Fight FOSS Ignorance

One of the major factors which help proprietary software vendors keep a grip on the market is ignorance on the part of the consumers. Newspapers, one of the key sources of information to the common man, to aren’t playing their part and in their state of ignorance, helping such organizations.

Recently, on twitter, i pointed out the proprietary bias shown by Times of India vs Open Mindedness shown by The Hindu “#timesofindia vs #thehindu Clear proprietary bias shown by #timesofindia http://3.ly/bvh
and http://3.ly/MQk #opensource #linux “.

I also came across many internet related news articles in the local paper Amar Ujala which uses the logo of Internet Explorer in all their web-related articles. It gives a wrong notion to the ignorant masses that the Internet and Internet Explorer are synonymous. So i pointed out this to the Editor, Amar Ujala through a letter, a copy of which I am pasting below. My motive is to inspire every reader to fight FOSS ignorance in whatever best way s/he can and spread the spirit of Open Source.

All the best to all.

The Letter
—————-
Hello sir,

I am a regular reader of your newspaper an am highly appreciative of
the content matter and the quality of unbiased journalism of the
daily.

I would like to point your kind attention to a regular feature of the
web related articles published in Amar Ujala. Most of such articles
contain the logo of Microsoft’s proprietary web browser – Internet
Explorer.

Apart from being a free publicity for the browser and the company, it
gives a wrong notion to the lakhs of readers of the newspaper that the
Internet and Internet Explorer are synonymous. The role of a newspaper
is to create a better, an aware society. Using Microsoft Internet
Explorer’s logo in your articles gives the ignorant readers a notion
that Internet Explorer is what the Internet is all about, which is
totally wrong. A newspaper of your reputation should instead promote
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) which gives the users the freedom
to use them, without being under the restrictions of copyright laws.
Mozilla Firefox is one of the most popular Open Source browsers
available. Another Open Source browser, Google Chrome is doing well in
the browser market. Opera and Apple’s Safari, though not Open Source,
are still options available to the users.

My only concern is that the newspaper should not mislead the readers.

Hence I request you to kindly look into the matter and do something in
this regard as early as possible. I would like to get an
acknowledgment of this letter to you.

I would be highly obliged.

Thanking you

Yours sincerely,

–
Tanay Mathpal
Final Yr, Computer Engineering
College of Technology
Pantnagar

Software Freedom Day Celebrations at College of Technology, Pantnagar

It was August the 15^th all over again for the Open Source User Group (OSUG) / Sun Club / OSScamp Community, Pantnagar as Software Freedom Day was celebrated by the community in the college. The community organised an unconference for the interested students of the college. The event was planned on a short notice and hence adequate publicity could not be done but still a lot of more than 50 students attended and discussed Open Source inside out and upside down at the event. We managed to get permission from 2-5 in the evening which was certainly not enough considering the number of talks proposed by the students. Computer Engineering students from the II and III yrs of the college delivered numerous talks on a wide variety of topics.

The attendees after the SFD celebrations.

Some initial hitches were caused by some electricity issues but the time was utilised in some social sandboxing by the students. Students were peeked by the author (forgive me for that ) discussing technologies like Scala, Grails, Ogg, Svg, Netbeans, PHP……………………… and more (I’m sorry, I can recall only a few ). Once the systems were setup, it was time for us to go-go-go! The students enthusiastically demanded Vikash Pandey to begin his talk on Setting up a website, DNS and related issue. Vikash explained the minor details of setting up a website on a local Apahe server which were well grasped by the students. Once he finished, Nishant Singhal and Varun Agarwal were up front explaining the technical know-hows of System and Network Security. Sumit Sati initiated an interesting discussion during the talk: Ethical Hacking – does it really exist?! The bad weather outside was causing power cuts quite frequently so live demos related to System and Network Security were postponed for later. Meanwhile, Vigya Sharma came up with his lucid discussion on PHP, appropriately titled Introduction to PHP. It was basically a doubt clearing session regarding installation issues in LAMP and XAMPP and some bit of coding in PHP. The numerous questions raised by the students were handled well by Vigya. Following this server side scripting, was some Shell Scripting by Ankush Chander and Akshat Pokhriyal. The young lads started with “Why Unix?” and moved on with their talk explaining the powers of the shell.

