Fsf-friends November 2002

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

43 participants
108 discussions

IT in IT
by Mahesh T Pai 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Hi!! all!!! This is one is about Information Technology in Income Tax. The central government has sought comments on reforms in direct and indirect tax administration. It is there at http://finmin.nic.in/. But, IT (that is, information technology) is going to be more pervasive in tax administration. See:- http://finmin.nic.in/kelkar/report.pdf and http://finmin.nic.in/kelkar/Full_Report.pdf Most of you can ignore the reports themselves, there is nothing about choice of s/w in these reports, except a recommendation that use of Information Technology should be made more pervasive - and for business nosed amongst you, there is a recommendaiton that data entry should be farmed out. I believe that online presentation of tax returns and payment will become feasible. I think that this is the ripe time to put up a strong opinion that such procedures should be based on free s/w. However, in light of experiences in some countries, where IT (Income Tax) transactions were not accepted on line when the client / user system was non-proprietary, I think we should make a short submission on the issue. Already, the Income Tax department's web pages are based on ASP - active server pages, as I gather from the link addresses. Any body has more info and experiences to share with us about online transactions? I suggest that we put put up a short submission, - some 500 words will do, based on feed back from the community. Regards, Mahesh T Pai.

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Free Software support and service
by Arun M 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Hi All, We need to make a database of Free Software support and services groups in the state of Kerala. This information is requested by various organisations which wants to take advantage of Free Software for its activity. If you provide Free Software service or know some one who provides the same please write to me or add to FSF Business directory. http://forum.gnu.org.in/bizdir Regards Arun.

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RE[fsug-calicut] Help (LISP) !
by Manjush G. Menon 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

------- Start of forwarded message ------- From: robin.c.smith(a)bt.com To: gllug(a)linux.co.uk Reply-To: gllug(a)linux.co.uk Subject: Fwd: RE: [Gllug] Fwd: [fsug-calicut] Help (LISP) ! Date: 11/1/2002 4:38:50 PM The Emacs editor is largely written in LISP - strange dialect I have heard - and you can run LISP there Robin -----Original Message----- From: Manjush "G." Menon [mailto:manjushmenon@rediffmail.com] Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 10:23 To: gllug(a)linux.co.uk Subject: [Gllug] Fwd: [fsug-calicut] Help (LISP) ! ------- Start of forwarded message ------- From: "Sudheer K" <sudheerk_22(a)rediffmail.com> To: fsug-calicut(a)freelists.org Reply-To: fsug-calicut(a)freelists.org Subject: Fwd: [fsug-calicut] Help (LISP) ! Date: 11/1/2002 12:41:13 AM Hai everybody, This is the first time I am writing an email to this mailing list. I am a final year MCA student. As a part of the course i have a subject called Artificial Intelligence. In this subject we have a language LISP (LISt Processing) I am a newbie in Linux and I heard that Linux is a good platform for local area networks and programmers Can you please tell me about interpreters or compilers used for LISP programs under Linux platform? Thank you, Sudheer S __________________________________________________________ Give your Company an email address like ravi @ ravi-exports.com. Sign up for Rediffmail Pro today! Know more. http://www.rediffmailpro.com/signup/ --------------------------------------------- FSUG-Kozhikode Home Page : http://www.freelists.org/webpage/fsug-calicut --------------------------------------------- -------- End of forwarded message -------- -- Gllug mailing list - Gllug(a)linux.co.uk http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug -- Gllug mailing list - Gllug(a)linux.co.uk http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug -------- End of forwarded message --------

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HappyDiwali thanx to BILL to bill in BusinessWorld
by Frederick Noronha 03 Nov '02

03 Nov '02

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Re: [Bytesforall_Readers] Understanding Free/Libre and Open Source Software (or, FLOSS) (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 03 Nov '02

