Hello all ,
Know enemies (of free software ) before you fight a battle with them.
I have posted about "Demand Side learning" before and pls. take a look at
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4834.html ( Read "Microsoft" as proprietory software )
For GNU/Linux to succeed,Programmers should adopt and write large
applications which run on them. There is necessity for companies who can give
service around them for corporate adoption etc etc
I took a serious look at GNU/Linux in the month of feb/march/april (2010). That
culminated me in becoming a MAC OS X/iPhone developer,worked with four
GNU Linux project and I still use Linux as a platform to explore more about
software.
I posted some code snippets of my forray at
http://praseedp.blogspot.in/p/gnu-linux-programming.html
I was programming mostly using C# in those days and ported my slangfordotnet
compiler to Linux using Mono and even ported a Windows application to Linux
in under eight hours using Wine as a software library. I worked with Harbour
project
to port an accounting/inventory package written using Clipper for MSDOS. The
software
now runs on GNU Linux,MAC OS X and Windows as 32 bit /64 bit native application.
In effect, I transported my Windows knowledge into Linux and my life has never
been
the same . I have been able to convince at least twenty five people to take a
serious look at GNU Linux operating system.
I get lot of mails from people who find my GNU/Linux programming page
very useful.
This "particular" group is dominated by people who are not interested in
programming and
they only want a platform to get noticed.
Learning GNU/Linux programming can change your life,professing it's virtue can
make only a few profit from it.
regards
Praseed Pai
________________________________
From: Sumod K Mohan <[email protected]>
To: "This List discusses GNU/Linux & GNU, GPL Software"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, February 5, 2012 9:18 PM
Subject: [ILUG-Cochin.org] Idealism vs Practicality.
Hi all,
Let us end that thread or at least start a new thread for "flame-wars". That is
not contributing in any way to helping the poor teacher. Let us leave that
thread for the purpose it was created.
Now that said let me say this much. I have the confession of having been a
strong evangelist myself. I learned the hard way the problems with which. One
of the most difficult project the free software community had taken was the
openmoko project, which was aimed at creating open-hardware and open-software.
But having seen it not accomplish the aim, and learning the problems with that
model, I think of the whole issue in new light. I respect RMS for the being
idealistic, for being the stalwart of free software and corner stone of the
movement. Someone like him is essential to keep the movement going, to inspire
all of us. But at the end of the day, both the ideologies are right, one of the
need to be extremely-idealistic to inspire others (you wouldn't have the
internet without some people being idealistic) and one of being pragmatic at
some point to be successful at others (You wouldn't have this laptop/desktop
without some people being practical).
An interesting anecdote of which was the BIOS issue (BIOS firmware being
non-free and proprietary), if any of you remember the same. RMS uses
"semi"-laptop because there are no completely free/open source laptop
(including BIOS) available on market. How many of us are ready to do something
like that, does it even make sense for each of us to do that. Now
"that"(freedom in software) is one of the things I care about. There are many
other things that I care about, like giving basic education for kids, to
inspire some of them follow research etc and many others outside education,
like freedom of speech etc. Now when I draw the line towards being over
idealistic in one specific directions, I have to compromise on others or not be
successful in any of them. So at the end of the day, it is a personal choice.
Now using the term "GNU/Linux" : I tend to use GNU/Linux whenever possible but
don't try to be a word-nazi. If I feel that, the person don't know
about free software, I try to inspire them to it and let them to choose. It
might be a good idea to post a thread about what free software is or just point
the people to a good link. It is kind of a waste of all our time to repeat the
same thing over and again, if any of us is so passionate, sit down and write
what you have to and put in on a site or something, so that we can spent the
remaining time in contributing effectively to make the free software community
stronger. Let us all contribute in code, design or something creative than just
thru arguments. The code is mightier than the word. ;)
Happy Hacking,
-Sumod
On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 2:58 AM, smart kundassery <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Sony,
>
>
>http://distrowatch.com/ gives a comprehensive list of GNU/Linux distros. A lot
>of information is given for each of the currently available and newly added
>distros. Best wishes for your initiative.
>
>
>regards,Smart Kundassery.
>
>
>
>On 30 January 2012 23:51, Sony Krishna Swamy <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>
>Dear Linux users,
>>
>>I am a visiting faculty at various MBA institutes in Kochi, and I am
>>disappointed to know that my students have never heard of Linux (or anything
>>non-Windows).
>>
>>I tried encouraging them to install Linux, but the roadblocks they face in
>>that one task deflects them away from this great OS.
>>
>>However, they were comfortable with using Ubuntu Linux, once they see how to
>>go about things.
>>
>>So my question is this: Can we form a group that helps people INSTALL a
>>flavour of Linux?
>>
>>The help could be by email/phone/in person/any remote way one could think of.
>>
>>But im talking of about a 100 students in each institute, connected via a
>>wireless network. So, is there a way for network installation?
>>
>>It is my understanding that this group stands to promote the use of Linux OS
>>among people. I believe that students are a base where we can start from, so
>>that they can make the change at their workplaces, other institutions, when
>>they start a business, at their homes, and so on.
>>
>>This revolution can have far reaching effects.
>>
>>Please reply with your comments.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Sony
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Indian Libre User Group Cochin Mailing List
>>http://www.ilug-cochin.org/mailing-list/
>>http://mail.ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
>>#[email protected]
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Indian Libre User Group Cochin Mailing List
>http://www.ilug-cochin.org/mailing-list/
>http://mail.ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
>#[email protected]
>
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#[email protected]
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