Nishant and Varun facing volleys of questions during demonstration of System and Network Security.

We were running short of time and still had 6-7 more talks on queue! Going by the community vote, Aduait Pokhriyal was tossed up on the stage for an Introduction to Routing Protocols. After his talk, Nishant and Varun were ready with the demonstration of System and Network Security. They introduced the students to utilities like Netcat.

The clock had already ticked past 5 but we still had many openSolaris and Netbeans DVDs from Sun Microsystems to give away. Then Tanay Mathpal and Sumit Sati came up with an interesting way to do so; through an Open Source quiz! Simple Open Source trivia questions were answered by the students to take away everything we had in store for them!

The community then discussed the prospects of organising yet another OSScamp Pantnagar either in the campus of the university or in Nainital. The name OSScamp Nainital was exiting enough and the level of enthusiasm shown by the students showed that very soon the OSScamp Pantnagar community will take its first steps in this direction.

More pics from the event at Flickr.

Chrome OS – David to face the Goliath?

David vs Goliath

With Google finally announcing its very own Operating System – the Chrome OS on 7th of July, the IT industry is all set to witness yet another attack on Microsoft’s monopolistic fortified empire. Initially, Google plans to launch it for netbooks before moving on to the larger desktop PC and laptop market which is dominated by Microsoft’s Windows Operating Systems.

It is not the first time that Microsoft is facing competition in the Operating System market. Various flavours of Linux have been around for a while and are doing pretty good in the server domain. With the advent of the Mac OS for i386 environments, it was believed by many of those typical ‘Mac lovers’ that now Microsoft would surely have a run for its money. But neither Linux, nor the Mac have been really able to topple the Windows reign. This phenomenal success of Windows should not, in any case, be attributed to the R&D teams at MS, definitely not (how many BSODs have you faced!). It is the sales and marketing policy of Microsoft that keeps its Windows operating system at the pinnacle of this industry.

But this time, the game is a li’l different. On the other side of the court is not Linux, nor Apple; it’s Google – the behemoth who has proved itself time and again. Google revolutionised the web with its innovations at Google search. JavaScript and Ajax implementations of Gmail propelled yet another success story of Google. Google Docs are already a preferred choice of many netizens over the heavily priced MS Office suite. Orkut, YouTube, Blogger, Picasa, Google Earth, Apps, and many many more applications and services have redefined our entire web experience. So can we say that David has finally arrived confronting the long standing Goliath of the Operating System industry?

I have my set of doubts. Google’s domination of the web has been in all those areas which were earlier dominated either by Yahoo! (search, mail) or some other player; but not Microsoft. Even after about nine months of the launch of Google Chrome browser, it has not been able to challenge the market domination of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or even the second place Firefox. We have also seen that Google’s services like Orkut have been vanquished by rivals like Facebook and MySpace.

Apart from this, my other doubt arises from the history of Google’s antagonist. Microsoft is known to be a fighter. Since its inception, it has fought and won bitter battles against big names like Apple, Netscape and even the mighty IBM. So Google and its Chrome OS have a tough opponent up front.

It’s not that my doubts arise only from these historical aspects of the two companies. There are certain technical aspects where Microsoft seems to have an edge over Google. Chrome is purely based on Cloud Computing which leaves me with a good for nothing rectangular piece of keys and screen which i may deter to call a ‘netbook’ in case of unavailability of a hi-speed broadband connection to the Internet, which is not such an uncommon scenario in most parts of the world! Although many Paul Buchheits may remind me of the famous “Don’t be Evil” quote of Google, i can never accept my prized possession – my personal data to be at the mercy of the Google Cloud and its ‘Privacy Policy’. For the developers, Google says that “the web is the platform”. Keeping in mind the huge numbers of application developers already working on the available platforms, does this insight look viable! Not in the near future for me!

And what about hardware and software support?! Being based on the Linux Kernel and Cloud Computing, i doubt Chrome OS to support my printer, scanner, camera, flash drives and memory cards as smoothly as Windows does after being 100% sure that it will not be able to run my trusted software and games! (Don’t remind me of WINE, plz!)

