[3794] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #86
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Thu Feb 21 13:13:09 2002
Message-ID: <20020221181304.3014.qmail@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
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Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 13:13:03 EST
Linux-Announce Digest #86, Volume #4 Thu, 21 Feb 2002 13:13:03 EST
Contents:
Sharp partners with Handango (for Zaurus) (William Kendrick)
(LOCAL) VanLUG - Mon, 18 Feb 2002 (Dave Michelson)
Thaths it! ... how Linux-India blossomed into chaos (Frederick Noronha)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bill@newbreedsoftware.com (William Kendrick)
Subject: Sharp partners with Handango (for Zaurus)
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 08:57:04 CST
Hot off the press (err... the mailing list):
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=486370&forum_id=2788
Sharp has teamed up with Handango to let people sell their Zaurus SL-5500
software online!
Body of the announcement message follows:
"Sharp is excited to announce a new opportunity for you to sell your
software! Through a partnership with the leading handheld and wireless
software publisher, Handango, Sharp will provide an online software store
accessible to customers via the Sharp Web site. Eventually, your software
will also be sold on http://www.handango.com and through other Handango
channels. To make sure your software is included in the Sharp Handheld
Software Store, please follow these steps:
Go to the software partner program page.
Read about the advantages you receive as a Handango Software Partner.
Sign up as a Handango Software Partner.
Begin uploading your software. Make sure to select "Linux" as the OS for
your application. If your application is written in Java?, you should
indicate this as well.
Your software will need to be uploaded by Monday, February 25 in order to
guarantee that it will be included in the upcoming launch of the Sharp
Handheld Software Store.
If you have any questions at all, please email Handango at
partners@handango.com"
-bill!
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From: Dave Michelson <dmichelson@ieee.org>
Subject: (LOCAL) VanLUG - Mon, 18 Feb 2002
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 08:57:04 CST
The next meeting of the
Vancouver Linux Users Group
http://www.vanlug.bc.ca
will be held on Mon, 18 Feb 2002 (7:30 - 9:00 pm) at
BCIT, Bldg SE6, TELUS Theatre.
Presentations will include:
1. The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
Luca Filipozzi
(UBC Electical and Computer Engineering)
LDAP has become the defacto standard for Internet directory
services and is being deployed by many organisations to
replace their former NIS-based directory services. This
presentation will focus on the deployment of LDAP services,
including integration with a Samba server operating as a
domain controller, into a medium sized network.
2. Factors to Consider When Setting Corporate Software Standards
Brad Duholke
(Borland International)
So you're trying to convince your CIO and CTO to modify the
corporate software standards to include your favourite Open
Source offering. Do you know how to frame your argument in
a manner that will convince Upper Management?
The After Meeting Meeting
Preparations for COMDEX Vancouver 2002!
Are you interested in helping to organize the VanLUG booth?
This is your chance to sign up!
--
Dave Michelson
dmichelson@ieee.org
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------------------------------
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: Thaths it! ... how Linux-India blossomed into chaos
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 08:57:11 CST
************************************************************************
THATHS IT! A YOUNG MAN'S STORY OF HOW LINUX-INDIA BLOSSOMED INTO CHAOS
************************************************************************
To so many Linux enthusiasts across India, he's simply known as Thaths. But
Sudhakar Chandrashekar modestly calls himself a "slacker at large".
This is one of the guys who played a key role in promoting the Linux India
network... even while seated many thousand miles away, in the offices of
Netscape, in the US.
"Growing up all over India made me a wanderer," says he. Thaths graduated
with a BE from "small-time" Annamalai University in 1993 in the extreme
south of India. But, he says he'll "never trade the wonderful experience in
Annamalai for any of the IITs of the world".
Following the footsteps of thousands of other young Indian graduates he went
to the US to do an MS at the University of Texas at Austin. He soon became
"disillusioned with academia" and dropped out to pursue a career in the then
emerging Internet industry.
"Six years of working in the industry drained some more idealism," as he put
it. He is currently looking for a satisfying career in teaching or
photography or programming. We've exchanged e-mails for a while -- guess
that must be the case with many fans of Linux in India -- and only met
flesh-and-bones in December 2001, at the LinuxBangalore2001 mega meet, when
this unassuming young man dropped in unannounced.
Here's a story which is typical of many Indian software geeks of this
generation -- home-grown experts whose parents simply didn't have the money
to buy a computer... and who (as in Thaths' case) probably had to sneak in
their first copy of Linux onto their office PC while the boss was away.
Let's walk through Thaths's life and, side by side, learn part of the story
of Linux India and its exploits in recent years. You can contact this
'slacker at large' at thaths at aunet.org
Thaths, in his twenties, spoke to FREDERICK NORONHA for this interview:
======================================================================
At what stage did you come across Linux India?
======================================================================
I think it was late 1997. Linux India then had maybe five to six
subscribers. I recall Arun Sharma and Karra Dakshinamurthy (ILUG-Chennai,
in Southern India) as being part of the mailing list.
There was no set purpose for LI back then. We were all engaged in thinking
about various ideas to start Linux-based businesses in India and to
popularize the OS (Operating System).
======================================================================
Since then, what major developments happened on the Linux-India front? Has
it moved forward or back? Any major missed opportunities that could be
regretted? Did we do better than expected?
======================================================================
The most major development that happened was the explosion in awareness and
membership to the mailing lists. (From five or six when I joined) by the
time I left in early 2001, there were over 2000 active and non-active
members.
The blooming of the regional LUGs was also a wonderful thing. The regional
LUGs provide wonderful hands-on support that are needed for many users. And
they also foster a sense of community that a simple mailing list cannot
provide.
So in that sense, the movement has definitely moved forward.
As for missed opportunities, I'm not sure. My one single lost opportunity
would be not registering LI an official nationwide non-profit organization.
I think for a brief while during LI's existence there was a window of
opportunity for creation of a nation-wide body. But that window closed and
the LI community began to be more regional in nature with more active
involvement of members in their local LUGs (Linux User Groups).
I am ambivalent about this. In a sense this is exactly the sort of issue
India as a nation is going through. Am I an Indian first and a Tamil
second? Or am I a Tamil first and an Indian second. There is no right
answer. Yin and Yang.
A nation-wide body has the advantage of providing a unified face to the
world. But such a unified face would in fact be a mask hiding the many
divisions within the body.
The small local LUGs, on the other hand, provide a nice cozy atmosphere.
Different LUGs, I notice today, provide different focuses. ILUG-Chennai,
for example, seems to be focusing on Debian. ILUG-Bangalore seems to be
focussing on Linux for businesses and research. The disadvantage of local
LUGs is that they cannot aspire for bigger events.
The Simputer project is one of the things I'm most proud of. Even
though it did not directly come from the LI efforts, I'd like to believe
that the groundwork of popularising Linux that LI did helped the
Simputer project in some way.
======================================================================
What were your own experiences with Linux?
======================================================================
I was one of the first batch of school students that were exposed to
computers in 11th and 12th standards. I remember gaining most of my
knowledge through reading outdated books than through actual hands-on
experience.
In school, they were teaching things like FORTRAN and core memory -- things
that I would never use in my life. The teachers were not that great either.
Very soon I realized that I had more information on programming than the
teachers.
I was allotted two hours of computer hands-on time every week. Because I
befriended the teachers, they would let me use the computers in the morning,
before the school assembly, and during lunch. So I could squeeze in maybe
an extra hour a day.
My family isn't rich and we could not afford buying a computer. So I joined
British Council because they had an aging BBC Micro that I could use. My
first "real" program was a game that I wrote using BASIC.
Studying Unix in a course during college, I fell in love with it.
One of my friends who was in the US mailed me a printout of the New Hackers
Dictionary (Jargon File) and after reading about the history of the Internet
and Unix, I was hooked.
I finally had a role model to aspire to -- J. Random Hacker.
I used Windows only when I came to the US. Most of my previous exposure was
to DOS and command-line Unix. When I first started working, I started
playing around with Linux (this was around December 1995) because I wanted
to install a full fledged Unix system and maintain it.
I didn't have the money to buy expensive software such as web servers for
Windows NT 3.51. But Linux came with its own set of industrial strength
servers and I could download them all for free.
Serious involvement with Linux began for me in early 1997. When not
satisfied with my Windows NT desktop, I installed Debian on my system one
week when my boss was away. By the time he came back, I had a perfectly
running system and he couldn't really say anything.
======================================================================
You obviously see a special potential for Linux in India. Why?
======================================================================
India has a long history with Unix. Many of our legacy applications are
developed for the mainframes or Unix machines. With Linux, we could
cheaply and easily migrate these legacy applications to newer hardware.
A developing country like India cannot really afford paying thousands of
dollars to buy expensive licenses from Sun and Microsoft. I think every
government-funded software effort should be based on Linux. Instead of
using tax-payer money to buy software from foreign companies, we should be
using this money to develop applications using Linux. This way, the
government would be funneling public funds back into the community.
Despite India's many strengths in the IT industry, we have not really
produced any popular application. Indian IT industry seems to be
concentrating on the services sector. Linux's freely available source code
could provide the spark that is needed to make India a developer of
applications too.
======================================================================
Tell us something about your collaboration with some of the key players
promoting Linux in India? Whom do you really admire and why?
======================================================================
It is difficult to name one single person. But I decide to offend some
of the players by naming names. Arun Sharma, the founder of LI, is
someone I admire. Were it not for him LI might not have existed.
I see him being attacked these days because of his stand on defending other
alternative operating systems such as FreeBSD. This is deplorable. Arun
often shines fresh light on the clannish nature of Linux and the
short-sightedness of some of its proponents.
People like him are essential to the community. In the words of Thomas
Jefferson, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." People like Arun
provide the vigilance that freedom requires. Somebody has to have the
courage to say the emperor (the penguin) is only partially clothed.
