[3913] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #205
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Mon Oct 21 01:13:13 2002
From: Digestifier <Linux-Announce-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
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Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 01:13:06 EDT
Linux-Announce Digest #205, Volume #4 Mon, 21 Oct 2002 01:13:06 EDT
Contents:
[India] A Linux lining on corporate clouds (fwd) (Frederick Noronha)
INDIA: Far-from-official minutes ... ILUG-Goa (Margao) meet (Frederick Noronha)
[SLUG] Suncoast LUG Meetings ("Paul M. Foster")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 05:30:34 CST
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: [India] A Linux lining on corporate clouds (fwd)
Thanks to Irfan Khan's s-asia-it@apnic.net for forwarding this. FN
========== Forwarded message ==========
A Linux lining on corporate clouds
SOFIA TIPPOO
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2002 02:56:34 AM ]
BANGALORE: Linux seems to be the right choice not only communication
gateway makers but also for Indian smaller companies developing
services and application for offices. Not to mention of tech giants
like IBM, Oracle, Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems right up there
backing the system.
A variation of the Unix operating system, Linux, created as peoples
software __ free and open for everyone to use __ is now getting as
corporate as pinstriped suits and PowerPoint presentations.
Ishoni Networks, a player in broadband space with its software
solutions that allow OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to build
broadband gateway products offering voice and data services, has
recently announced that it has developed the first Linux-based
gateway-on-a-chip system solution.
This takes an interesting turn keeping in mind that Ishoni was taken
over by Philips Semiconductor in February this year. "With this
addition to Philips portfolio of technologies for broadband access
customer premise equipment (CPE), we are now able to offer complete
silicon and software solution with firewall and VPN security for the
Linux environments to Philips customers,'' says Vivek Mansingh,
managing director, Ishoni Networks.
Commenting on the Indian market scenario he adds, ``Unless the Indian
companies are able to come out with specific applications for the
Indian businesses, things are not really going to change. Basing
applications on Linux is a great way to cut costs, especially during
these days of an unending slowdown.''
Reiterating this line of thought, Abbas Abhinav, CEO, Deeproot, a
company that works exclusively in the Linux domain, remarks, ``Two
years back, when we started this company saying that we will work
only on Linux, we were literally laughed at. But now, things have
changed drastically. We have developed products like Deepoffix, which
are essentially Linux-based applications be deployed on a local
network.''
The company has sold these products to organisations in a wide range
of activity like the Madras Institute of Technology (part of Anna
University) and other educational institutions as well as
manufacturing companies like the Indo-Japan joint venture, Essae
Teraoka, a leader in weighing scales.
A number of other companies whose staple diet is Linux are now
stepping out with a more confident air. Mahiti, a Kerala-based firm
and Yukthi are engaged in security solutions, Linuxense and of
course, Exocore headed by Atul Chitnis are among those who are
looking at providing solutions to budget conscious companies which
are not averse to imbibing technology at lower costs.
H. Vidyasagar of Yukthi Systems points out, ``Now, we see a greater
trend among enterprises to use Linux-based solutions even in key
areas like IP connectivity and network administration systems.''
Companies are attracted by its performance and lack of licensing
costs.
Interestingly, according to an IDC report, Linux users spent only $80
million on software, less than one per cent of the amount spent on
all operating systems for all computers, even though it is widely
used.
source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=22996594
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------------------------------
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 14:22:10 CST
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: INDIA: Far-from-official minutes ... ILUG-Goa (Margao) meet
*************************************************************************
Far-from-official minutes of the ILUG-Goa (Margao) meet on 19.10.2002:
*************************************************************************
Security was the buzzword at the meet on last Saturday, held at the usual
venue (Adarsh Vidyalaya). Arvind Clement did an interesting job in
introducing this tech-theme to GNU/Linuxers... and tempting them to delve
deeper into this subject.
'Compromised' was the catchword of the meet. (In my dictionary,
Collins Cobuild, "if someone compromises themselves or their
or their beliefs, they do something which damages their
reputation for honesty, loyalty, or high moral principles.")
But then, computers are known to drastically change our everyday
understanding of words.
>From the seemingly simple question of 'What's the definition of a
firewall?', Arvind took the meeting to a range of other issues. Does a home
user benefit from a firewall? Where should the firewall be placed? What is
the demilitarised zone (another case of linguistic violence on existing
meanings of not-so-everyday words?).
There was a runthrough the different ports used for differing
tasks, and a discussion over http and https, sniffers, etc.
Cautioned Arvind: "Today's hot topic is security. Everybody on
the Internet and in the corporate world wants security. The
Internet has become very affordable, and this means there are
more hackers too." He narrated some hair-raising experiences from
work. "Nothing is secure in a way. Everything is man-made after
all. But, it's better to have one-in-a-million able to crack
in, rather than many more," he argued.
Our members spoke of their experiences in mail-bombing. There was a
discussion about the pros and cons of Goa BSNL's providing open relay service.
In the VI-A classroom of a school undergoing major renovation
(we all made a back-door entry, as it were, for this talk on
security... due to work underway in part of the building),
Arvind promised practicals at a latter session.
