I had a home installation this weekend(for one of my friends), i have to describe her as a newbie/an expert in online chat and browsing and nothing else.
I downloaded my copy of gNewSense on 4th May morning, and made a cd. Tried on my desktop, and on my laptop in VirtualBox on top of Ubuntu. I had given only 256MB RAM and the live cd booted and worked very fast (great, Ubuntu Live CD’s dont work on 256MB RAM).
Then by afternoon i paid my friend a visit, i found that the system had only 256MB RAM(and that too shared with video, so usable 224~) so i decided to try out gNewSense. It did not disappoint me, it loaded and i could access all the applications from the live cd, with gnome2.22, metacity and all on a 256MB system(she had a plan to upgrade the RAM, and gNewSense allowed her to save money, but lost a business for the dealer :D)
So now it was to decide which distro to install, well gNewSense, no doubt about it. And it was few hours of configuration(5.5hrs precisely), setting up webcam(Creative VF0330), kopete, ekiga,
KMplayer, Swanalekha(for malayalam). Then about 1 hour of class how GNU/Linux works and she was fine with it. She wants to chat to her sister(VoIP and Video), so i recommened ekiga and created an account for her and taught her, how her sister could use ekiga from windows.
And kopete for Video over Yahoo.
Windows was very slow and also it showed ‘Your windows is not genuine or you may be a victim of……..’, it made my task easier, she had Photoshop on windows(learning to draw), so i showed her GIMP and she was interested.
Atlast, “anoop do i have to upgrade the RAM”,
“no need, do you feel the system is slow”
“no”
“i saved your 1000bucks, give me a treat”
Lastly few words about Free Software, GNU and FSF.
And I am really happy I gave a 100% Free Operating System to my
friend.
On older systems i recommend trying gNewSense Deltah 2.0, it’s cool.
Setting up Creative VF0330 on gNewSense or Ubuntu or Debian
http://www.rastageeks.org/ov51x-jpeg/index.php/Ov51xJpegHackedInstall
Six questions to national standardisation bodies
[Also available as PDF (28k)]The following six questions relate to the application of the ECMA/MS-OOXML format to be accepted as an IEC/ISO standard. Unless a national standardisation body has conclusive answers to all of them, it should vote no in IEC/ISO and request that Microsoft incorporate its work on MS-OOXML into ISO/IEC 26300:2006 (Open Document Format).
This is a summary document. More detailed information is available online.
-
Application independence?
No standard should ever depend on a certain operating system, environment or application. Application and implementation independence is one of the most important properties of all standards.
Is the MS-OOXML specification free from any references to particular products of any vendor and their specific behaviour?
-
Supporting pre-existing Open Standards?
Whenever applicable and possible, standards should build upon previous standardisation efforts and not depend on proprietary, vendor-specific technologies.
MS-OOXML neglects various standards, such as MathML and SVG, which are recommendations by the W3C, and uses its own vendor-specific formats instead. This puts a substantial burden on all vendors to follow Microsoft in its proprietary infrastructure built over the past 20 years in order to fully implement MS-OOXML. It seems questionable how any third party could ever implement them equally well.
What is the benefit of accepting usage of such vendor-specific formats at the expense of standardisation in these areas? Where will other vendors get competitive, compatible and complete implementations for all platforms to avoid prohibitively large investments?
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Backward compatibility for all vendors?
One of the alledged main advantages of MS-OOXML is its ability to allow for backward compatibility, as also referenced in the ECMA International press release.
For any standard it is essential that it is implementable by any third party without necessity of cooperation by another company, additional restricted information or legal agreements or indemnifications. It is also essential to not require the cooperation of any competitor to achieve full and comparable interoperability.
On the grounds of the existing MS-OOXML specification, can any third party regardless of business model, without access to additional information and without the cooperation of Microsoft implement full backward compatibility and conversion of such legacy documents into MS-OOXML comparable to what Microsoft can offer?
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Proprietary extensions?
Proprietary, application-specific extensions are a known technique employed in particular by Microsoft to abuse and leverage its desktop monopoly into neighboring markets. It is a technique at the heart of the abusive behaviour that was at the core of the decision against Microsoft by the European Commission in 2004 and Microsoft is until today continuing its refusal to release the necessary interoperability information.
For this reason, it is common understanding that Open Standards should not allow such proprietary extensions, and that such market-distorting techniques should not be possible on the grounds of an Open Standard.
Does MS-OOXML allow proprietary extensions? Is Microsoft’s implementation of MS-OOXML faithful, i.e. without undocumented extensions? Are there safeguards against such abusive behaviour?
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Dual standards?
The goal of all standardisation is always to come to one single standard, as multiple standards always provide an impediment to competition. Seeming competition on the standard is truly a strategic measure to gain control over certain segments of a market, as various examples in the past have demonstrated.
There is an existing Open Standard for office documents, namely the Open Document Format (ODF) (ISO/IEC 26300:2006). Both MS-OOXML and ODF are built upon XML technology, so employ the same base technology and thus ultimately have the same theoretical capabilities. Microsoft itself is a member of OASIS, the organisation in which the ODF standard was developed and is being maintained. It was aware of the process and invited to participate.
