Fsf-friends August 2002

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27 participants
35 discussions

PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 16 Sep '04

16 Sep '04

Thanks to George Lessard for posting this across. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva is pushing legislation to obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software. Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it. Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software industry by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding controlled by a few large companies. Open-source could take the expense out of software upgrades; which is important for a country like Peru that owes about $30 million in overdue software license fees. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press] (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3531007.htm)

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request from a new member-fsf
by Ubais Ali 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

hello my dear fsf-friends.. I'm a final year Btech student.I want to do my final year project.I would like to do it in linux.If anybody has got any ideas ,please let me know your ideas including the details at my email id ubaisali(a)hotmail.com Thanking you all.. luv Ubais Ali.. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

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Free Software *is* the ethical option for NGOs/campaigners too...
by Frederick Noronha 30 Aug '02

30 Aug '02

Maybe we need to popularise such ideas among the NGO/not-for-profit/campaigner circuits too... FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Visit by Richard Stallman to OWI, 7 June 02 OWI - One World International http://www.oneworld.net/ Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project and president of the Free Software Foundation, visited OWI on 7 June for a seminar with staff. Stallman is the world�s best-known advocate of free � as opposed to open-source � software. He opposes the use of proprietary software, which he reasonably considers is largely motivated by the thirst of large corporations to make profits and to control computer use and indeed people for their own private and un-transparent ends. He talked about the origins of the free software movement in the 1980s, among developers like himself opposed to the privatization of socially useful knowledge. The movement embraces a democratic principle in that the direction of software development is determined by the choices made by those who use and work on it, which anybody is free to do. Ex-MIT programmer/developer Stallman described his moral revulsion when faced by the binding terms and conditions that the proprietary software corporations impose on users. He considers that most people in poor countries will never be able to afford the cost of software licence fees. He expressed strong distaste for the dubious means by which proprietary companies seek to enforce their licences in the South. In his view debate about the `digital divide' is in part an artificial one arising from restrictive government policies and unethical corporate behaviour. Stallman described the early stages of developing GNU software (pronounced with a hard G), imitating proprietary Unix (GNU = Gnu is Not Unix), 18 years ago. Currently there are a reported 400,000-plus developers of free software around the world, working on a combination of GNU and Linux. They are opposed to the so-called open-source movement, which also uses Linux, on the grounds that the latter does not share the goal of a world in which everybody can use entirely free software. Acknowledging that the task of freeing oneself from the dominance of Microsoft and other software corporations appears daunting, Stallman countered that the longer one depends on these corporations the heavier the dependency will become. So it makes sense, he said, to free oneself sooner rather than later. Stallman was critical of NGOs that support ICT capacity-building among grassroots organizations and communities if this involves introducing them to proprietary software. He sees this as increasing the power of predatory corporations and therefore disempowering people and communities. A new GNU project, NGU, aims to link GNU/Linux technical support with NGOs seeking to move from proprietary to free software. Few if any major NGOs have made such a move to date. But Stallman reported that the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sol has a policy of actively promoting free software and plans to install GNU-Linux for 1 million schoolchildren. Stallman left OWI with some challenges about how we could work with and support the free software movement, e.g. by develop GNU-Linux training materials, supporting the development of free software packages where needed, and moving to GNU-Linux ourselves. It would be interesting and helpful to know how important the Foundation Trustees consider the issue of free vs proprietary software. Is this something that the OneWorld Network should take a position on? Links: www.gnu.org Free Software Foundation (FSF) ML, June 02

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Venezuela's Government Shifts to Open Source Software
by Arun M 30 Aug '02

