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WSF and FSF India, Photographs
by Nagarjuna G. 07 Feb '04

07 Feb '04

Just managed to find some time to do this. I have uploaded the photographs at http://www.gnu.org.in/WSF2004. I am yet to write captions for them, will do that as soon as I get time. Nagarjuna

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[Fwd: [Free-gis] Gis Morphix ready]
by Sajith VK 07 Feb '04

07 Feb '04

Hi, I am glad to announce that the Gis Morphix, a morphix based GNU/Linux distribution for GIS works is now ready. It includes Gis applications like GRASS5.7, thuban,iGmt etc.Few applications for scientific computing including maxima,gnuplot,octave etc are also included. Postgressql database is available. All applications like office suite(Openoffice), Mailclient (Evolution) etc are included, so that it is enough for all your needs!!. Being a morphix clone, It can be used as a Live CD, ie you can use it even without installing. Installing it into your hardisk is also simple. Above all, latest version of mapserver is included, and we have made a sample server to demonstrate the power of Mapserver. So when you boot the CD, it shows the demo site in a browser. The data for the sample site is from Frida project. -- "Freedom Matters" Sajith VK

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Eyewitness account of the Linux monopoly trial
by Soundara Rajan N.S 04 Feb '04

04 Feb '04

Eyewitness account of the Linux monopoly trial Washington DC, January 31, 2014 -- Riot police have finally managed to beat back the milling throng of displaced Visual Basic programmers who attacked the courthouse after Judge Cotter Kathelly announced that Linux was not an illegal monopoly and that neither Linus Torvalds nor his company, Linux Development, Inc, owed damages to former employees and shareholders of now-bankrupt Microsoft or to any of its business partners. - by Robin 'Roblimo' Mille (Reporters Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair contributed to this article) http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/01/30/0111257&mode=nested&tid=149 Source: Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

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GNU/LinuxIndia * Feb 2004
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 03 Feb '04

