---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Comet Media [mailto:cometmediafdn@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 1:07 PM To: Comet Media Foundation Subject: LUKSH an invitation from Comet Media Foundation, Mumbai

Dear Friend

Have a look at the note below. We are sure you would be interested in joining such a group.

Give a ring to Jacob at 23869052 or drop a line if you are coming. If you have any questions, speak to Lajpat 9422077888 or Aditi at 23826674 .

Please forward this to your friends who are likely to be interested.

Chandita

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LUKSH

or GNU / Linux Users knowledge Sharing House

an invitation from Comet Media Foundation, Mumbai

Most of us who use computers and the Internet in our day to day work know that information technologies change very fast. We have had the experience of changing our computers from time to time as technologies offering greater amounts of computing power at faster speeds became available, together with better Internet connections.

We tend to use terms like hardware and software to describe our computers. Many would remember going from a simple Pentium I PC to Pentium IV PC now the triple core PC. We try to get a fix on our computer hardware by remembering brand names and share the information with friends, but always have a lurking feeling that we don't have the whole picture.

Going to software, can you remember the number of times you've had to upgrade your software? Then there are virus problems, despite spending sizable sums on anti-viral protection? Then the frustration of the computer hanging up just when something important had to go? You may have moved from one vendor or service provider to another, but no satisfactory explanation was ever given for these problems.

You may have been told that you had to reset your computer for your own good. So often, you may have had to abandon your data, never knowing the reason why. A fast solution for the vendor or service provider, but such a loss to you. You just had to accept it as part of the IT game--it just happens to some people sometimes, it would seem. After all to gain such efficiency, you have to be prepared to lose something they said, as if it was a philosophical matter!

Most of the problems we have encountered have to do with the stability of the software on our systems.

To be more specific, while many of us may have heard of GNU or Linux, most of us only know Windows, the proprietary operating owned by Microsoft and Word, Excel, Powerpoint and other applications also distributed by Microsoft. By contrast, GNU/Linux is described as free software or open source meaning that its codes are open and can be modified by users.

The trouble is, even if we are ready to adopt it, GNU/Linux is not easily found. Who will show us how to install it on our computers? Will we have to make any changes in our hardware for it? How will we train ourselves to use it? Is there any vendor or service provider to help us with it? Though the solution to many of our problems may seem to lie in free software, we find it difficult to get our hands on it.

Do you know that eighty percent of the servers that the internet runs on use GNU/Linux and they remain on for 24 hours, all the time. This is because they are the most reliable operating systems.

So, what is a GNU/Linux Operating System (OS)?

And what is free software / open source? Why is it supposed to be free?

Where can we come to know more about GNU/Linux?

You can keep adding on questions which come to you.

We at Comet Media Foundation have decided to form a club to respond to these needs, LUKSH or the GNU / L inux U sers K nowledge S haring H ouse. We thought we could meet every other week, or twice a month on the second and last Saturdays , to discuss the implementation of GNU / Linux and open source software at our workplaces and homes.

Our LUKSH is simple: to share knowledge about GNU / LINUX and Open Source Software as a cost effective reliable virus-free alternate to costly proprietary software and to get ourselves out of the control of transnational IT corporations. It is about being free, not just getting something for nothing.

Please join us from 2 to 5 pm on the 29 th of September 2007, for the first meeting to explore this further. The agenda will be set by you; the resource people are ready for your questions.

Lajpat Dhingra

LUKSH Coordinator, Comet Media Foundation, http://www.cometmedia.org

Reference websites

http://www.opensource.org

http://www.gnu.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds" HYPERLINK " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds