Our member Dr. Mandar Mitra from ISI, Kolkata has about 99 sets of Ubuntu CDs for distribution. He is busy at this moment, if you want to grab a copy send me your request at this address -> indradg (at) icbic (dot) com

I take the opportunity to introduce to you, Doctor Gustav Degreef who hails from Argentina and was educated and trained in the US. What binds us, is the fact that Dr. Gus as he likes to be called, is a Linux freak! just like most of us… The following paragraphs are a collection of Dr Gus\\\’ experiences with free software, and what I call, his tryst with freedom.

This is a short story of my expereiences with Linux. I installed my first copy of Linux (Suse 6.3) from a CD in a local magazine. I was intrigued and I followed the directions and installed it on the first try without any significant problems. I played with it for some time and experimented a lot with different distributions. Six months later I got another distribution (based on Red Hat) from a computer magazine CD and also installed it without much problems. Since then 90% of my computer/desktop needs are met by Linux. Read the rest of this entry »

ILUG-Cal is going to organise its November meeting in association with WBUT-LUG on Saturday, the 6th of November at West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata from 5 P.M. onwards. Get the program details now!

Agenda:
1. Formal Inauguration of WBUT-LUG, welcome address and speeches from guests (ILUG-Cal)
2. Archan Pal on The Use of Embedded Linux in Appliance Servers. Time permitting, we can also have J.P.Mathew demonstrating his ARM kit.
3. G. Karunakar on Localisation of Free Software in Indian Languages
4. Indranil Das Gupta on Localisation of Open Source Library Management Software - Koha speaks Bangla.
5. Sayamindu Dasgupta on Multimedia in Linux
6. Bof Session (Q/A, Open Forum) Read the rest of this entry »

Sumeet Madhukar Moghe recently installed Slackware 10 on his notebook, and was pretty impressed by the latest avatar of the venerable Slack. Here\’s what he has to say about the distro.

The following are the minutes of the ILUG-Cal meeting held on July 10, 2004 at the Seminar Hall of the Chemical Engineering department of Jadavpur University.

1. The meeting started a little after 10:30 A.M. First Indranil Das Gupta, the co-ordinator of the Kolkata LUG. introduced the LUG to the first time attendees and LUG newcomers.

2. The first demonstration of the meeting was done by Saugata Ghosh. He gave a brief but succint introduction to Access Control Lists (ACL) and their utility in networked systems where files are shared by a number of users. He showed the audience how to configure the kernel so that ACLs are supported, how to set-up ACLs and also gave a few resources including web sites for further information. (He promised to make his presentation available in .pdf and .sxw for download from the LUG site shortly). Read the rest of this entry »

The following are the minutes of the ILUG-Cal meeting held on July 10, 2004 at the Seminar Hall of the Chemical Engineering department of Jadavpur University.

1. The meeting started a little after 10:30 A.M. First Indranil Das Gupta, the co-ordinator of the Kolkata LUG. introduced the LUG to the first time attendees and LUG newcomers.

2. The first demonstration of the meeting was done by Saugata Ghosh. He gave a brief but succint introduction to Access Control Lists (ACL) and their utility in networked systems where files are shared by a number of users. He showed the audience how to configure the kernel so that ACLs are supported, how to set-up ACLs and also gave a few resources including web sites for further information. (He promised to make his presentation available in .pdf and .sxw for download from the LUG site shortly). Read the rest of this entry »

The Kolkata LUG will be having a meeting on the 10th of July, 2004 (Saturday) at Jadavpur University ( Conference Hall, 1st Floor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Main Building, ). A LCD projector has been arranged for - the agenda will be announced shortly. The meeting will start at 10:00 hrs (IST).

With the acquisition of SuSE and Ximian, Novell has a strong presence in the Open Source Market. With some strategic initiatives like the open sourcing of YAST and the Ximian connector, the company has also made an emphatic statement on its committment to the Open Source community. In this interview for the Indian GNU/Linux Users Group - Kolkata Chapter, Novell representative talk with Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay about the company and its vision.

SM: Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay (sankarshan (at) openoffice (dot) org)
NR: Novell Representative - Ashit Panjwani, National Manager - Alliance and Marketing

SM: Novell is firmly identified with ‘NetWare’, how does that tie-in with the strong business moves made in GNU/Linux ? Read the rest of this entry »

Dr Louis Suarez-Potts (louis at openoffice dot org) performs an important function as the Community Manager for OpenOffice. In an interview with Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay (sankarshan at bengalinux dot org) for the Indian GNU/Linux Users Group - Kolkata Chapter, he talks about his job as the Community Manager, localisation of OpenOffice, deployments of OpenOffice among other things.

LS-P: Dr Louis Suarez-Potts, Community Manager, OpenOffice
SM: Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay

SM: Tell us something about the things you do as the Community Manager.

LS-P: In some ways, my role is not unlike that of a CEO, viz., someone who sets overall strategy and tries to effect it. But I do not allocate resources, nor are my decrees those even of a benevolent dictator. In fact, I make no decrees–even the thought is risible. Read the rest of this entry »

Tony Healy, a research software engineer and policy researcher in Sydney, Australia has recently authored a 4 page report (hereafter termed as the Report) titled ”Has Open Source reached its limits?” for The Institute for Policy Innovation.

IPI,as the Report states is ‘a non-profit,non-partisan educational organization founded in 1987. IPI’s purposes are to conduct research, aid development, and widely promote innovative and non-partisan solutions to today’s public policy problems’.

In his Report, the author bases his conclusions on the following points:

[1] The numerous examples of Open Source deployments do not actually support the claims of success Read the rest of this entry »