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 * Jan 10,2003 --------------------------------------------------------------------

Although we pride ourselves on being a software superpower, hardly any of the products we use are made in India. -- G. Nagarjuna of TIFR, member of the Free Software Foundation, quoted in a recent news report in the Times of India. See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/ uncomp/articleshow?artid=33405578&sType=1

NUMBER 300,000 FROM CHENNAI: The Linux Counter (counter.li.org) is where users of the GNU/Linux operating system can voluntarily register themselves as such. Recently, Harald Alvestrand of Norway, the founder of the Linux Counter, announced: "Account number 300.000 got handed out today - to a Linux user in Tamil Nadu, India." Let look forward to many other GNU/Linux enthusiasts signing up there and proudly identifying themselves as users of Free Software.

PROJECT RESOURCE CENTRE GETS A FILLIP: Thanks to the many students and mentors (over 100) that are now part of this list, the Project Resource Centre has been seeing some interesting discussions. It is a place where students wanting to work on GNU/Linux projects can get ideas and guidance from volunteer-mentors. If you fall in either category (student or possible mentor) please do sign up at http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc

THE COMPASS TO THE EAST: ILUG-Calcutta is participating in COMPASS 2003 (24-27 Jan 2003) -- the biggest annual IT event of the Eastern India. "We are having 18sqm of space and are planning a big show," say local volunteers.

P K Sharma pksharma@cal.vsnl.net.in recently gave an idea of plans for participation. To subscribe to this LUG's mailing list send mail to majordomo@ilug-cal.org with the body "subscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ for the LUG: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3

They seem to be heading for it rather seriously. There are plans for demo's, installations, showcasing various distros, and focussing on GNU/Linux in school / at home / in the corporate world. If all goes as per plan, there will also be emphasis on the work done in GNU/Linux localization (Bangla Linux), how Free Software can be an enabler and force multiplier in e-governance, development possibilities (languages, tools, IDEs etc) , scientific apps (Octave, Blender, etc), high-end computing like clustering and FT, and 'cool stuff' that includes video editing, dual heading, virtual machines, emulators and media streaming (MP3s and video). More details from Indranil Das Gupta indradg@cal.vsnl.net.in or Sayamindu Dasgupta unmadindu@Softhome.net

WATER... AND GNU/LINUX: Dr Vikram Vyas, who has written an interesting software to help villagers calculate availability of water in their region, is eager to port it to GNU/Linux. If you would be interested in the same, kindly get in touch with him at Vikram Vyas visquare@satyam.net.in

GNU/LINUX IN WEST ASIA: Quite a few GNU/Linux mailing lists are active in the Gulf area. Some see the active involvement of Indian expat communities. One list is Linux-middleeast@yahoogroups.com This group is sponsored by GoldenSun Internet Consulting & Research, Phone 971-4-2728310 /Fax:971-4-2728320 http://www.uaelug.org Its moderator is GSC Prabhakar James, and the LUG was founded in 1999.

DEMO@SCHOOLS IN CHENNAI: bharathi@lantana.TeNeT.res.in informs that work on the GNU/Linux-in-schools front is also being undertaken by Demo@Schools volunteer Suraj Kumar. Contact him at suraj@symonds.net

THEOPENCD LAUNCHES FIRST EDITION: Something from outside South Asia, but of potential interest to many of us. This is a collection of high-quality Open Source Software that runs in Windows. A good bridge for reluctant users of proprietorial software who would like to try out the power of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Says Henrik Nilsen Omma, one of the project leaders: "Our aim is to create a simple to use CD distribution of Open Source software for Windows, and in that way spread the OSS message.... The disc allows new users can try out Open Source software (OSS) in the comfort of their own, familiar operating system, rather than having to take the drastic step of reformatting their hard drive to install Linux or BSD. The collection, which includes OpenOffice.org, AbiWord and Beonex is primarily intended for non-technical computer users. However, we expect that the disc will appeal first to experienced OSS users, who will hopefully find it a useful vehicle by which to introduce OSS to their less computer-savvy friends." They invite all FLOSS enthusiasts to download the ISO, burn CDs and distribute them widely to friends, local schools, universities, and companies. http://www.theopencd.org/ See http://linuxpr.com/releases/5379.html More details from Henrik Nilsen Omma henrik@theopencd.org

