Dear Anivar,
I am not too sure about the definition 'movement' but when I was studying--1986-88--there was already 'opensystems' (which included not just software but hardware and firmware too). Though the dominance of M$ was not as pronounced, opinion had already turned against it and other proprietary systems.
So I think it will be safe to assume the start of the 'movement' at least sometime in the early 1980s, rather than a decade later. It was amorphous, but it did exist. For a while it was part of the 'pirates' who wanted to subvert the stranglehold of the proprietary makers. All this are important parts of the FSM. Ironically, M$ was a strong advocate of the opensystems approach in the initial stages, untill WINTEL came along.
I moved away from the technical part about 15 years ago, so I don't know the details in between, but I am sure it was a vibrant one (just like its earlier forms). There will be others who can fill in the gap.
Great effort!
best wishes,
Edwin
2008/11/30 Anivar Aravind anivar.aravind@gmail.com
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Anivar Aravind anivar.aravind@gmail.com Date: Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 10:40 PM Subject: History of Free Software movement in India To: Principal Support List of FSF-India fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in
Dear Friends
In kochi conference I did a presentation on History of Free Software movement in India. (I presented my session after the boycott novell campaign and manhandling ) The slide of the presentation is available at http://anivar.movingrepublic.org/wp-content/uploads/storydom.pdf (Thanks Hiran for the Theme & design)
I am planning to make this as an article. Please go through it and point if i missed any groups So please send your feedback Also it will help the people in this list to get the name of various groups contributed to the Free Software movement
Anivar Aravind
-- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.
-- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds. _______________________________________________ FSUG-Bangalore mailing list FSUG-Bangalore@mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsug-bangalore