03 Feb '04

e88~~\ 888b | 888 | / 888 888 ,e, d888 |Y88b | 888 | L 888 888-~88e e88~\888 " /~~~8e 8888 __ | Y88b | 888 | I 888 888 888 d888 888 888 88b 8888 | | Y88b | 888 | N 888 888 888 8888 888 888 e88~-888 Y888 | | Y88b| Y88 | U 888 888 888 Y888 888 888 C888 888 "88__/ | Y888 "8__/ X 888 888 888 "88_/888 888 "88_-888 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Formerly LinuxInIndia * Compiled by: Frederick Noronha * Feb ,2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ########################################################################### --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUY GNU/LINUX CDs at Rs 30 per CD (plus postage). This network, run by Aniket Navelkar <aniket at gmx.net> is supported by the GNU/Linux Users Group of Margao, Goa. To place an order for your personal copy and for further info, pls contact aniket at gmx.net. Payment via cash, DD, money order or SBI electronic transfer. Distros currently available include Debian 3.0, Redhat 9.0, Mandrake 9.1, Knoppix 3.3 and 3.2, GNUWin 2.1 (GNU utilities for Windows!), FreeBSD 5.0, Server Optimised Linux (SOL), Dynebolic 1.03a3, The Open CD (for Windows platform), FreEDUC (educational software that boots from a CDrom), SUSE LiveEval, Gnoppix (no, this is not a spelling mistake!), Slackware 9.0, RockLinux 2.0 (lots of Windows Managers Qvwm, Fwvm2, icewm), Conectiva 9.0 (four-CD set), ArchLinux 0.5, ArkLinux, and GSCP Distro (the easy-to-set up version of the Goa Schools Computers Project). http://www.ilug-margao.org/html/cd_library.htm >From aniket at gmx.net in Jan 2004 New CDs available, thanks to Kaushal Bhandarkar for sending across the same: Mandrake 9.2 (3 CDs), Knoppix v3.3-2003-11-10-EN, Slackware 9.1, Debian Update 3.0r1-i386, Gentoo i686-1.5-20030911 (MD5 file not included) 2 CDs, Yarrow SRPMS (3 CDs), Sid i386 (12 CDs), FreEduc 1.4.1, Sarge i386 (12 CDs) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ########################################################################### --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN ANOTHER WORLD, ALREADY: Arun M <arun at gnu.org.in> reports from the World Social Forum, a prestigious event held in Mumbai: Free Software keeps communications alive at the WSF The Media Center at WSF 2004, equipped with a complete network lab of 120 computers and 40 lap-top connections was maintained open and functional 24 hrs for the entire forum with Free Software. This is the first time in WSF history, that media members were allowed access to the facilities at the center 24 hours a day. The challenges were present every day of this world forum, although no official complaints: the dedicated effort of fifty Free Software Foundation (FSF) volunteers and members, with great enthusiasm and considerable knowledge helped in all technical aspects to make this first-time event a reality. Keep in mind this is a youth revolution, since most of the FSF volunteers are younger than 21. They all showed the world that we do not need restrictions and privatization of systems of information, that knowledge and human communications are truly free and democratic. The software's name? It's GNU/LINUX On the initiave of Dr Nagarjun G., board of directors of the FSF, the entire media center at the WSF, from which about 2,000 journalists generated reports and news, Free Software is not possible, but REAL. For more information, visit GNU Web Site P.S. FSF members already consider themselves living in Another World. http://www.wsfindia.org/newsdetails.php?id=22 FLOPPY-BASED VISITING CARD: Doc Partha from Secunderabad <hyd1_algolog at sancharnet.in> has created a "simple, floppy-based visiting card" which is aimed "just to give away free to doubting Toms". When anyone asks "What's (GNU) Linux?" all he does is to hand out this demo floppy. Doc Partha had also created the Linux In a Teaspoon product (very useful e-books on it). To find out more information contact hyd1_algolog @ sancharnet.in (h-y-d-one underscore algolog AT sancharnet dot in) Dr S Parthasarathy can also be contacted at Algologic Research & Solutions, 78 Sancharpuri Colony, Bowenpally, Secunderabad 500011 http://algolog.tripod.com/nupartha.htm UPDATE FROM BANGALORE: Atul Chitnis <achitnis at exocore.com> informs that the slides used by speakers during their talks at early-Dec 2003 Linux Bangalore/2003 are now available for download. To get at them, head for http://linux-bangalore.org/2003/schedules/ And click on the talk whose slides you wish to download - this will take you to the talk summary page, where you can select the format in which you wish to receive the slides (in most cases, this would be OpenOffice SXI or PowerPoint PPT - both are available). Adds Chitnis: "Some slides are in PDF or MGP (MagicPoint) format.As always, the decision to make slides available in PowerPoint format as well is based on the fact that there are still a few people out there who use closed source software -- we want them to be able to download and view the slides as well, to set them on the road to redemption. :) Of course, there is a link to OpenOffice.org as well, to allow people to download this Open Source office suite (which is the recommended way of doing things)...." SARASWATI: ONE-MIND. An information sharing system for schools in Goa, through connecting them via the Internet. A low-cost solution that enables member schools to share knowledges and resources with others. http://www.knowledgeinitiatives.org/saraswati Contact Mario Alvares <mario at alienwiz.com> RMS MAKES NEWS: As usual, during his recent India-visit Richard "RMS" Stallman <rms at gnu.org> continued to make news. Here are some updates from Sajith VK <sajithvk at hotpop.com> Meeting with opposition leader, Kerala: http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=24704 Stallman to launch courseware lessons of Free Software: http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20040124235932&Page=R&Title=Kera… Stallman on Saturday came down heavily on the State IT leadership..: http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20040124235814&Page=R&Title=Kera… We are ready to give freeSoftwares for all initiatives of govt...: http://www.kaumudi.com/ (Not sure what the URL is) MAPPING AND GIS TOOLS: Dr C M Harish <cmharic at postmark.net> of the Geomatics Lab, CESS at Thiruvananthapuram 695 031 write in: "Would you (ILUG-Goa) be interested in a Morphix-GIS Live CD (compiled on the lines of Knoppix-GIS). It has a collection of current mapping and GIS tools like SPRING, GRASS, GMT etc. Included also are standard applications like GIMP Openoffice 1.1 ..." We are grateful to Dr Harish for sending in the copy, which is now available with Aniket's low-cost CD store... <aniket at gmx.net> QUERY FROM NANDED... PLEASE HELP SET UP NEW GNU/LUGS: From Manoj Purhoti <gres_manoj at rediffmail.com> I am Manoj Govind Purohit, from Nanded (Maharashtra), India, would like to start an ILUG centre in my city, Kindly guide me in this regards, cause I got lot more info from internet about it but certainly failed to get the thing, about what will be the fund raising procedures for such a group, since lot of activities are expected to be carried out and each of them involves expenses. Will you be please guide me in this regard. STANDARDISATION ISSUE... NEWS FROM SINGAPORE: Lim Swe Tat from Singapore points to a set of Scott McNeil's slides available on the issue of standardisation of GNU/Linuc. Says he: "A set of slides which we felt were particularly useful to educate on Linux standards can be found at Linux Users Group's website at http://www.lugs.org.sg/lugsfiles/presentations/2003-11-FSG_Intro.pdf Scott is the Executive Director of Freestandards.org, a group that is working on sub projects such as the Linux Standards Base. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S SOFTWARE: Ramanraj K <ramanraj at md4.vsnl.net.in> says, The redesigned President of India's site at http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in is aesthetically pleasing and now hosted on Apache Tomcat/4.1.10 Our President, in his Republic Day Eve Speech has desired India to be: "A Nation where the governance uses the best of the technologies to be responsive, transparent, easily accessible and simple in rules, thereby corruption free" The entire text of the speech is available at: http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in/eventslatest1.jsp?id=452 RACHANA, LOOKS GOOD, SOUNDS GOOD: Rachana, a Malayalam font has been released in free license. Says Manilal <manilal at sepsit.org>: "I have this font with me. If you want this I'll send it. But I don't know whether it's official release or not. However since there are no full-fledged editors, using this charset it's little use now. We are working to develop such an editor. The fonts are fantastic and most of them look like the letters in the older 'thaliyola'. I am not a member of the development team. One of my friends gave me this fonts." http://www.linuxense.com/oss/rachana/ TO ACCESS MORE INFORMATION LIKE THIS, CONTACT: Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends APACHE... THIS IS INDIAN: Bharati S <sbharathi at MidasComm.Com> informs that on Feb 19, 2004 ILUGC and CollabNat organized for a talk by Mr. Brian Behlendorf (Founder, Apache Software Foundation) in ISCR Seminar Hall. Details from Bharathi S | MeTel Team, TeNeT Group | DONLab, IIT-M, OMC Group | MidasComm.com. LINUX ASIA: Rahul Chopra of Linux For You <rahul_chopra at efyindia.com> had offered Free Software Foundation-India a free booth at the LinuxAsia event to be held in Feb 2004 in Delhi. Looking forward to something coming out of this. Wired News * Jan. 20, 2004 * 13 Languages Speak With One Voice * By Swaroopa Iyengar MUMBAI, India -- The World Social Forum is speaking in 13 languages this year. And amazingly, most of the time, everyone understands what the others are saying. Moving the WSF to India meant that more Asian groups would participate in the forum, giving it a different flavor from previous years. But India is also a land of 14 official languages, which meant WSF organizers had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on expensive translation equipment so the participants, Indian and otherwise, could follow each other. In previous years, translations were offered to delegates in three languages: English, French and Spanish. This year, in addition to these languages, translations are being provided in Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Bahasa Indonesian and Thai. And yet, the service costs are minimal. The translations are being done by an international network of volunteer interpreters called Babels, using a newly created open- source Linux software. The software can be run on a midrange computer, therefore cutting out the high costs of translation associated with special high-speed computers, consoles and mixing equipment. The translator uses an interface on the computer screen to select the language being spoken. The speaker's voice is digitized and sent to the translator, who then sends the translated text out through the interface to audiences, who listen on headsets. "This is the first time we have used such an innovative free-share on such a large scale," said Sophie Gosselin, a member of Nomad, the organization that created the translation software. "And because all the speeches and their translations are going through our computers, we are going to be able to archive all of them. This means we will be able to put it up on the WSF's site to be shared with everyone who was not able to attend now, taking the forum to hundreds of thousands of people." The WSF is also using an FM radio frequency to provide translations in various Indian languages to help cut the cost of attaching headsets to every seat. FM radios are being sold at the venue for 100 rupees ($2). "Our main aim is to keep the costs as low as possible and yet not impose English upon everyone," said Gosselin. "We want everyone to feel like they have ownership of this event. For example, when we contacted the Koreans to ask them if they wanted translations, they were really surprised, as they were so used to being marginalized. But the Korean delegation turnout here is now higher because they feel included." But it hasn't all been smooth sailing. The interpreters have been beset by technical difficulties and infrastructure problems at the forum, causing many delegates to attend only panels spoken in their language. "It's great when it works," said Andre Grosso, an interpreter from France. "The technology is democratic, it's independent of the politics of different agendas, it's open-source -- keeping in line with the philosophy of the forum -- and it's highly economical." http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61966,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4 REPORT FROM KERALA: doxa at sancharnet.in writes in a report titled 'Stallman cautions Government of Kerala': Richard M Stallman was speaking at Thrissur in Kerala on Jan 22. RMS, as he is popularly known in the Internet world (rms at gnu.org), was here after attending World Social Forum at Mumbai. Free Software, he said had four levels of freedom. At Freedom Level '0', it allowed anyone to use the software for any purpose. RMS added that this freedom was offered by most of the proprietary software also. At Freedom Level '1', he said Free software allowed anyone to study the source code. This freedom is not there in the non-free proprietary world. Source code never accompanies non-free proprietary softwares. Its is even never released. RMS informed that there were numerous instances in the past when companies would use their popular software to spy on users. He informed that earlier whenever a Windows XP user went on-line, the Operating System would inform Microsoft, details of whatever software was on the hard-disk of the user. "When this issue became a debating issue, Microsoft quietly removed this feature. But only to return after a gap. This time the details are encrypted and sent, so that no one get to know of this". RMS added that even some freeware (proprietary software that doesn't come with source code) available on the Internet like RealPlayer also does this. At Freedom Level '2', RMS said that it allowed anyone freedom to modify the code. "You are not at the mercy of the company who sold you the product. You are not helpless here. When you observe some malfunctioning or you need a feature added to it, you are forced to contact the software provider. In free software, you yourself can make the modification if you have those skills, or can approach a technical programmer nearby to have it fixed for you. Remember, you may have to pay him for this service." Free software is not non-commercial, RMS added, and said that he himself had been selling CDs in the initial stages when he set out to create a world class Operating System. He had worked alone, after he quit his job at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1978, disgusted over AT&T's move to make UNIX operating system, proprietary. By 1984, he established the Free Software Foundation, who would fund the development activities for reaching the goal of presenting the global citizen a Free Operating System. At Freedom Level '3', the user of a free software could share his software with his friend or neighbour. "In proprietary software world, this is a crime. Isn't this practice that tells you not to share anything with anyone, an evil ? Way back, when I started out on my mission, everyone had this kind of culture, where sharing and co-operation was the mark of the day. I had convinced myself on the need to carry this culture ahead, in my programme." This is where Free Software pushes every other software behind, he said. "This movement, this Free Software Foundation's movement is based on certain core values centred around social, political and ethical issues, and is not merely making available software free of cost. It is a political movement and looks at the ethical issues." RMS heavily cautioned against using proprietary software in schools, even if it were available at a cheaper price or free of cost. "Its like tobacco companies giving away free cigarettes to children. Their motive is totally different. You have to take this aspect into notice." The packed hall at John Mathai Centre at Thrissur listened