Why did and does Microsoft refuse to participate in the existing standardisation effort? Why does it not submit its technological proposals to OASIS for inclusion into ODF?
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Legally safe?
Granting all competitors freedom from legal prosecution for implementation of a standard is essential. Such a grant needs to be clear, reliable and wide enough to cover all activities necessary to achieve full interoperability and allow a level playing field for true competition on the merits.
MS-OOXML is accompanied by an unusually complex and narrow “covenant not to sue” instead of the typical patent grant. Because of its complexity, it does not seem clear how much protection from prosecution for compatibility it will truly provide.
Cursory legal study implies that the covenant does not cover all optional features and proprietary formats mandatory for complete implementation of MS-OOXML. So freedom of implementation by all competitors is not guaranteed for the entire width of the proposed MS-OOXML format, and questionable even for the core components.
Does your national standardisation body have its own, independent legal analysis about the exact nature of the grant to certify whether it truly covers the full spectrum of all possible MS-OOXML implementations?
All these questions should have answers that should be provided by the national standardisation bodies through independent counsel and experts, and in particular not by Microsoft or its business partners, which have a direct conflict of interest on this issue.
If there is no good answer to any one of them, a national body should vote no in ISO/IEC.
Related reading
Context
Microsoft will be signing up Malayalam movie star Mammootty as one of the brand ambassadors for the Computer Literacy programme that is to be organized soon in Kerala, a Southern Indian State well known for its pro-free software policies. This is an open letter by Free Software Activists, Supporters and Users of Kerala to Mammootty.
Open Letter to Mamootty from Free Software Community
Dear Bharat Mammootty,
This letter is to express our deepest disappointment in your involvement with Microsoft to launch their e-literacy program in Kerala and is based on the belief that you have high social convictions and commitment to the people of Kerala.
Kerala’s civil society had in the past been delighted by your decision to dissociate with the coco cola advertisement project as a response to the resource exploitation and pollution caused by the corporate body. However, people of Kerala will be bewildered to see that you are lending your name and fame to support a devastatingly nefarious techno-monopolistic campaign unleashed by Microsoft in our state. We feel your move is both ill-advised and harmful.
Being the Director of a major media initiative (Kairali TV, Malayalam Communications Limited) that claims to be people-oriented both in terms of its initial resource mobilization tactics as well as its professed commitment to people’s causes, it is embarrassing to see that such concerns are completely sidelined in favor of a hideous agenda of a major US based multi-national IT giant, despised even in US for its monopolistic tendencies. In fact there are records of this company using underhanded tactics to enforce its views on an organization like ISO which maintains international standards for public benefit.
We are assuming that you were not given enough information about the IT Scenario we live in.
Software is a tool and a means with which we can achieve a lot of things. In this respect, it is similar to infrastructure like roads and rails. Using Microsoft software is akin to using a road built by a private agency who levies a charge for its use. Any further development of that road and the terms of usage of that road will be subject to the whims of that private agency alone, however insane it may be. Free Software is like an alternate road , with equal or better quality. It is community owned - public property. What modifications have to be done, and where it has to be done is driven by public need and is not influenced by a private party.
When we use Microsoft’s products, which do not give the 4 essential freedoms in Computing (Right to study, Right to copy, Right to modify and Right to Redistribute software), we are becoming helpless creatures. Non-free softwares like Windows are designed to keep users helpless and prohibit cooperation. On the other hand , Free software believes in sharing and cooperation.
For your kind attention, Microsoft, the company with which you plan to sign the contract, has a track record of being fined($1.35 billion) for Antitrust Charges in European Union for not complying with EU standards and trying to avoid giving essential information required for interoperability to others by asking for a huge price. As the report says, “Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision,” The Hindu February 28, 2008.
The Kerala state IT policy says motto of Akshaya project is ‘making technology and e-government services accessible to common man’. For making technology and e-governance accessible to common man without vendor lock-in, Free Software (Swathanthra Software) is the only solution available.
On IANS Report you are saying “your mission is to help make all sections of the society IT literate”. We understand and appreciate your genuine spirit. But selecting Microsoft as an accomplice would be a wrong choice. Making people literate benefits the society as a whole. Proprietary software rejects their thirst for knowledge: it says, “The knowledge you want is a secret — learning is forbidden!” Free software encourages everyone to learn. The free software community rejects the ‘priesthood of technology’, which keeps the general public ignorant of how technology works. The people and Government of Kerala understood it and has already introduced it in our schools and government institutions. So we request you to stand for free software and essential freedoms in computing to fulfill your mission.
Since you have on several occasions expressed your support to the causes upheld by left forces in the country, we hope that it will not be news to you that CPI(M) and other progressive forces in the country have been ardent supporters of free software and as a matter of principle, detest Microsoft’s monopoly built through treacherous market machinations that even the developed countries find unbearable.
It is high time that you understood the implications and ramifications of your support for Microsoft. It seriously undermines your role as a socially committed artist, progressive media leader and sympathizer of leftist politics.
