[4084] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #376
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Mon Apr 7 17:13:34 2003
From: Digestifier <Linux-Announce-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
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Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 17:13:03 EDT
Linux-Announce Digest #376, Volume #4 Mon, 7 Apr 2003 17:13:03 EDT
Contents:
Arun Shourie, on FLOSS v.s proprietory ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
LINK: Looking at GNU/Linux in Asia... ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
Singapore LUG: April Meeting and Talk (Anand)
ANNOUNCE: LinWiz - iptables wizard (Chris Lowth)
SECURITY: NSA Security-enhanced Linux updated (Howard Holm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: Arun Shourie, on FLOSS v.s proprietory
Date: 7 Apr 2003 08:25:01 GMT
URL : http://www.linuxworld.com/2003/0401.indiaopensource.html
India IT minister: No government edict on open source
IT official says Indian government will not back open source to the
exclusion of proprietary software
April 1, 2003
Summary
The government is a key buyer of information technology in India,
and backers of open-source software were hoping that the Indian
government would throw its weight behind open source.
By John Ribiero, IDG News Service
BANGALORE (IDG News Service) -- The Indian government will not back
open-source software to the exclusion of proprietary software,
according to Arun Shourie, India's minister for information technology
and communications. The government is a key buyer of information
technology in the country, and backers of open-source software were
hoping that the Indian government would throw its weight behind open
source.
"In India we always like to think in terms of either-or. The formula
we want to adopt instead is 'and also,' and encourage all kinds of
software development in the country," Shourie told reporters shortly
after the formal launch in Bangalore on Tuesday of the PARAM Padma
supercomputer, designed by the government-run Center for Development
of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Pune [see "[30]India agency offers
build-to-order supercomputer" Dec. 17, 2002].
"If there is an important security software that we need urgently, for
example, we are more likely to buy it, than spend time deciding
whether we should develop it in India in open source," Shourie added.
Earlier in his address to the staff of C-DAC, Shourie said that in
cases involving national security, it was wiser for government
research agencies and laboratories to develop software in-house.
However, Shourie clarified later that the decision to import software,
or develop the software entirely in-house in open source or on any
other platform, would be taken at the level of the specific government
agency on a case-by-case basis.
"Do not expect a general decision from government on this," Shourie
added.
Shourie's statement is the first categorical statement by a senior
Indian government official in the debate about whether to adopt
open-source or proprietary software. The controversy was sparked in
November last year during a visit to India by Microsoft Chairman and
Chief Software Architect Bill Gates.
During his visit to Delhi, Gates announced that his company planned to
invest US$400 million in India over the next three years in a number
of areas, including computer literacy and localization of its software
products. Gates's announcement was seen by analysts as an attempt to
pre-empt the Indian government from making a formal decision to adopt
open-source software.
Gates announced that in addition to contributing software to schools,
Microsoft will also assist in training about 80,000 school teachers
and 3.5 million students in government-run schools in India.
"This 'gift' is no act of generosity," said Richard Stallman,
president of the Boston-based Free Software Foundation. Stallman was
also in India in November to drum up support for free software, but
found that media and government attention had shifted to Gates's
high-profile visit. "Giving Microsoft software to school children is
like giving them cigarettes -- it is a way to get them hooked, so that
once they grow up, they will be a captive market for Microsoft."
Microsoft has tried to win over the Indian government to its
Government Source Licensing Program (GSLP), but there have been no
takers yet in the government, according to informed sources. The GSLP
was designed to give government agencies access to Windows source code
to develop applications for their own internal use.
Last month, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems Inc. in Santa
Clara, California, also made a pitch to woo Indian universities and
researchers by announcing $300 million in free software and training
to promote key Sun technologies in India, such as Java and Sun ONE
(Open Net Environment).
Though the Indian government will not take sides, some government
agencies and laboratories are already using open-source software. The
National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) in
Delhi is assessing the feasibility of using Linux for e-governance
projects in India, according to Kiran Karnik, the association's
president.