SIRTAJ SINGH KANG... IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Australia-based Indian-origin KDE developer Sirtaj Singh Kang is profiled in a prominent newspaper. Taj is one of the two nominated as official KDE spokespeople in Australia. Quote: "When I was around 14, my dad bought us a 286-based computer. It was quite expensive. We weren't poor by any standards but this stuff was still a luxury. Still, for me to get all the tools a kid needed to learn programming cost as much again, even just to get started. Given that software is infinitely reproducible practically for free, there is really no excuse for this especially now that hardware has become so cheap. Give interested people access to software, allow them to improve and redistribute it - that's the way for computing to really make a difference." http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/01/1036027033828.html

*************************************************************************** WANTED: Volunteers to support and help the growth of smaller GLUGs and LUGs across India. If you are willing to encourage a Little League LUG to grow and become active, please contact Sukrit D sd_root@yahoo.com of Pondicherry who formulated the Little League idea. ILUG-Bhubaneswar was recently discussing what could be done to boost their activities. ***************************************************************************

GNOWLEDGE.ORG: Dr G Nagarjuna, an eminently optimistic and always-upbeat educationist from Mumbai nagarjun@hbcse.tifr.res.in recently announced that he completed setting up a Sourceforge site for the Project Resource Centre (a centre for mentors to guide students in Free Software work) and other projects. Says he: "I haven't tested it completely, but it seems to be working satisfactorily. I request the various groups to begin using this facility." Needed: volunteers to maintain the site. http://gnowledge.org Also see http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc

MAXIMUS2 INITIATIVE: Maximus2, a wholly owned subsidiary of a British company, is to give away what it terms its powerful office productivity suite -- GroupX2 -- free of cost. "Every organization with 10 to 500 employees needs this application," it says. "With GroupX2 your company will become more organized, productive and highly efficient. The GroupX2 application is normally priced at $1000 is free (of cost) for the first 2003 companies that register," says the firm. Register at www.maximus2.com This application consists of full working software enabled for 20 users. GroupX2 will "take the pain out" of managing tasks, people, messages, calendars, meetings, contacts and much more. Please note, this is not 'Free Software' but a limited offer of a free-of-cost version for early subscribers. http://www.maximus2.com

BSPELLER, ON THE BENGALI LANGUAGE FRONT: Thanks to Sayamindu Dasgupta unmadindu@Softhome.net for forwarding a post from Taneem Ahmed taneem@eyetap.org on the Bengali computing front. What is Bspeller: A light weight text editor with a Bengali spell checker. This program is part of the Bengali dictionary project. Bspeller can also print Bengali text files using OpenType fonts, a feature currently not available in most of the text editors, eg. gedit, kedit, etc. This is the first release of Bspeller that makes any sense as it actually works as a Bengali spell checker! More information, instructions, and screenshot can be found at: http://www.bengalinux.org/projects/dictionary/bspeller.php Bspeller-0.3 is now available for download from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=43331

SARAI.NET OFFERS SUPPORT FOR FREE SOFTWARE: The Delhi-based non-profit has taken another step to support Free Software. Meyarivan mary@sarai.net recently announced the independent fellowships under its FLOSS Initiative.

Those selected include projects for:

Linux based CNC Controller Sagar Behere [ behere at sancharnet.in ] and Sandeep Bhambra. The project aims to develop a GNU/Linux based CNC controller using off the shelf hardware. The mechanical design of the CNC machine has been completed and they have developed an add-on ISA expansion card that can control stepper motors simultaneously.

Management and Information System - Tapan Parikh/Ekgaon [ tap2k at yahoo.org ] This project aims to implement a complete, modular Management and Information System (MIS) for village-based savings and lending groups, otherwise known as Self-Help Groups (SHGs). This MIS would allow central tracking of the internal accounts, financial position, loan repayment performance and related account information for a community of SHGs, federated under a common administrative and financial body, referred to as a SHG Federation, or a Community-Based Financial Institution (CBFI).

Library Management Software - Sharmad Naik [ sharmad at goatelecom.com ] This project will implement a complete library management system. A working version of the software has already been released and future updates will provide complete functionality required for a library.

KreSIT (Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology), IIT Bombay [ http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/ ] There are about 19 groups working under the guidance of Dr.Pathak and Ms. C.Vijayalakshmi at KreSIT, IIT Bombay on opensource software. They have already developed software for distance education and are currently developing various applications in office automation, voip and localization.