03 Nov '02

Below is an excerpt from a debate that happened on BytesForAll (a network that some of us in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka helped set up). I think what Tapan Parikh says is fascinating. Am sharing it with you guys at FSF. We need to more effectively network NGOs (or not-for-profits, developers and ITforDevelopment circuits). As of now, we're working in concentric circles, it would seem. FN PS: Satish Jha is of digitalpartners.org. Tapan Parikh is a US-returned expat (in his twenties, idealistic, currently forming a team around the EkGaon, literally One Village, network). ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Free software is not about policy makers, not about heads of 100 million dollar "information service" systems, not about NGOs or Development or, even to a certain degree - about users even. It is about programmers. I program in free software because I enjoy programming in free software. I like seeing the insides and the source code of the libraries I am working with and linking with. I like the insight I get from seeing other peoples code, being able to understand how it does (or doesnt) work. This is very important as this source code will end up being a large part of the application I eventually compile and distribute. And I prefer free over open source because I dont want any legal hassles, and Open Source is a vague enough concept so that I cant understand what I can and cannot do with that source. With Free Software, with GPL software, there is no such question. Call it a programmers view of safe sex. The quality of the product is unquestionable. Seems a lot of people are, whatever Mr. Jha's reservations, choosing to use free software. Does www.digitalpartners.org run on Apache? If it doesnt, it should. As any of us with the brains and experience to know anything can easily tell you - IIS sucks. There are many other examples. So all with the power to do so please choose, and choose wisely. If you look at the situation objectively, I am sure you will realize that in the year 2002 for the optimal solution of any companies business and other needs - a large part of that will be served by what we now call Free Software. But dont presume to understand or impose outdated, skeptical and fundamental economic theories upon a system you fundamentally dont understand. Because to really understand, you have to start with the basic premise - first and foremost, free software is by and for programmers. All else is incidental, and we can see the power of the incidental even now, and this wonderful conference by the vaunted InfoDev falls into just this category - incidental. (Sorry to be so late, I am a bit slow in connectivity nowadays.) -- Tapan On Sun, 20 Oct 2002 00:54:09 +0530 (IST) Frederick Noronha <fred(a)bytesforall.org> wrote: > On Sat, 19 Oct 2002 sjha(a)vsnl.com wrote: > > open source is good, free software?????.... > > i am not closed to linux or open source. i am closed to "free". good > > that sunil has clarified his perspective and i am with that. open > > source- yes. free software as in free beer-- no!! > > This argument is premised on a basic misconception of Free > Software. Going by the reporting of Mr Jha below, one can see > surfacing many of the fears of people grown on a generation of > copyright-restricted software, loaded concepts like 'software piracy' > and profiteering from blocking access to others information/code. > > It's time to perhaps rethink fundamentals. > > Below is a note from RMS (Richard M Stallman), the Founder of the Free > Software Foundation. It was written in the context of the Washington > conference itself, and I take the liberty of reproducing it below. If > people like Stallman were around, perhaps there would be less scope > for such a fundamental confusion of issues. FN > > PS: There's a difference between Linux and GNU/Linux too... > > PPS: I know young coders who have totally changed their way of > thinking after reading Stallman's 2001 biography from O'Reiley. Trying > to get a copy in time for his Nov 2002 visit to India (it might happen > the same month that Bill Gates comes too ;-) > -- > Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / > 409783 BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX > http://linuxinindia.pitas.com > Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa > India Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference > > From RICHARD M STALLMAN > > From rms(a)gnu.org .... > > Tony Stanco invited me to speak at the conference in October, but I > felt obliged to refuse. The reason is that it is presented solely as > an "open source" conference. My participating in it would encourage > people to think I am a supporter of the Open Source Movement. A > number of other people from the Free Software Movement are also > declining to participate, for the same reason. > > Since 1984, the Free Software Movement has championed users' freedom > to share and change the software they use. This is an ethical and > social issue, not just a technical and practical one. We developed > the GNU operating system so that users could have freedom. > > In the 1990s, millions of users began using our free software, and > many of them appreciated its practical benefits but not the ethical > and social benefits. In 1998, some of them founded the Open Source > Movement. This movement cites only the practical advantages of being > able to share and change software, and studiously avoids presenting > this as a question of right and wrong. This may seem like a subtle > point, but actually it is a fundamental difference in basic values. > As a result, the statements of the two movements are as different as > night and day. (Contrast http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ with > http://www.opensource.org/ and you'll see.) > > The Open Source Movement has had a lot of publicity, which often > labels our work as "open source". An article in New Scientist this > year even said that I founded the Open Source Movement. The result of > this confusion is that the Free Software Movement and its views are > often hidden behind the Open Source Movement. We've learned to be > wary of participating in events that would put the "open source" label > on us. > > I asked Tony Stanco to please make this event an "open source and free > software" event, and thus make room for our movement as well as the > other, but he said the event's sponsors were unwilling. Do you think > you might be able to convince them to make room for us? > > See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html for > more explanation of the difference between the two movements. By the > way, the operating system isn't really "Linux", either. > > _______________________________________________ > Bytesforall_Readers mailing list > Bytesforall_Readers(a)mail.sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/bytesforall_readers