"Linux can play an important role in spreading e-governance in India
since there would be a need to develop low-cost local language
applications," said Karnik. "It can also help in accelerating IT
education in schools which today cannot afford high software costs."
However, before Linux can be widely deployed, the services and support
infrastructure around this platform will have to be developed in the
country, according to Karnik.
John Ribiero is a Bangalore correspondent for the IDG News Service, a
LinuxWorld.com affiliate.
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------------------------------
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: LINK: Looking at GNU/Linux in Asia...
Date: 7 Apr 2003 08:25:04 GMT
URL : http://www.lugs.org.sg/twiki/bin/view/Main/LinuxConference
_________________________________________________________________
-- [25]HarishPillay - 09 Mar 2003
I was a participant (the other person was Lim Kin Chew of the NIE
E-learning Competency Centre; both of us representing Singapore) at a
symposium held in Phuket, Thailand from March 3-6 2003. This symposium
was called the Asia Open Source Symposium. It was organized by the
Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Center
for International Cooperation on Computerization (www.cicc.or.jp), a
Japanese NGO. The event was run and hosted by the Thai NECTEC
([26]http://www.nectec.or.th) which as government agency spearheading
electronics and computerization in Thailand and NSTDA
([27]http://www.nstda.or.th).
The 10 ASEAN countries were represented as well as the CJK countries
including Taiwan. Two others from outside this region included a
represetative from the Free Standards Group and the president of FSF
Europe. The south Asian representation was notable by their absence.
Hence, in a sense, this was not a pan Asia event, more an ASEAN+3.
The following summarizes the state of Linux and F&OSS in ASEAN:
a) Brunei: Little being done and if any, is at the university. No
clear govt policy on OSS.
b) Cambodia: - no report -
c) Indonesia: There is quite a bit of interest and activity. There is
a local oss effort at opensource.or.id. There is also no clear govt
policy on OSS.
d) Laos: Nothing is happening there :-(.
e) Malaysia: MIMOS has an Open Source group and looks set to roll out
a Linux-based PC. There is also quite a bit of work within MNCC and
OSSIG especially with the OSS101 course. Government is committed to
supporting and pushing OSS considering that there is a group within
MIMOS already.
f) Myanmar/Burma: Little being done because of infrastruture issues.
Government is for it, but they have bigger problems.
g) Philippines: They have brought out their own distribution called
Bayanihan Linux - [28]http://bayanihan.asti.dost.gov.ph - effort
supported by government.
h) Singapore: LUGS as a 10 year old outfit. Has run 3 conferences thus
far. Planning on doing an Asian Linux Conference in Oct 2003. No
direction at all from government on OSS. In fact, there is inceasing
proprietary lockdown of government sites and e-government services
(for example, www.singpass.gov.sg does not work properly on
Mozilla/Linux). Also, schools (MOE, polytechnics and the universities)
are proprietary software playgrounds. There is some hope in the ITEs
and also moving forward in the MOE schools as they are not going to be
able to replace and upgrade the thousands of computers already
deployed in the schools just to support the proprietary software
vendor's newest operating systems. The key problem in the school
system is that they use contents that can only run on these
proprietary OSes.
i) Thailand: Has a number of distributions. One from a university,
[29]BurapahLinux and another called Linux TLE (Thai Language
Extension). This is effort supported by government. The TLE
(pronounces as "tha lay" meaning sea in Thai) is to support Thai
language input and display for [30]OpenOffice.
j) Vietnam: There is some effort since early 1990s. They are planning
a Vietnamese distribution as well called [31]VietKey Linux. There is
government policy to promote OSS nationwide.
CJK + Taiwan: China: [32]RedFlag Software together with the Beijing
Software Industry Productivity Center presented their own distribution
called Yangfan and Qihan Linux. It has a very Windows XP-lookalike UI
with the intent to make the transition painless. They are also rolling
out a Chinese version of [33]OpenOffice.
