--------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME FEEDBACK to the recent first issue of India's first mag devoted wholly to Free/Libre and Open Source Software, * LINUXForYou*: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- o Get-up excellent, value-for-money real good. This was only to be expected from a ElectronicsForYou-stable publication. o Depth of information, fair to good. o Coverage of India-related issues: poor. Much of the focus was on the corporate world and its products. This may be a good policy to draw adverts. What about those idealistic youngsters slogging away unnoticed across the length and breadth of India. Except for Avneesh and Shivaas (Page 9) these go largely unnoticed. o Clarity of vision: poor. Lot of focus on "Open Source". Free Software and the ideals that launched it (from the 'seventies and before, not just since 1998) seems to have got, in this magazine, intentionally or otherwise, overlooked. Again, this may be good for luring the business world; but certainly not helpful in building up an ethical basis for sharing software (and ultimately, knowledge) among those who need it. o Open Source and Free Software have common origins but now different emphasis. It would be best if *both* are covered, rather than excluding one or the other. The term FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software), popularised by an Indian in Holland, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, covers both adequately. As it has been argued, 'Free Software' and 'Open Source' describe the same category of software "more or less" but say different things about the software and about values. The GNU Project continues to use the term "Free Software" to express the idea that freedom, not just (good) technology, is important. o Illustrations: could be improved. Understandable for a new mag o Participation by the GNU/Linux community (both Free Software and Open Source): marginal. Linux-India gets a low-down mention in a listing of websites. o Focus on different distros: poor to fair. Seems to continue the trend of focussing mainly on the main (commercial) distros, e.g RedHat and Mandrake, as other Indian computer mags have done. The inclusion of Knoppix is a great decision though. Otherwise, distros like Debian get ignored or mentioned just in passing. As an Indian mag, products like Elx (the distro from Hyderabad) could merit a closer look. o The editorial was particularly well written. o Once again: do we need a CD with every issue? Won't this push up costs? My favoured model is SPIDER, Pakistan's Internet magazine (Rs 35 rupees per issue, i.e. Pakistani rupees, which might be around Rs 30 or less INR. Printed on inexpensive newsprint, full colour, over 100 pages, packed with info, focus in large measure on local issues!) o Can LFY put it's money where it's mouth is? Suresh Ramasubramanian mallet@efn.org has already point out to Bharathi's posting on ilug-chennai that the LFY website uses ASP script, and has a website which is "designed primarily for (Microsoft's) Internet Explorer". If GNU/Linux is really so good technology, why not accept it before selling it to the rest of the globe? o Some writers seem to be accepting Microsoft's logic and arguments quite willingly. o What's lacking in the mag: -Links to all LUGs around India (even LinuxMagazine from Europe has a listing of some Indian LUGs) with URLs, mailing list details -Schedules of different LUG/GLUG meets planned in India -Profile of various GLUG/LUG websites and mailing lists -Greater focus on innovative GNU/Linux work from students and individuals within India -More reporting on the GNU/Linux scene in Asia, particularly South Asia -Possible reproduction of columns such as BraveGNUWorld -More interaction with GLUGs, FSUGs and LUGs across India. o In conclusion: This mag is going to help spread awareness about GNU/Linux. But whether it also helps build the ethical base of Free Software (which started everything off, in a sense) is a big question. As of now, it's not showing any signs of doing so. o To quote RMS: "The interest in the software is growing faster than awareness of the philosophy it is based on, and this leads to trouble. Our ability to meet the challenges and threats ... depends on the will to stand firm for freedom. To make sure our community has this will, we need to spread the idea to the new users as they come into the community. But we are failing to do so; the effort to attract new users into our community are far outstripping the efforts to teach them the civics of our community. We need to do both, and we need to keep the two efforts in balance." LINUXForYou is going to be doing a great job on one aspect; on the other, there are not much signs that it plans to do anything significant yet... (FN)