30 Aug '02

According to government sources in Venezuela, the South American nation has announced an official policy that exclusively calls for the use of open source software in that government. http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-08-30-011-26-NW-LL-PB http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lared.com.ve%2Farc… Felipe Perez Martí from his first appearance in television incarnated like Minister of Planning, he would announce his absolute certainty of the urgent necessity to take years of inefficiency and chaos to him to the framework, gigantic and slow Venezuelan State. He would declare then his thesis of the shared in common economy and their attachment to the philosophy of the free code. That day when it presented/displayed the first economic proposal of the renewed economic cabinet of president Chávez, would speak of Internet, and his convinced persistence to evolve towards a country where the and-government was a high-priority strategy. [..] "I BELIEVE IN THE SHARED IN COMMON ECONOMY " - Minister, On what one is based the thesis of the shared in common economy and free software that is impelling the Ministry of Planning and Development? - free software is an extremely interesting phenomenon, which we thought to take advantage of in the reform of the State, we even set out to impel this scheme like essential part of our model of development. I think that the technology is public good, as well as the knowledge is public good. In simpler terms, cambur is a deprived good, because you you eat it, then no longer is available for anybody more. But if you use a computation program, it does not disappear, but that is available for "Pepe", for "Ricardo", for any other, and that characteristic gives a very special quality him in economy. The Industrial Era privatized the technology like a way to produce it. Nevertheless, a new modality arose to produce public goods: "the shared in common" way. Also the State can produce these public goods or promote that they take place so that not to mer his production to me, as it happens with the knowledge. It is

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Volunteer and Biz directory.
by Arun M 29 Aug '02

29 Aug '02

Hi All, A Volunteer and Biz directories have been added to FSF India site. "The Free Software Foundation of India is an organization run mostly with the support of volunteers. If you agree with the objectives of FSF-India, as described on the home page, and would like to contribute your services as a volunteer, please register here. Please do specify the areas where you think you can contribute, so that when the organization is in need of your expertise we may contact you for your help." http://forum.gnu.org.in/Volunteers "One of the objectives of the Free Software Foundation of India is to bring together free software users and businesses. This business directory is an effort in that direction. If you run a free software business or service, and would like to be listed in our directory, please register here." http://forum.gnu.org.in/bizdir

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Mail Clients
by Tapan S . Parikh 29 Aug '02

29 Aug '02

Im asking for advice about mail clients for Linux. I used to use pine, but I think Ive outgrown it now. In the last week Ive tried the following two options. Im not happy with either, and Ill give the reasons why. * Balsa - not very robust, error-prone - not multi-threaded - locks up when checking / sending mail - doesnt expunge messages until you close Balsa - weird glitches w/ flagging and read/unread status - not alot of bells and whistles I would like (searching, etc.) - positive is that its mailbox structure and organization is very simple * KMail - i didnt like the mbox organization where there are all these weird .file directories and structures that are very difficult to navigate from a shell - im not a kde (gnome all the way!) guy and keeping up with new releases of kde / kmail would be a pain Basically I am looking for a simple, fast, graphical browser with decent bells and whistles but still stores mail in mbox format with easy to navigate (from the shell) folder structures. Any advice from out there? (please cc me directly also as sometimes it is a while before i read the messages that come to me in digest form) -- Tapan

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[ Fwd: [malayalamlinux] Malayalam translation of the GPL]
by Arun M 29 Aug '02

29 Aug '02

Hi friends, This is realy good. Can you make a Unicode text file ? HTML file seems to have some invalid UTF-8 sequences. gv is not able to render the ps file :( Arun. --- Mahesh T Pai <paivakil(a)vsnl.net> wrote: > From Mahesh T Pai Wed Aug 28 09:30:19 2002 > To: malayalamlinux(a)yahoogroups.com, > indlinux-group(a)lists.sourceforge.net > From: Mahesh T Pai <paivakil(a)vsnl.net> > Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 22:00:19 +0530 > Subject: [malayalamlinux] Malayalam translation of > the GPL > > Dear everybody, > > I am working on translating the GPL into Malayalam. > At present, the preamble > is completed, and I have put it up on my site, > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/ > > The files are pre-release versions, and comments on > the terminology used is > invited. For ease of feed back, I have numbered the > paragraphs in square > brackets [], and please quote the paragraph number > in your responses. > > It is available in four formats, > 1. Varamozhi text:- > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.t… > > 2. jpeg file:- (huge - 183 kb) > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.j… > > 3. iscii encoded html, cur'tsy iLeap - so it uses > ML-TTkarthika font. > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.h… > > 4. Unicode html, converted from varamozhi. > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease-u… > > The unicode file uses styles in the headers and uses > malayalam.ttf (the font) by > default. If you do not have malayalam.ttf, open > this file (the html file) in > any text editor, and add name of font you have on > line 19. > > 5. Post script format, (hhhhhuuuuuuggggggeeeeee - > 251 kb) > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.ps > > I expect that there might some some opinions on the > choice of words used, (like > 'saujanyam' and 'swatantra'). > > Expecting your feed back (boquets and brickbats), > Mahesh T Pai.