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NEWS-INDIA: Global guru of code, Stallman, visits Goa this week
by Frederick Noronha 03 Nov '02

03 Nov '02

GLOBAL GURU OF CODE, STALLMAN, VISITS GOA THIS WEEK PANJIM, Nov 3: In a surprise and unexpected development, one of the most influential personalities worldwide in today's hacker culture, Dr Richard M. Stallman, will pay a special visit to Goa this week as part of his three-destination visit to India. Stallman's visit is, in large part, tribute to Goa's active and growing GNU/Linux movement, a three-year old voluntary network of 180+ members, that is also involved in supporting a GNU/Linux-In-Schools initiative. Of all Indian states, Goa also has the highest per capita number of registered GNU/Linux users, according to the international Linux Counter. Youngsters in Goa have been writing 'Free' code -- ranging from small utilities to complete library management solutions that have got noticed as far away as in distant Brazil. Stallman (49), the controversial founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), is a brilliant coder and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient who single-handedly launched the movement that threatens to beat Microsoft by radically changing the rules of the software game. In a nutshell, Stallman believes that software must be free -- not in the sense of being available for nothing -- but free to be copied, modified, distributed, shared, and fixed. His recent trip took him to Bangalore. After Goa (Nov 5-7) he flies on to Delhi. On Nov 6, he speaks at the Farmagudi-based Goa College of Engineering. In Bangalore, Stallman has spoken at IT.com, addressed the Computer Society of India and lectured at the IIIT-B on the dangers of software patents. 'Wired', the international IT journal, quoted Stallman saying: "I'm working to make software free and make computers free. That's my job." Stallman earlier worked at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the prestigious MIT. In the mid-'80s, Stallman resigned from MIT to prevent the institute from laying claim to the growing GNU project. Unlike commercial software, which is proprietary, free-software programmers don't have to solve the same problems over and over. They keep improving on the work that came before, like the scientific method. Goa has three GNU/Linux user groups that meet regularly in Panjim, Margao and Farmaguddi. It also has an Internet-based e-list that keeps everyone networked daily. Some of the smartest programmers in the world revere this man, and his fans in Goa are eagerly looking forward to his visit. His biographer Sam Williams (author of "Free as in Freedom") says: "Nobody but Richard could have had the patience, and the stubbornness, and the will to build something this big. There are other people writing free software, but he's the one that made it an issue. He's the one that provided the initial gravitation that everybody else could gather around." Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, has said: "Richard was the first to take up what is now a very important battle...He was an early, lone voice warning of how the concept of software intellectual property could undermine, rather than support, the programmer." Says Ashutosh Naik, a Goan studying engineering in Belgaum: "The RMS visit is going to be a great achievement. Wish it was November 6 tomorrow." Trilok Kumar commented: "I would like to confirm my presence at the meeting (at Farmaguddi) to meet this great man." In Goa too, Free Software is used in some government institutions, engineering colleges and increasingly even on desktops. Its proponents say it would infact enable youngsters to find productive employment for their skills, and additionally make software both more affordable and relevant to local needs. (ENDS)

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Fwd: Free software
by klak＠giasbm01.vsnl.net.in 02 Nov '02

02 Nov '02

-- Khuzaima A. Lakdawala

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Malayalam translation of the GNU GPL
by Mahesh T Pai 01 Nov '02

01 Nov '02

Hi!! all, The unofficial, not yet final version of the Malayalam translation of the GNU GPL is at http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity. It is available in 7 formats - phew!! and for true WISIWUS effects, (what I see is what you see) view the slide show in jpeg format. Do remember to point out typos, and better wordings - it is not yet final. Regards, Mahesh T Pai.

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Fsf-friends November 2002