Taiwan (Chinese Taipei): There is significant work being done in
Taiwan in OSS especially with the setting up of the Software Liberty
Association of Taiwan in 2001 and the running of Open Source Workshops
in 99 and 00 and International Conference on Open Source in 01, 02 and
03. A lot of work in the embedded space as well.
Korea: [34]HancomLinux is a major player. They are leveraging the fact
that [35]HancomWord for Windows is used extensively in the Korean
government that the move to Linux would be easier. They are also doing
major work in Embedded Linux applications/appliances.
Japan: Multiplicity of user groups and major distributor
[36]TurboLinux. There are a host of other distros as well. Largely
focussed on providing Japanese language support.
Overall comments: There is a considerable effort that is being
expended in the ASEAN+3 countries on OSS. What is needed is a
region-wide effort to coordinate this and not splinter/replicate the
efforts. Among the suggestions made was to look at making sure that
all possible code forks are avoided diligently and code enhancements
folded back into the mainstream especially the language support
issues. Another suggestion was to set up a working group like the IETF
to work/guide F&OSS development especially in Asia but with a possible
extension to the world.
Next steps: LUGS has offered to hold the next Asia OSS symposium in
Singapore during the planned Asian Linux Conference to be held during
the last week of October. LUGS has to await their acceptance of this
offer.
I made a proposal that perhaps we should start using the phrase "Free
& Open Source Software" and in acronym form F&OSS. [My initial
proposal was FOSS, but it appears to be used by a company already and
we should avoid contention if we can].
The intention behind the F&OSS is two fold:
a) The English language handicaps the word Free to mean to most
people, free of cost. The intention of Free Software is not that but
the freedoms associated with the use of the software.
b) The second reason is that with the juxtaposition of "Open" to
"Free", we are downplaying the free of charge part and raising the
openness part. This will also bring forth the questions by the curious
about why free and open and gives us all the opportunity to explain
better.
A more important effect of using F&OSS is that we can counter the FUD
surrounding the Microsoft "Shared Source" scheme. The average person
who asks what MS Shared Source means, will be told that it is like
"Open Source" and there by corrupting the opensource.org definition
and intention to the benefit of Microsoft. With the positioning of
Free before Open, we can effectively counter the perception.
It is really upto the global community to accept this suggestion if it
makes sense. I think it does. I hope the global community will think
so too.
Government support in this region is also spotty. The CJK countries
have clear support already but the rest of ASEAN other than Malaysia,
and Philippines, remains largely within the proprietary software base.
There needs to be concerted regional push at perhaps the ASEAN level
and/or United Nations Development Program's APDIP
([37]http://www.apdip.org) to make assist these countries in coming up
with a coherent and steadfast policy on OSS.
Current Rev: r1.6 - 12 Mar 2003 - 01:48 GMT - [38]HarishPillay,
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------------------------------
From: Anand <anand_r_vaidya@hotmail.com>
Subject: Singapore LUG: April Meeting and Talk
Date: 7 Apr 2003 13:50:01 GMT
Reply-To: anand_r_vaidya@hotmail.com
Hi All,
Just a reminder about this Fridays meeting. Same may have not
noticed the request for RSVP (or maybe my talk is less interesting
than I thought ;) but i'd just like to point out I was trying
to work out if the OFS Linux Lab was going to be big enough to
hold it or if I needed to use a bigger room (OFS has quite a few
of these).
So far I only 6 responses so looks like there will be tons of room.
If you do wish to come please let me know so I can make alternative
room arrangements if need be - so far not an issue.
Just a general note. OFS has 802.11b wireless Internet access and
not the Starhub/Singtel kind where you have to pay, so by all means
bring your portable wireless devices. There will also be 25
linux machines to play on if my talk gets to boring.
This by the way is the first talk of potentially more at OFS.
OFS has kindly offered there linux lab for use by LUGS assuming
all things go well. Consider my talk the test case for them. There
will also be a handful of OFS staff coming along who want to
learn more about the Linux server setup they all use daily.