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[indlinux-group-request@lists.sourceforge.net: IndLinux-group digest, Vol 1 #48 - 1 msg]
by Nagarjuna G. 28 Aug '02

28 Aug '02

----- Forwarded message from indlinux-group-request(a)lists.sourceforge.net ----- >From nagarjun Thu Aug 29 00:28:46 2002 Envelope-to: nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in Delivery-date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 00:28:46 +0530 From: indlinux-group-request(a)lists.sourceforge.net You can reach the person managing the list at indlinux-group-admin(a)lists.sourceforge.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of IndLinux-group digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Malayalam translation of the GPL (Mahesh T Pai) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 22:00:19 +0530 From: Mahesh T Pai <paivakil(a)vsnl.net> Reply-To: paivakil(a)vsnl.net To: malayalamlinux(a)yahoogroups.com, indlinux-group(a)lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Indlinux-group] Malayalam translation of the GPL Dear everybody, I am working on translating the GPL into Malayalam. At present, the preamble is completed, and I have put it up on my site, http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/ The files are pre-release versions, and comments on the terminology used is invited. For ease of feed back, I have numbered the paragraphs in square brackets [], and please quote the paragraph number in your responses. It is available in four formats, 1. Varamozhi text:- http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.t… 2. jpeg file:- (huge - 183 kb) http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.j… 3. iscii encoded html, cur'tsy iLeap - so it uses ML-TTkarthika font. http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.h… 4. Unicode html, converted from varamozhi. http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease-u… The unicode file uses styles in the headers and uses malayalam.ttf (the font) by default. If you do not have malayalam.ttf, open this file (the html file) in any text editor, and add name of font you have on line 19. 5. Post script format, (hhhhhuuuuuuggggggeeeeee - 251 kb) http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.ps I expect that there might some some opinions on the choice of words used, (like 'saujanyam' and 'swatantra'). Expecting your feed back (boquets and brickbats), Mahesh T Pai. --__--__-- _______________________________________________ IndLinux-group mailing list IndLinux-group(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indlinux-group End of IndLinux-group Digest ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/ Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7 ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

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(no subject)
by jayveecomp 27 Aug '02

27 Aug '02

Jacob T. Mathew Jayvee Computer Services & Exports Pvt. Ltd Software Technology Park Trivandrum 695 034, India Phone; +91 471 334878, 326042 E-mail: jayveecomp(a)satyam.net.in www.jayveeindia.com

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Scripts ... on the fly
by Frederick Noronha 27 Aug '02

27 Aug '02

On Tue, 27 Aug 2002 fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in wrote: > Fred> difficult would this task be? Do let me know... FN PS: If > Fred> someone could give me cost estimate for writing the script, > Fred> I'd be grateful... > > You owe me a soda when I'm next in Goa :) > > -- Raju Raju, I'm really grateful to you and Vinay Pawar. Thanks for the speedy help. As you probably know, they don't serve sodas in Goa. ;-) And for myself, I'm a teetotaller. No, in case you thought this is an attempt to cheat you of your legit charges, I'm only joking. You choose the menu and venue as to how I can repay you. But you've not been coming to Goa for some time now. Guess we could sure do with outstation speakers (for our 4th Saturday of the month ILUG-Goa meetings... and also for other public events, like the CSI's Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products ECAP due to be held on Aug 31-Sept1 at Panjim and Sept7-8 at Margao.)

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Fsf-friends August 2002