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