to the great crusader of justice in the software world in rapt attention. "Even if the company offers such solutions free of cost, they may charge later for its upgrades. You need to watch out, be very careful here. Would you want such a generation of citizens here, in this part of the world?" Governments the world over are beginning to appreciate the dangers that accompany proprietary software and are bringing in legislation to curb the tendencies in Public Institutions. "This is however not the case with your Goverment of Kerala. Let me tell you, they have already computerised most of their programmes in the Departments of Finance and Local Self Governments on proprietary non-free software. You have to resist this move. This is not in the interest of the Citizens here. You got to tell this to your Government. Most of the other departments would need to interact with these departments, at a later stage. Moreover, when the Government makes the decision, it is slipping into a state of helplessness, as later on, it will be dependant on the company to make any alterations or modifications, even if you have the technical skills to do it yourself. You are losing your independence. Your freedom is highly compromised when you use software whose source code is held secret. Anything can happen. Things can be controlled from remote, without your knowledge ,using spy code. For public enterprises, this is not in good taste. ,This has to be converted into a political issue." "Moreover, when you are using non-standard and non-free formats of storing data, you are becoming totally dependant on the supplier. The Government has to make considerable investment in this area, immediately, without losing any more time. The more the time lapse, the greater would be the level of dependance and the cost of migrating back to free software. In case you need my help, let me tell you, the FSF people in India are there to offer any kind of technical help." RMS cautioned the designs that are taking shape across the globe to bring in a kind of "electronic colonisation". "There are people planning to do wrong things. You are a world citizen now. You got to resist this tendency at every level possible." RMS also answered to a volley of questions on issues that confronted free software elsewhere. SCO had sued IBM against using GNU Linux that it said was using pieces of its own code. "I don't think SCO is going to win. The judge has given SCO just one month time to point out exactly those parts of the code in the Linux kernel, that it finds objectionable. I don't think SCO would be able to do this. Even if they succeed, there is no reason for any panic, the maintainers of the kernel would come out with appropriate fixes. It would be another opportunity for the maintainers to show their programming skills." "Let me tell you that Linux is not the only kernel which is there on GNU platform. There is also the Hurd kernel, used by GNU Hurd operating system." "When I started, my mission had been to build a complete operating system, which I would be calling GNU, acronym for GNU's Not Unix. Most of the components for the GNU were completed, except for a small portion, the kernel, without which we couldn't launch the product. In 1991 Linus Torvalds had built a kernel, that was the only part which was missing. Linus didn't inform us, he just searched the net to find all our products that we were giving as free software under the copyleft and took it and completed. This was an unethical move by Torvalds. He should have informed us." On a question on which distributor of GNU Linux is preferred, RMS said that "most distributors include non-free software along with free software. This is not good. To me, I think Debian version is totally free. It doesn't have any non-free software. The Debian license explicity maintains this stand. However among other variants, I think Red Hat and Mandrake are committing fewer mistakes, fewer errors. Red Hat and Mandrake doesn't produce non-free software. They are not involved. Red Hat in fact produces free software. Companies like Suse produces non-free software. This is wrong." RMS, left the hall apparently not being able to cope up with the high level of humidity. "I am not used to working in this kind of environment. Its too hot. Your country is too hot for me." RMS shook hands with everyone who came forward and posed for photographs. In his iterinary, RMS would be also meeting the leader of Opposition of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, apart from giving a few more lectures during course of his tour. ----------------- CK Raju -------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are welcome. Contact us at fred at bytesforall dot org COPYLEFT 2003. May be freely circulated provided entire text and credits are left intact. You can subscribe to receive this FREE newsletter (free of cost, and free in other ways too!) by sending an email to linuxinindia-request(a)freelists.org with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging in on to www.freelists.org (a great place to set up free-of-cost technology-related lists!). You can go there directly by clicking on the URL below http://www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=linuxinindia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net Ph 0091.832.2409490 Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org Ph 0091.832.2409783 http://fredericknoronha.blogware.com Cell 0 9822 122436