Sunil Abraham [ sunil at mahiti.org ] Will test and benchmark free software to ensure that it can be used for mission critical applications. Will conduct research on different types of user communities, usability studies for various interfaces and devices and technology cost calculator for village information kiosks and work on open source storage formats and algorithms for bioinformatics.

INDLINUX DISTRO... AN IDEA WITH LOCAL LANG SUPPORT: Details of one distro planned, with local language support, are at http://www.indlinux.org/distro Also see the Indian Linux Project www.indlinux.org and the Indic-Computing Project indic-computing.sf.net

LANGUAGE-RELATED SOLUTIONS: Says Guntupalli Karunakar karunakar@freedomink.org : IIIT Hyd has a good track record on free software, they have released lot of language related stuff under GPL (language dictionaries, machine translation tools etc). See http://www.iiit.net/ltrc/Dictionaries/Dict_Frame.html and http://www.iiit.net/ltrc/downloads.html

SITE FOR EXCHANGING SOFTWARE: A youngman from Goa - Ajay - incubuz@softhome.net tells of a small site he has built for "exchanging software". Says he: "It is very basic and I plan to build upon it gradually." Check http://sofall.vze.com

GLUE, AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION FOR SCHOOLS FROM DELHI: Feedback from Bijon Shaha bbshaha@yahoo.com about the GLUE, an interesting concept from Ajith ajith@nsc.ernet.in: The cd uses the concept of preinstalled and prconfigured LTSP server which has been tar archived on a cd. Installation is basically extracting this tar ball into the new partition in the new system, which is very fast. At the first boot it depends on Kudzu for quick detection of hardware in the new machine where it usually has to unconfigure the mismatching hw and configure with the new hardware, and you are ready to use the server!

BHUBANESWAR LUG NEEDS SUPPORT: This is about a (GNU)Linux Users' Group that needs support. The Bhubaneswar LUG mailing list was setup sometime in 2000. But there has been only a very posts to this lists. You can join the list by sendign a message to ILUG-BBSR ilug-bbsr-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ... This info was posted via LIG, the Linux India General list. See https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-help

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From: Nikhil Shanker nikhil@ilug-hyd.org.in Subject: Re: NEWSLETTER: GNU/LinuxIndia Dec 27, 2002

I share the same opinions as Arun Sharma on LIG. The logo reduces "Linux" to a single column. GNU/Linux is acceptable since it caters to some individuals' sentiments, but this looks like an overkill.

I think RMS must be show the logo with "LINUX" replaced with "HURD" with the same one column layout. I bet, he'd be satisfied with...

e88~~\ 888b | 888 | 888 888 888 | 88888b 888 / d888 |Y88b | 888 | 888 888 888 | 888 88 e88~\888 I 8888 __ | Y88b | 888 | 88888888 888 | 888ee88 d888 888 N 8888 | | Y88b | 888 | 88888888 888 | 88888b 8888 888 D Y888 | | Y88b| Y88 | 888 888 Y88 | 888 88b Y888 888 I "88__/ | Y888 "8__/ 888 888 "8__/ 888 88b "88_/888 A

bah!

SPEECH SYNTHESIS: Rohit Kumar of the Speech Processing Lab, LTRC at IIIT Hyderabad points to a speech synthesis demo at http://196.12.44.11/~speech/index.htm Says he: "I look forward to your responses both about the speech quality and the ease of use and understandability of the web interface. PS: For all [GNU/]/Linux enthusiasts the speech synthesizer is currently built on Red Hat Linux 7.2 and we have tested it with RHL 8.0."

This is insane too. You're quoting a post here, and you GNU-hijack it within the quotes. This very prominent and noticable GNU-hijacking makes the newsletter more unreadable. Although the content is commendable, the we-will-serve-you-oh-RMS-my-l0rd attitude hides the real juice.

Maybe even this comment will only be listed in the "Comments" section of the next version of the newsletter just like Arun's was. But I've been looking at this newletter everytime and seeing more GNU than actual information is really disheartening. The best part is it gets posted to LI and LUGs. Please note that these its not GLI and GLUGs.

I imply no disrespect to the poster. Its just an opinion. -- Nikhil (nikhil.shankar at acm.org) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are welcome. Contact us at fred at bytesforall dot org --COPYLEFT 2002, GPL. May be freely circulated provided entire text is retained. FN --------------------------------------------------------------------------