Net.Book outlines strategies for running a successful business while at the same time making valuable contributions to the Free Software community. The main point is that with an appropriate strategy, significant business benefits can be obtained from the "reputation game" social dynamics which are at the heart of the Free Software community." -- Vinay Pawar http://nodegroup.com/vinay/ http://antomic.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/ActivityLog

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Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa launched at WSIS
by KG Kumar 05 Mar '03

05 Mar '03

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=9965 "They met at the African Information Society Initiative meeting organized by the Economic Commission for Africa in November 2002 and have been working as a task force behind the scenes since. During WSIS, this team of dedicated Africans launched the Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa - FOSSFA." -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Re: [Fsf-india] GNOME and KDE desktops for MS-Windows users
by Ajith Kumar 05 Mar '03

05 Mar '03

Biju G C wrote: > I wish, I could start using GNU/Linux, but plenty other reason make me stay in MS-Win. Previously > I had dual boot PC, but found that is not a good solution. > > Finally I found Redhat's Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com), an open source UNIX emulation layer on MS > Windows. And Cygwin/XFree86 (http://cygwin.com/xfree/) as its XWin. Sounds good technically but what is the advantage if you have o keep Windows with all it's problems. In my personal opinion, we should switch over to GNU/Linux where it is possible and live with windows where there is no other option. We have gotten rid of MSOffice, Explorer etc. but still living with some CAD software that has no GNU/Linux alternatives. ajith > > > - also found KDE-Cygwin (http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/) and > CyGNOME (http://cygnome.sourceforge.net/) projects at SourceForge.net, > which are KDE, GNOME porting on Cygwin. > > Joined CyGNOME project, now I am trying to popularize it among windows users. > Also looking for people to join and contribute to CyGNOME project. > So please visit http://cygnome.sourceforge.net/ as well as please tell ur friends abt. it. > > Thank you > Biju > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Fsf-india mailing list > Fsf-india(a)mm.gnu.org.in > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-india

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Young minds, pretty faces... and a greying beard
by FN 04 Mar '03