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incomplete (SMC) Swantantra Malayalam Computing
by Raghavendra Bhat 03 Feb '04

03 Feb '04

----------<fwd>---------- >From fsug-cusat-bounce(a)freelists.org Mon Feb 02 04:57:42 2004 Return-path: <fsug-cusat-bounce(a)freelists.org> Delivery-date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 04:57:42 +0530 Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 05:41:41 +0800 From: Anwar AU <anwar(a)hackermail.com> Subject: [fsug-cusat] incomplete Swantantra Malayalam Computing To: fsug-cusat(a)freelists.org Errors-to: fsug-cusat-bounce(a)freelists.org Reply-to: fsug-cusat(a)freelists.org Message-id: <20040201214141.15376.qmail(a)hackermail.com> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: MIME-tools 5.41 (Entity 5.404) Well showing a few screenshots of how a Malayalam Gnu/Linux will look is really very impressive for the layman. But that is no way to impress the guys here with a solution for a Malayalam desktop. The Swatantra Malayalam Computing (SMC) hasnt achieved anything by showing a few pics on a malayalam destop working on someone elses computer. Its easy to show some one that 'I have created a malayalam gnome by showing how it works on my computer and others who need to see this can come to my house. Every One Is Invited.' Thanks but no. Its really easy to show the desktop icon names using a changed font, edit a few files so that a few of the easy applications are now in malayalam, rename the menu items with the font and worst of all show a web page that shows a malayalam site in full screen. This could be done on any gnu system. If this were to be seen by people of other languages they would laugh at our face saying these malayalees are'nt even capable of creating a locale of their own, and so doesnt have even the basic qualification to stand among us in the hall of locales. As far as I know, if I am right, the first meeting for the necessity of Indians to have a localized operating system to suit their purposes was first held at Trivandrum in around 1999. The meeting concluded with a descision to make localized versions of desktops for all the languages in India. And after this, it was descided to form a group of developers in kerala to do the specific task. It was called SMC and most of them were from Trivandrum. They started their work on it, and after 3 years these pictures and a few files on how to do this on your computer, is what they have achieved. The SMC's developers were properly funded and in the end we get to know that the work they have done is using a patented by some one else and could lead to patent problems in the future.They had taken pango as the rendering engine and used a code to support indic module which was a patented technology from IBM. Then how do we call it Swatantra Malayalam Computing. 'I am really proud of you guys. You have done a really great work'. The SMC's GPL'ed otf fonts were made from rachana fonts which was owned by the rachana group and also not even in GPL. This font could have later on made drastic impact on the project if the rachana team went to sue them in the court. But its only a few days back that the rachana came under the GPL. But I am happy that their work could'nt materialize otherwise, it would have roused too many complications. Every one is free to correct me where i went wrong. Thanks True Love for freedom comes from the love for source code and through the understanding of humanity's desire to share. ----------</fwd>--------- -- Free Software Users Group - CUSAT http://fsug-cusat.port5.com/ -- ragOO

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RMS Meets the President (of India)]
by Sajith VK 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

Hi, RMS corrects the mail about his meeting with APJ Abdul kalam. His own words.... "What I said (to the president of India) was that the British employed local elites to help keep the general public under control, and the developers of non-free software use the same approach." -- "Freedom Matters" Sajith VK

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*NEW* gnu-malayalam-discuss list
by Raghavendra Bhat 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

Please forward this mail to all interested. A new mailing list, gnu-malayalam-discuss(a)symonds.net has been set up to co-ordinate localisation projects for Malayalam. To subscribe, send a mail to gnu-malayalam-discuss-request(a)symonds.net with the subject `subscribe' May be, clicking here with help:- <mailto:gnu-malayalam-discuss-request@symonds.net?subject=subscribe> Or try the web interface:- <http://puggy.symonds.net/mailman/listinfo/gnu-malayalam-discuss>, Efforts for securing a web space are also on. URI of the home page will be posted as soon as available. The mailing list and home page will act as a point of contact with other software project; a very essential requirement if out project is to succeed. Please remember to use only plain text while posting to the mailing list. HTML mails are a strict no-no. -- ragOO ------------------------------------------------------- The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004 Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA. http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn _______________________________________________ Linux-india-general mailing list Linux-india-general(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-general

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GNU/Linux Awareness Workshop
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 02 Feb '04