Then they tell me that Chrome OS will be based on the Linux Kernel with a new “windowing system”. Quoting the official Google Blog “….and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.” All this sounds familiar, isn’t it? Why not! Isn’t Chrome a Cloud implementation of Linux?! So what difference does it make to Microsoft when what actually it is facing is nothing but yet another Linux, only this time, it has a Cloud to back it up and is labelled Google!

But this one fact can ultimately bring all the difference to the equation. It is labelled Google and in the IT industry, when it’s Google, it’s got to be something big and surely something to contend with. Both Microsoft and Google have been leaders of two different playing fields as of now. This confrontation was surely on the cards and when now both of them find each other on their faces, mind my words, “there will be blood!”

Will the Google David bring down Microsoft or will the Goliath annihilate yet another adversary? It’s going to be really big this time!

Mozilla Camp Delhi

It has been a hectic new semester for me in the college… but at the same time, a very interesting one too. The semester began with a very first in college from the Science & Literary Bureau of the college – Litrosphere – the first ever college Literary Fest. It was followed by the college cultural fest.

After the cultural fest, i went ahead and enjoyed another first time in Pantnagar – OSScamp Pantnagar. OSScamp Pantnagar was a huge success and everyone of us enjoyed every bit of it. Now after the OSScamp, i am here at Mozilla Camp Delhi to enjoy the glory of Mozilla Firefox – my favourite browser!

Mozilla Camp Delhi is being organised at Indian Social Institute at Lodhi Road, Delhi. It is Delhi’s first unconference dedicated to Mozilla Firefox and is sure a revolutionary concept as Firefox is the single most popular and loved Open Source Software in the world! Even the people who are not very much inclined to use Open Source Operating Systems like Linux use Firefox over Microsoft’s blunderous  – Internet Explorer. The increasing market share of Firefox over IE bears a testimonial to it.

The ‘unorganiser’ at the camp – Mohak Prince just began the session out here with an introduction to Firefox and a detailed description of the poster and gfx designed specially for the camp. I expect to gain a lot and enjoy the glory of Firefox here!

OSScamp Pantnagar

It was just another day when Sumit (http://twitter.com/sumitsati/), who had just returned from Delhi from an event on Open Source in the month of September, 2008, told me about the two days he spent there. The event was an Open Source Software Camp in the premises of IIT Delhi. Both of us were on a rickshaw on our way to the Badi market when he first introduced me to the concept of Unconferences (wikipedia). For me, it was an instant hit! I instantly loved the idea. We had just reached about half way when he told me about his meeting with Kinshuk (http://www.kinshuksunil.com/) and the proposal of having such a camp in our college – College of Technology, Pantnagar (http://www.gbpuat-tech.ac.in/)! Working for the Engineering & Technology Society of the college for the past 2½ years had given me enough experiences to understand that whatever he was saying was not going to ba a cakewalk considering the administrative hurdles and formalities in the government university. Initially i was very skeptical about the feasibility of the camp at Pantnagar but the idea constantly fascinated me.

For me, this fascination towards Open Source softwares and technologies began last year when the Campus Ambassador of Sun Microsystems in our college, Narendra Pant sir held workshops and introduced us to Linux and other Open Source technologies. Open Source philosophy particularly inspired me and especially after watching the documentary movie Revolution OS (http://www.revolution-os.com/), i knew that Open Source softwares are definitely a big thumbs up from my side!

The process of clearing the administrative hurdles began in the Department of Computer Engineering. We had a meeting with our Head of Department and told him about the camp and our plans. Having an orthodox professor’s mindset, making him understand the concept of unconferences was a tedious task but once we took him in our confidence, he extended every bit of support to us. Working for the camp in Pantnagar included writing numerous applications, designing proposals (I say proposal’s’ as to satisfy every administrative ego, the same proposal had to be edited and redesigned three times!) for the Dean and the Vice Chancellor, listening to ‘un’necessary advices and what not!. During the course of this work, the Open Source Camp at Pantnagar became OSScamp Pantnagar (unpunctuated and with the lowercase ‘c’!!!). Visits to the HOD became an everyday routine. There were occasional meetings with the Dean too where we were aptly supported by our HOD.