If you are coming, please read the note below about security.
~mc
----
Linux in a K12 Environment
Synopsis
In this talk we will be looking at the architecture and components
of the Linux installation at 'Overseas Family School'. OFS have been
an early adopter of Linux in Singapore with an IT system comprising
of 46 Linux machines (9 servers, 30 desktops and 7 development
workstations) and over 500 macs.
Specifically we will be looking at each of the services on their
Linux platform and what these provide to the end users.
Platform overview
* network and security
* high availability and fault tolerance
* storage and backup
Services overview
* multi-platform integration
* email and directory services
* file, web and remote access services
* multiple OS network booting
* desktop linux clients
* linux application development
About the speaker
Michael Clark is Managing Director of Metaparadigm Pte Ltd,
a Singapore based IT consultancy. Michael has a background in
Telecommunications and Internet having previously been a Product
Developer at a New Zealand telco 'Clear Communications' (now
TelstraClear).
Time and Location
11th April at 7.30pm at the OFS Middle School Linux Lab
after the EOGM.
* Please RSVP to rsvp@metaparadigm.com by 7th April so we can
* work out seating requirements. The linux lab has a seating
* limit of about 40 but we can move to another location if the
* number of attendees exceeds this.
* Please bring along your NRIC or other photo ID as this is req'd
* as part of the campus security procedure for issue of visitor
* passes.
Overseas Family School is located at 25F Paterson Road just by
Orchard MRT Exit B.
A map is located here:
http://www.ofs.edu.sg/contact-us/
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------------------------------
From: Chris Lowth <chris@lowth.com>
Subject: ANNOUNCE: LinWiz - iptables wizard
Date: 7 Apr 2003 17:30:05 GMT
LinWiz is a growing set of on-line tools for the automated generation of
linux security configuration files and scripts. The tools aim to avoid the
user's need of any in-depth technical knowledge - and allow novices and
experts to set up firewalls with ease.
The first of these is LinWiz://SimpleFirewall. This tool creates a
host-protecting iptables firewall configuration for RedHat 7.x and 8.x
servers and workstations. The firewall thus created controls in-bound
service access (at the port level) and filters client IP and MAC addresses.
It performs a similar task to the "lokkit" utility, but covers more services
and has more features and options.
LinWiz:://SimpleFirewall generates an iptables-restore file which can be
downloard to the relevant location on the host. This generated file is
covered by the GPL license.
This is the first release of a tool that will expand over time to include
real router-based firewall configuration, mail server configuration, web
server configuration etc.
LinWiz can be found at .. http://www.lowth.com/LinWiz
Chris
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------------------------------
From: Howard Holm <hdholm@epoch.ncsc.mil>
Subject: SECURITY: NSA Security-enhanced Linux updated
Date: 7 Apr 2003 20:50:01 GMT
The SELinux web site <http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/> including the mail
list archive has been updated. The example policy has been updated with
enhancements and cleanups. A number of bugs have been fixed in the
SELinux module. The updated module is available for the ia32 2.4.20
Linux kernel. The updated module is also available for both the
mainline 2.5.66 Linux kernel and an LSM patched 2.5.66 Linux kernel.
The new mainline module also includes work in preparation for a new
SELinux API. Finally, a port of SELinux to the arm 2.4.19 kernel is
also now available.
Security-enhanced Linux incorporates a strong, flexible mandatory
access control architecture into the major subsystems of the Linux
kernel. The system provides a mechanism to enforce the separation of
information based on confidentiality and integrity requirements. This
allows threats of tampering and bypassing of application security
mechanisms to be addressed and enables the confinement of damage that
can be caused by malicious or flawed applications. The SELinux web
site <http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/> contains background information,
documentation, source code, and archives for the selinux mailing-list.
--
Howard Holm <hdholm@epoch.ncsc.mil>
Secure Systems Research Office
National Security Agency
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