02 Feb '04

GNU/Linux Awareness Workshop The Computer Science and Engineering Department of Jadavpur University (www.jadavpur.edu) organised a 2 day workshop on GNU/Linux Awareness on the 5th and 6th of January, 2004 at the Amitava Dey Memorial Hall. The workshop was aimed at creating a base level awareness about GNU/Linux, Free Software and the tools based on the Linux kernel. Integrating with hands-on sessions, the workshop had as its primary objective an appreciation of the GNU suite among various members of faculty. This was a first-of-its-kind event organised in the university. Given the fact that it was organised at a very short notice with a large section of the faculty remaining busy with examination schedules, there was some apprehension about the level of participation. The first day saw over 20 participants turning up for the session(s). Day 1 The progam began at 1030 hours with an address by Prof. Manoj Mitra, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology. Dr P K Das [1] chaired the meeting Session 1 In his keynote address on "Free Software Concepts and GNU/Linux ", Dr A R Thakur [2] talked about the various domains which would see a change when a proper choice of Free Software was made. Elaborating on the business side implementations of GNU/Linux, Dr Thakur tempered his talk with real-life experiences from the field of Bio-informatics that faculty members could immediately relate to. Drawing liberally from Eric Raymond's 'Cathedral and the Bazaar', he elaborated on the macro-economic aspects of Free Software deployment in India. His address clearly drove home the point just how far GNU/Linux has matured over the years. Going beyond its original niche of universities and global hacker communities, GNU/Linux has been embraced with enthusiasm, supported and contributed to by a major section of the global IT majors e.g. IBM, Sun, Oracle, HP/Compaq, Dell, Sybase, SAP AG and Novell just to name a few. The Free Software Foundation of India [3]was represented by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay [4]. Talking about the concepts and connotations of 'Free' in the 'Free Software Foundation', he used analogous components of 'muft' and 'mukt' to elaborate on the 4 freedoms. This lead on to a discussion of the GNU-GPL. Using actual case studies to outline the future and possibilities using Free Software in different social sectors like education, mass literacy, health, e-governance and overall technological empowerment of people, he mentioned of some the on-going projects across India employing FLOSS technologies to develop and implement solutions that deliver their fullest potential. Indranil Das Gupta [5]representing the Kolkata GNU/Linux User Group [6]presented a case study on Low Cost Computing using FLOSS. He talked about the successful implementation of a Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)[7] done at the Sociology Dept of Jadavpur University. His talk went into detail regarding some of the checks and measures essential for choosing the hardware and while evaluating tenders for LTSP systems from vendor/system integrators. Moving to the exact cost-matrix of the total implementation, he pointed out how using off-the-shelf commodity components, each such fully multi-media and Internet ready nodes can be setup at the maximum cost of ~ Rs. 12,500 only. An enticing mention was made of the fact that a LTSP network could be used for much more than providing a better computer-to-student ratio. That when used in tandem with OpenMosix, it can become an effective parallel processing cluster, utilizing the idle cpu-cycles and redundant memory as a step towards grid computing. He ended his talking by drawing the audience's attention to the fact that the system has not had a single failure or downtime since its commissioning 3 months back. Since there was still an hour to the lunch break, the organisers decided to move on to the next session immediately. And so, Dr. Pradip K Das [1] started on his presentation on the Fundamentals of GNU/Linux. His lecture moved through the principles of modern operating systems and UI standards. Using very simple terms and weaving in and out of a central theme, Prof Das, created a detailed software matrix which compared the Free Software Technology stack against proprietary ones. Moving beyond an excellent application-for-application matching, Prof Das explained that the domains where GNU/Linux currently caters to range from the Desktop to scaling all the way to Enterprise systems, that virtually every industry today is using the Operating System across all levels. A pithy presentation its was well-received by the audience, who came forward with quite a few questions of their own. Session 2 After the lunch break, Prof Chandan Majumdar [8] spoke on "Networking and Security using Linux". Highlighting the networking and kernel specifics of GNU/Linux, Prof Majumdar took the audience through the actual architecture of the OS. Shorn of any rhetorics, he pulled up real-life examples of use and experience with the OS in the department during execution of various projects. He explained how open-source of GNU/Linux helped them to create custom kernels with near-realtime properties and capable of running off flash RAM devices. Highlighting the security aspects of the OS, he explained how the user permission model allowed for a highly fine-tuned access control over computing resources like files etc, particularly in networked environments. On the topic of computer viruses - the bane of the existence of users of a certain very popular OS, he elaborated that while it is technically possible to author viruses on GNU/Linux, the extent of damage possible by such is seriously limited due to the inherent multi-user, multi-level permission level available on GNU/Linux. Using the whiteboard to highlight key points, Prof Majumdar took the audience through an