04 Mar '03

THIS SET OF MINUTES is so outdated, that had I to delay any longer, it would have been criminal. The intention was to write a detailed report on the Feb 22 meeting at Panjim... it was a great meeting. But then, in the chaotic life of a freelancer (we're so busy doing nothing), this was not to be. Anyway, here are some highlights... o CSI'S SMALL HALL was almost bursting with participation. At one stage the count touched 25. Impressive eh? o IF YOU THOUGHT that was impressive, you should have seen the number of newcomers who were present. Besides, lady-participants touched nearly a one-in-four ratio! Who said GNU/Linux is for left-brained male geeks? o RAVI DEKA got started talking ... and man, this guy really knows to narrate a story. But before we went off-the-beaten track on the subject of motorcycling across India (Banduji's perchance for such themes makes it a lethal combination) we hurriedly shifted gear to focus back on GNU/Linux. o BIJON SHAHA, as planned, was prepared to tell the LUG about GNUnify, India's first free software festival held at Pune's deemed university, Symbiosis. Quotes: "There were 15 techie talks, two parallel sessions, each hall having at least 100 people. Basically, the audience was of students." "Some youngsters proved to be very good speakers. Nirav Mehta made two presentations on PHP." Among those speaking were the skilled orator and free software evangelist Prof Nagarajuna of TIFR, Sam Metryani of the Simputer team, Venky Hariharan and G Karunakar on Indic solutions for GNU/Linux... and of course hacker-guru RMS (Richard M Stallman). Shaha also spoke on the presentations by Prof Shivakumar and Prof Jeetendra Saha of VJTI, a very determined campaigner for FLOSS. FreEDUC CDs (the latest rage, after Knoppix) were handed around to demo the power of educational free software that boots from a CD-rom. Ravi Pradhan of Via (recently resettled in India from Silicon Valley, and determined to bring in low-cost GNU/Linux-based computers to the market) was also in Pune, presenting thin clients and inexpensive computing using Via's C3 chipset. The promise: notebooks for Rs 35K next year! Dr Ramakrishna of the DoIT presented the government's thinking on FLOSS. Basically, the idea would be to encourage FLOSS, while not dictating any one route for computing, and letting the market decide, Shaha quoted him saying. Shaha was himself one of the speakers at Pune. o ARVIND YADAV, founder-member of ILUG-Goa, narrated his experiences at COMPAS in Kolkata. The LUG had the biggest stall at this exhibition of IT and computers. There were demos of FreEDUC and LinuxRacer (which Arvind described as "less of a game and more of a simulation... with 50 cars and 20 cracks". IN NO time the debate shifted (don't recall how) to educational games -- free software fo maths, symbiolic maths, equations and J'compris (maths, language, shapes and colours for the very young). Octave, where the plots come out as graphs, etc... o SANGEETA NAIK, the coordinator of the Goa Schools Computers Project, explained that 104 schools had been given once-used computers under the Goa Sudharop project. Some 20-25 had LTSP solutions installed. There was a need to extend this to enable computer-aided learning and after-hours access for nearby communities, she said. The need for locating relevant and working software (given the hardware constraints) was always felt. o ASHLEY DELANEY SPOKE of his recent visit to Bangladesh, to share ideas with attempts at taking FLOSS to schools. o OTHER ISSUES throw up and spoken about as we interrupted each other included discless-PCs, whether FLOSS could replace Pagemaker and the needs of a DTP-ised magazine, o IN THE ROUND of introductions that followed, one of those present was Biju Chacko of Bangalore. He is an ex-coordinator of the Bangalore LUG, and since last year has started his own business. Biju said there were a "lot of companies" in Bangalore moving to open tools, like PHP and Zope. "But the basic problem is that if you're not selling a thing (as against a service), they're iffy about paying big amounts." Biju also suggested that a number of B'lore LUGers getting active in their own businesses or professions was a good thing, except activity became a bit lax compared to earlier highs. But for big events like Linux-Bangalore200*, large numbers did actively participate. o IT WAS time for the meet to end, yet no sign of Tilmann Singer. Just as we were headed for the Navtara restaurant cuppa tea, we ran into a young foreigner, who could have been Tilmann Singer. He was! Earlier we had promised that: o Tilmann Singer <tils(a)tils.net> from Europe will be briefly speaking on OpenACS. This is a cool toolkit for building community web applications. See http://openacs.org (specially of interest for people into web apps). Singer lives in Berlin, and came to know of us via the Wizards of Os conference. He is currently working for four months in Hyderabad, helping with setting up a small company focussed on the development of a Free/Libre and Open Source Software web toolkit (openacs) and is an open source campaigner himself. Anyway, we at the restaurant, we kept discussing various things. Tilmann (who had got onto the wrong bus -- a slow-moving 'local') gathered a crowd around his table of those interested in web-issues. The rest of us simply couldn't follow what was going on; they understood each other. Miracles do happen.... o FOR US, THE debate looked at the Goa government's unnecessary gift to Microsoft of ten million rupees, strategies to popularise free software among students, and a whole range of other issues. By the time we looked at our watches, it was past 2030. So what if we started just after 1600? o THOSE PRESENT INCLUDED B B Shaha (ETDC-Saligao), Mario Alvares (Alienwiz), Lisa Mendonsa (Phil), Flavia Lobo (Phil), Victor D'Souza (GU), Sharon Bothelo (Phil), Greta Mattos, Amey Hegde (Controlnet), Alka Pai and Ajay Cuncolienkar (Khandola College), Agraj Agranayak, Yogesh Teli and Ravi Deka, Sangeeta Naik (Goa Schools Computers Project), Rina Patel (NRI volunteer working in Goa of the America-Indian Foundation), Biju Chacko (Bangalore), Gurunandan Bhat (ex-GU/PlusThought), Anil Seth (head of dept IT, PCC), Arvind Yadav (Online), Animesh 'Banduji' N Nerurkar, Sreenivas (Navy Hydrography School), Sanil Talaulikar (PCC), Mohandas Gopani (Selections). o LASTLY, don't forget the meetings for March. Margao is on March 8 (Clinton, get working to arrange something interesting... this was shifted for you!) and March 22 (Panjim). More details http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa o PS: Don't ask what the subject-line has to do with this report. In case you didn't guess... it was aimed at getting you to read it ;-) -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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