To
Principals and Directors and faculty members
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have great pleasure in informing you that we have organised a public lecture by
Dr Richard Stallman at VJTI on Friday ,14 February , 2003 at 6 PM to 8-30 PM.
Dr Stallman is well known to the software field as the pioneer of GNU operating
system which is currently popularly used along with LINUX kernel ( hence properly
called gnu/linux) . His well known contributions are gcc compilrs, gnu emacs and
many other systems which are also available on propritory platforms like
MSWindows.
Currently when issues of spreading the IT culture in education and e-governance
are occupying many minds and new avenues for jobs are being sought, it is natural
that students become aware of available alternatives.
With this in mind, we have taken this opportunity to invite Dr Stallman for a
lecture at VJTI during his tour to India.He has earlier delivered lectures in IIT
and TIFR.
I take this opportunity to invite you and also faculty and students interested in
current trends in software technology. Free Software is an alternative that
needs evaluation and consideration .
Our student organizations are also proposing to demonstrate ( before the public
lecture ) some software (available on CDs at copying cost of Rs 25/- per CD
containing GNU software) e.g. KNOPPIX ( a self-booting CD with several
pre-installed software) , GNU-WIN-II ( a collection of software from GNU which
also works on MSWindows OS and similar others. Those interested in this program
may contact as below.
I am requesting our Prof T. M. Bansod who has conducted several workshops on
gnu\Linux for engineering teachers to also contact teachers having taken training
at VJTI to attend the lecture.
You may forward this mail to any one you feel may like to attend the lecture.
I am also enclosing a poster which you may kindly print and put up on notice
boards .
Hoping to see you on 14th ,
Yours sincerely
Dr S. D.Varwandkar
Principal & Secretary, VJTI