unbiased appraisal of the pros and cons of GNU/Linux. While he pointed out that stability and performance as key reasons for the global surge in mainstream use of the OS, he put it down to lack of extensive driver support for commodity hardware (as compared to a certain well-known OS) and absence of good quality documentation as challenges facing the Free Operating System. After a round of tea and snacks, Prof Majumder's talk was followed by Prof S Neogy who chose to elaborate on GNU/Linux commands. Through a session titled GNU/Linux commands and OpenOffice, she explained with examples the most common and indispencible commands, with particular attention to bash shell. Introducing the bash shell and scripting basics to an audience for some of whom this was the first brush with the bash, she providided lucid explanation of the different commands. The participants were seen busy noting down her slides. After moving the basic commands Prof Neogy moved on to the Opensource Office package -- OpenOffice [9]. The participants were provided with explanations of the structure and functioning of the constituent packages like - Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress etc. The initial discussion on the suite completed, a complete hands-on tutorial was reserved for Day 2 This was followed by a mini open-house discussion where the audience raised questions and these were answered by the speakers present. However, mention must be made of Prof P K Das and Prof Nandini Mukherjee [10]who livened up the talks and discussions with their valued comments and interjections. Day 2 Session 1 This was designed to be a full fledged hands-on demonstration session on topics discussed on the Day 1. Using pre-designed course material and examples from text books, Prof Mukherjee and Prof Neogy interacted with the participants to provide functional knowledge of the bash shell along with introduction to the OpenOffice suite. A steady stream of questions, joy at writing out the first shell script meant that it was a highly enjoyable session for both the faculty members and the participants. Session 2 The Bangla Localisation Project of GNU/Linux is stylised as The Ankur Bangla Project [11]. This session was a demonstration of the recently released AnkurBangla LiveDesktop v1.0. Based on the concept of a LiveCD, the AnkurBangla LiveDesktop (Technology Preview) showcases the maturity of the project and also traces the roadmap for the project. On behalf of Ankur [11], Indranil Das Gupta [5] and Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay [4] talked about the Challenges and Possibilities of Bangla L10n. A lively Q&A session also evolved on the various technological aspects of the project as well as developer teams and processes The workshop also had an Open House Session where participants directly interacted with the various speakers to clarify doubts, put forward questions and offer insights into the programme. Prof N Mukherjee conducted the Vote of Thanks and expressed a wish to conduct such workshop on a larger scale. She thanked all the participants and the speakers for attending the workshop at such short notice and talked about the need hold more such meetings, formal and informal to ensure that GNU/Linux awareness can be emphatically carried out. Notes and Links: [1] Dr Pradip K Das, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, pkdass at ieee dot org [2] Dr Ashok R Thakur, Pro-VC West Bengal University of Technology, arthakur at cubmb dot ernet dot in [3] Free Software Foundation of India: www.fsf.org.in [4] Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay, sankarshan at bengalinux dot org [5] Indranil Das Gupta, Co-ordinator ILUG-Kolkata, indradg at ilug-cal dot org [6] Indian GNU/Linux Users Group-Kolkata: www.ilug-cal.org [7] Linux Terminal Server Project: www.ltsp.org [8] Prof Chandan Majumder, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, chandanm at vsnl dot com [9] www.openoffice.org [10] Prof Nandini Mukherjee, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, nmukherjee at vsnl dot com [11] Ankur Bangla Project - www.bengalinux.org ------------------- A place for talking about GNOME gnome-in-list(a)gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-in-list Let's extend the footprint !! ------------------- --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.573 / Virus Database: 363 - Release Date: 01/28/2004

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Memorandum of Understanding
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 01 Feb '04

01 Feb '04

The deepening nexus between unethical (and bad) corporates and civil servants are becoming more and more exposed. In that way, we won't be short of examples. But what worries me most is the penetration of these corporates into the elite academic institutions that our nation has built with public funding . In another expose, here is the Prof and Head of CSE, IIT Delhi, engaged in an MoU with Microsoft Corpn. http://www.iitd.ac.in/cgi-bin/nph-p/http/10.116.2.57/mou/iitdmou.asp?mType=… The Rashtrapati is going to have a tough time ahead, no doubt about that. CK Raju Thrissur

1 0

Memorandum of Understanding
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 01 Feb '04

01 Feb '04

The deepening nexus between unethical (and bad) corporates and civil servants are becoming more and more exposed. In that way, we won't be falling short of examples. But what worries me most is the penetration of these corporates into the elite academic institutions that our nation has built with public funding . In another expose, here is the Prof and Head of CSE, IIT Delhi, engaged in an MoU with Microsoft Corpn. http://www.iitd.ac.in/cgi-bin/nph-p/http/10.116.2.57/mou/iitdmou.asp?mType=… The Rashtrapati is going to have a tough time ahead, no doubt about that. CK Raju Thrissur

1 0

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