There was yet another problem. The first and second year students of the college were not very much aware about the Open Source philosophy and technologies. With the special permission from the Dean, we, under the banner of OSUG, Pantnagar (Open Source User Group, Pantnagar, http://groups.google.com/group/sunclub-pantnagar/), held classes for the students every day in the evening. Taking and attending these classes was a surely a big learning experience. The attendance of students was overwhelming and many days we had to face the problem of lack of chairs and space in the class rooms (was surely a matter of envy for the department professors!). The members in the newly formed Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/osscamp-pantnagar/ increased and so did their posts. The entire working team and all the students were now eagerly waiting for the official permission to come our way.

One fine day i got to know about Ruby FunDay at Delhi and i, along with Sumit, Manish (http://twitter.com/graphicmist/) and Diwanshu (http://twitter.com/diwanshu/), went to attend it. Kinshuk accompnied us on our return trip and stayed with us for two days at Pantnagar discussing plans for the OSScamp. It was the end of November and the administrative hurdles were not yet cleared. Once Kinshuk left, we left no stone unturned in fulfilling our promise to him of getting the administrative nod by the end of the month. December dawned and so did out semester final examinations. We had our first exam in a couple of days when a phone call to Sumit jubiliated us all! We had got the written and signed permission from the Vice Chancellor! It was a moment to rejoice and we surely did enjoy it! Very soon we got http://pantnagar.osscamp.in/ and today it is busy with new sign-ups everyday.

The dream called OSScamp Pantnagar is now a reality. This reality will unveil itself on 31^st January – 1^st February, 2009 in the Department of Computer Engineering, College of Technology, Pantnagar.

OSScamp Pantnagar has been a long and interesting journey for me and all my fellow contributors in and out of Pantnagar. Now it’s time for all of us to bask in the glory.

Welcome to OSScamp Pantnagar!

Sign up for the camp at – http://pantnagar.osscamp.in/

Join the group – http://groups.google.com/group/osscamp-pantnagar/

The college – http://www.gbpuat-tech.ac.in/

Open Source Examinations

Everyone of us has heard of Science Fiction. We all have read and have been fascinated by some of the thought provoking science fiction writings. This is my first blog and i too want to devote it to fiction; not science fiction but ‘Exam Fiction’!

During the course of my recently concluded semester final exams, i constantly wondered what a wonderful scenario it would be for all of us examinees, if the schools and universities adopt an Open Source ideology in conducting the examinations! Presently, the examination system is much more like the proprietary software market where the end user (the student) gets only the final product (dreaded question paper) without getting the source code (the text book, from where s/he can get most of the solutions too!). Just like most of the products of the closed source world, the intellect behind the question paper is not original, and is often just a copy-paste from some other source. The community support (hope you understand the analogy in the examination context by now!) in this system is also very limited and is very very restricted! There is another big problem. If the end user intends to get the product before its scheduled launch date (the date of the exam), s/he has to rely on pirating the product through numerous modes of cracking available (all of us have experienced taking leaked papers at some point of time, isn’t it?). Thus, all the complications of the proprietary software market are directly inherited by our current examination system.

Now let’s consider the conduction of exams in the manner which i love – the Open Source way! For convenience, i consider the product (the exam paper of course!) released only under the GPL. In such a system, the end user (the student) would get the source code (text book) bundled with the final product (question paper)! More significantly, the student would get the freedoms entrusted upon the Open Source products – the freedom to modify the product according to his/her needs and then redistribute it! Imagine what an impact such a system would make! We would have the liberty of modifying the questions of the paper according to our level of preparation and interest! What more, we can even redistribute the modified paper to our friends for their use and of course, they can then modify it as per their needs! Even then, there will be no lack of community support for anyone taking the examination. This system will revolutionize the examination system for the examinees just like the Open Source philosophy has done to the software world.

So all you examinees, come on and propagate this idea. I can gurantee, taking exams in such a system will be real fun!