======================================================================
You suddenly took-off from the Linux-India network, and quit amidst some
mystery. Why?
======================================================================
There is no single reason. Only a bunch of reasons.
For starters, I reached a watershed in my career and my life. I finally had
some independence to choose the job I wanted. I've always wanted to travel
around the world. I took this opportunity to actually do it.
Another reason was that the LI community was depending too much on my
neutrality. My neutrality was because I was not physically in India.
If I were a member of ILUG-Chennai, I'm not sure I would have the same
reputation of being impartial.
I felt that I was a crutch. Sometimes it is essential to take away the
crutch from the recovering person so that she may fully regain her strength.
======================================================================
Can you chart the growth of Linux-India? What were the major milestones
along the way? Also the growth of LUGs?
======================================================================
LI mailing lists grew from five to almost 2000 people in three years. That
is a significant growth. However, it must be pointed out that during the
last two years the growth has stagnated.
This is partially because of the inherent nature of high volume mailing
lists. High volume mailing lists are not conducive to newbies. Only the
die-hards can handle the amount of emails generated in the list.
I would say the major milestones were Bangalore IT.com, Jon "Maddog" Hall
and Richard Stallman's trips to India, the Simputer project, localization of
KDE into Indian languages by the IndLinux project.
The flowering of the local LUGs is also commendable.
There are now LUGs not only in the metros but also small towns. I think it
would be nice if every major university or engineering or science college
established a LUG in their city if one does not already exist.
======================================================================
If Indians have not contributed to GNU/Linux as much as they could
have, why do you believe this is so?
======================================================================
I think the lack of direct first-hand contribution is not only restricted to
Linux and IT. There are other areas too in which India has not made
significant contributions in the recent past.
When the British introduced the English (language) education system in
India, we produced Nobel laureates in only two generations. Tagore and
C.V.Raman's grandparents did not have the benefits of a modern Western
education.
This is something to be proud of. However, I see that we as a nation have
not produced any great scientists or engineers in the recent past. People
like Sabeer Bhatia or Hotmail fame and (BV) Jagdeesh and Chandrashekar of
Exodus fame are better businessmen than engineers or scientists. With the
hindsight of the industry downturn, much of their lustre is also lost.
I think the reason for this state of affairs is the lack of infrastructure.
The free market economic theorists say that if foreign investment were
allowed into India, the money would trickle down from the consumer sectors
into infrastructure. I don't know if this is true.
Only time will tell.
======================================================================
Do you anticipate a bursting forth of Indians on the GNU/Linux scene
globally in times ahead?
======================================================================
I do. Already there are a small but significant number of contributors to
the Linux kernel. We have Indians working on the KDE and Helix Gnome
projects.
Our educational system, despite its many faults, is better than the systems
in many countries. I am sure that as more and more young teenagers get
access to the Internet and computers, our involvement in GNU/Linux would
vastly improve.
======================================================================
What are the strategies that would work best for the growth of Linux in
India -- decentralisation, more LUGs, localisation, media blitz, what else?
======================================================================
Linux should be incorporated into the curriculum of schools and colleges.
Linux, in addition to being a robust operating system, is also a wonderful
tool for education. All government-funded IT research should be done under
an open software license.
One last advice I have is for people considering a career in computers. Do
not register for a course that your computer institute says is hot. The
industry moves so fast that by the time you graduate in a year or so, this
field might not be as desirable.
Learn the basics well and then choose to study what interests you. If you
study what interests you then you will excel in it. And if you excel in it
you don't have to worry about getting a job.
======================================================================
Tell us something about yourself, career past and future plans, what makes
you tick.
======================================================================
I grew up in a typical middle-class south Indian family. Luckily for me, my
father had a transferable job and this gave me an opportunity to live in
many parts of India and experience India's diversity first-hand.
Even as a young boy I was into tinkering with mechanical things.
I clearly remember the first toy motor that my father bought me from a
second hand store. Being mechanical minded, I had no second thoughts about
becoming an engineer. I did my Bachelor's degree in Annamalai University in
Chidambaram. After graduation I then took the easiest avenue available to
me -- doing an MS in the States.
I realized while doing my MS in Biomedical Engineering that I did not like
that field very much. So I dropped out of college in summer of 1995 and
found a job with Prodigy in New York working on developing their next
generation Internet access software.
When I got an interview call from Netscape in late 1996 there really were no
doubts in my mind that it was my dream job.
But after working at Netscape for 4.5 years I realized that my work was only
making rich people richer and not contributing directly to the community.
I have decided to pursue a career in the non-profit sector.
What makes me tick? I'd say the pleasure I get from teaching someone
something. When I realize that I have conveyed some idea to someone else
and they have understood it, a sense of fulfillment fills me.
Homo Sapiens are the only species that have developed the art of
communicating abstract ideas via language. It is interesting to think that
hundreds of years after we are gone our ideas in the form of our words will
continue existing for future generations.
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred@bytesforall.org * SMS 9822122436@attcell.net * 784 Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
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