We hope that being a thinking man, you will realize the error in endorsing proprietary software and will persist in your mission of bringing about IT to the common man via free software and open standards. As a great man who has enriched the culture of Kerala and India, please do set an example by using and promoting free software. You are already using GNU/Linux and Apache webserver (both are free software) for your site: http://www.mammootty.com.
We as a body that strives to support free standards and free society through free software, request you to reconsider your decision and be a proponent of free software to achieve your mission to help make all sections of the society IT literate.
Let us build your dream together with free software.
A group of free software activists, supporters and users who believe in freedom, free society and free expression of ideas.
Signed By,
Anoop Jacob Thomas
Free Software Activist/Supporter
മറ്റുള്ളവര് തന് ഭാരമവന് തന്
ഭാരമാക്കുവാന് ശ്രമിചോരുവന്
തന് ഭാരമെന്നും തന്
ഭാരമായ് മാത്രമിരിക്കുമെന്നറി
ഞ്ഞോരുവന്റെ കഥ
ശിലയുടെ നെറുകയില് നിന്ന്
അ പര്വതതിന്റെ മുനയില് നിന്ന്
ഗുരുത്വാകര്ഷണത്താല്
താഴേക്ക്;
ചിറകുകള് ഒടിഞ്ഞോരു
പക്ഷിപോലെ
പ്രതീക്ഷകള് മരണപെട്ടോരു
മനുഷ്യനും;
താഴേക്ക്:
നെഞ്ചിടിച്ചാ പാറകെട്ടുകളി
ലൊരന്ത്യവും.
ഒരു നിമിഷം;
വീണ്ടുമാ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയി-
ലൊന്നെത്തിയെങ്കില് എന്ന്
വീണ്ടുമാ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയി-
ലൊന്നെത്തിയെങ്കില്
എനിക്കെന് അച്ഛനെ
സ്നേഹിക്കാമായിരുന്നു.
വീണ്ടുമാ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയി-
ലൊന്നെത്തിയെങ്കില്
എനിക്കെന് മാതാവിനോട്
നീതി പുലര്ത്താമായിരുന്നു
വീണ്ടുമാ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയി-
ലൊന്നെത്തിയെങ്കില് എന്റെ
പോറ്റമമ ഒരല്പ്പം സമയം
കൂടിയനുവദിച്ചു തന്നേനെ
ഇന്നോ ഞാന് അവള്ക്ക-
ത്താഴമായ്;
അവളുടെ ഓമനകള്ക്ക്
വിരുന്നായ്
അവളുടെ വിശപ്പുശമിപ്പിക്കുവാന്
ഞനെന് ശരീരമര്പ്പിച്ചു
മനസ്സോ ആത്മവിനും-
എവിടെയോ പിഴച്ചു.
എവിടെയെന്നറിയാതെ
ഭാരം പേറുമോരെന്
മന്സ്സും ആത്മാവിനായ് .
എനിക്കോ പിഴച്ചത്?
അല്ല! എന്
സൃഷ്ടാക്കള്ക്കും
ഒരു വിശകലനം
വീണ്ടുമാ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയി-
ലൊന്നെത്തിയെങ്കില്
അവളോ എനിക്കിനി
സമയമേകില്ല!
ഇത് പ്രകൃതിയുടെ നിയമമെന്ന്.
ഇല്ല മരിക്കില്ല
ഇല്ല മരിക്കില്ല
ഞാന്
മറ്റുള്ളവര്ക്കോ കണ്ടു രസിക്കാന്
എനിക്കോ സ്വയം രസിക്കാന്
മറ്റുള്ളവര്ക്കോ കണ്ടു സഹതപിക്കാന്
എനിക്കോ അനുഭവിക്കാന്
ഇല്ല മരിക്കില്ല
ഇല്ല മരിക്കില്ല
ഞാന്!
വീണ്ടുമാ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയിലേക്ക്
ഒരു ഭ്രാന്തനായ്-
ഒരു മനോരോഗിയായ്
മനസ്സിന് താളം തെറ്റിയവര് എന്നേ
ഭ്രാന്തനെന്നു വിളിക്കുന്നു.
ഇല്ല മരിക്കില്ല
ഇല്ല മരിക്കില്ല
ഞാന്
കണ്ടു രസിക്കണം
എനിക്കെന് ജീവിതം
പഴയ റയില്പാത പോലെ
അവസാന വണ്ടിയും കടന്നു പോയ്
കാടു കിളിര്ത്ത്;
താടി കിളിര്ത്ത്;
തുരുബെടുത്ത്;
ജട പിടിച്ച്.
എല്ലാവര്ക്കുമൊരു തരമായ്
ഞാനിന്നും
ആ ഭ്രുണാവസ്ഥയെ
കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നു.
January 8th,2008
Poems |
No Comments
This is a short story, written by me, ANOOP JACOB THOMAS, -
‘OZHUKKIL OTTAPETTUPOYAVAN‘.
It deals with the current world, the cruelties done by the so advanced species the ‘Homo sapiens‘. To what extent people are concerned about Nature and co-beings? The fear felt in everybody’s heart, but due to the circumstances, he is forced to travel with the stream the heart is over-powered by the mind.