Clinton walked in, as promised, almost sharp at six pm. He took charge of
most of the CDs brought in from Bangalore (except Mandrake 9.0, which is
with Arvind Yadav for installation/replication in Porvorim). Clinton has
Redhat 8.0, Slackware, Gentoo 1.2 (1.4 is already out, apparently), PHAT,
Redhat 7.3, LinuxInATeaspoon, and a few other lesser-known distros. Arvind
Clement has the eight CD Debian 3.0 Woody. He's also offered to download
distros we require. Come on guys, let's build up our software repository in
Goa...
Other misc (and not always on-topic issues mentioned or discussed
included the good quality of VSNL Net services in Goa...the
trend of RedHat to go in for larger and larger distros... the
power of Emacs...and B2's concern that most people are losing
the hacker-spirit of contributing to the Free Software world.
B2 aka Blinston to-be-or-not-to-be spoke about his dialogue scripts tool
(uploaded to the ILUG-Goa site, see groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa in its
files section). For someone writing shell scripts, a lot of time is wasted
in cutting-and-pasting text, he explained. This tool takes 'the trouble out
of writing shell scripts'.
For those who came in late, incidentally, Blinston is the
originator of the idea of having a 'Brotherhood of Command Line
Users'. To join this yet-to-be-activated brotherhood, send mail
to bclu-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ... don't wait for tomorrow.
"Nobody's stimulating the hacker culture here," complains B2.
He mentioned Animesh's work to write WOMAN, a tool to see
the 'man' pages.
Many more ideas flowed during an invasion of Arvind Clement's flat later
(his four-year-old daughter burst into tears, which kept growing louder as
the tech talk grew louder and refused to die down... a neighbour was stunned
to see so many young unidentified men outside his door... the watchman too
eyed us all suspiciously). The team behind the http://www.ilug-margao.org
discussed the many other ideas they have... and how to get them going.
There's been some roadblock in getting to a server; but some hits have come
in from as far away as Sweden and Australia. Andrew Suares had his views on
the colour scheme and preferred types.
More cups of tea later, this time at the Kamat's, saw the subjects
veer to even more off-topic talk. For instance, how to beat all that
there-are-currently-no-jobs-for-engineers pessimism going around...
Sanil had got in his results earlier in the day....
To digest the tea and the talk, one opted for a walk to the Margao busstand.
To avoid the cops, a couple of ILUGers were seen pushing their bikes across
a one-way road in town. What was left at Margao was only the last Kadamba
bus to Panjim... and a slightly blistered feet.
Sunday morning saw a phone call from Bijon Shah, wanting details
of the security talk. Aniket mentioned a broken tooth, which
restricted his ability to talk (but his enthusiasm make it tough
to resist discussing linking up with Belgaum GNU/Linux enthusiasts).
ArvindY was looking out for Knopix, which was at the other end of
town with ArvindC. By the end of the day, Yunus Shaikh sent in his
friendly-but-stern note reminding that one was "supposed to come to
GIM today... where the hell you disappeared".
So, over to somebody else to give a report of how the GIM (Goa Institute of
Management) programme on GNU/Linux went on Sunday afternoon.
Post Scriptum: For those wondering why our old friend Seby Menezes has not
been in touch with the group, it was just because he has been keeping busy
with a new 'distro'. This product is yet to be named, but could end up
something like Linuxagoa. The coding was neat, so was the planning: Seby
actually got a girl baby after their two boys! Congrats, Seby.
What plans for this weekend's Panjim meeting? Just keep all the
talks for October 26. In November, we could end up busy celebrating
a farewell -- as this would be Tom Fernandes' last meeting (for
now) in Goa, before he returns back to Germany in early December.FN
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------------------------------
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 20:58:26 CST
Subject: [SLUG] Suncoast LUG Meetings
From: "Paul M. Foster" <paulf@quillandmouse.com>
*************************************
* Suncoast Linux Users Group (SLUG) *
* Meeting Schedule *
*************************************
DUNEDIN **************************************************
26 October 10:00-12:00 Dunedin
(usually fourth Saturday of each month)
Dunedin Public Library,
223 Douglas Ave.,
Community Room A.
Dunedin, FL
See http://www.suncoastlug.org/meetings.html#dunedin for directions.
NEW PORT RICHEY ******************************************
2 November 13:00-15:00 New Port Richey
(first Saturday of each month)
New Port Richey Public Library
(second level meeting rooms)
5939 Main St.
New Port Richey, FL
See http://www.suncoastlug.org/meetings.html#npr for directions.
BRANDON **************************************************
7 November 20:00-22:00 Brandon
(first Thursday of each month)
Brandon Barnes & Noble
Brandon Town Center
Brandon, FL
See http://www.suncoastlug.org/meetings.html#Brandon for directions.
TAMPA ****************************************************
13 November 19:00-21:00 Tampa
(second Wednesday of each month)
PricewaterhouseCoopers -- Room 684
3109 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Blvd
Lakepointe I Building
Tampa, FL 33607
See http://www.suncoastlug.org/meetings.html#tampa for directions.
SARASOTA/BRADENTON ***************************************
20 November 18:00-21:00 Sarasota
(third Wednesday of each month)
Baker Electronics
8323 Lindbergh Court
Sarasota, FL
See http://www.bish.net/directions/
***********************************************************
ACTIVITIES:
Meetings include:
1) Presentation: As indicated.
2) Question & Answer Session.
3) Raffle and free stuff!
Bring your boxes, questions, problems, and plenty of good cheer!
(And don't forget to start your installs early!)
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