Amachu

Free Software Media is an initiative to publish, promote & distribute, Free Software related text, audio and video contents across India, professionally. Inspired by the work of Network theory Ltd, We are pleased to announce this initiative with a similar objective for India.

To commence We are happy to bring out three selected Titles from Network Theory Ltd themselves, at reasonable prices for the Indian audience. And they are,

* An Introduction to GCC, by Brian J. Gough, foreword by Richard M. Stallman
* An Introduction to Python – The Python Tutorial, by Guido van Rossum and Fred L. Drake, Jr.
* Comparing and Merging Files with GNU diff and patch, by David MacKenzie, Paul Eggert, and Richard Stallman

Currently We support three modes of purchase,

Electronic Money Transfer or Money Transfer to our Bank Account
Demand Draft/ Cheque
Value Payable Post
Details of all modes of purchase can be found at our website http://fsm.co.in

We offer a portion of our profit to foundations that are related to each of the above mentioned titles or make use of it for appropriate Free Software related activity. Specific details can be found from each book’s page at http://fsm.co.in

We hope the Free Software Community of India, Students, Teachers and the General Public would be benefited immensely as a result of this initiative. We thank Network Theory Ltd for the support they extended towards this initiative.

So go & grab your copies, of the above mentioned titles, visiting http://fsm.co.in. You can also gift it to your dear ones studying Computer Science.

We aspire more. If you are a geek, who could write on Free Software related Titles and is willing to offer it for freely distributable publication, contact us. Would you like to see specific Title to come up related to Free Software, may it be Technical, Philosophical, Legal or in your Language, write to us. If you like to extend your co-operation to us, in other ways, express it through http://fsm.co.in/site/contact. Let us revive the spirit of sharing & sustaining.

And above all, help spreading the word across. Website: http://fsm.co.in

Dec 21, 2008. The IT Association of  Vellore(1), the fort City of Tamilnadu, had organized a day of ‘Ubuntu Dawn’ for its members and general public on at Hotel Aavana Inn, Vellore. More than forty people from Vellore, Aarani and other places of Vellore district got benefitted as a result of this event.

Different modes of Ubuntu installation, Package handling techniques, Tamil features in Ubuntu, Fonts installation, Installation of Windows based applications using Wine were among various topics covered at the event.

While the proprietary accounting application Tally got installed and ran successfully using Wine, it was suggested by Ubuntu Tamil Team that, as a first Step, the resellers and users of Tally Solutions, compel the Tally Corporation to provide them a debian installable also(1).

We expressed hope that alternatives are being looked at by the Community and soon a Free Software replacement would emerge for Tally. A handbook on Ubuntu Basics was also provided(2).

Siva and Sri Ramadoss from Ubuntu Tamil Team conducted the event. We thank Sairam, other office bearers and members of Vellore IT association for providing us with this oppurtunity. Photos will be shared soon..

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellore
(2) Ubuntu Tamil Team also requests, if you are an existing User of Tally, to compel Tally Solutions to provide a debian installable for its releases. You can write to support@tallysolutions.com. Website: http://www.tally.co.in/
(3) http://ubuntu-tam.org/avanam/nigazhchi/2008/dec/vellore/

Ubuntu at Udagai

Udagamandalam, Nov 28. Computer World of Udagamandalam (a.k.a Ooty), hosted Intrepid Ibex release event at Lawly Institute. Wide range of people ranging form School Teachers, Students, Computer Vendors, Government Officials tokk part in the event.

Variety of topics starting from different modes of Installing Ubuntu, Package Management, Administration, Tamil features were discussed and

Keen Participants

demonstrated.

Special Thanks to Terrance S Rajesh of Computer World for making arrangements for event despite heavy rains across the week. Sri Ramadoss & Padmanathan of Ubuntu Tamil Team conducted the event.

Tiruppur, Nov 22. The Textile Town of TamilNadu, Tiruppur witnessed Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex release by its IT Association – TITA. Members of Tiruppur IT Association were demonstrated Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex and its various features starting from Tamil Language support, Multimedia Capabilities, Office Suites, Package Management techniques, Wine etc.,

Ubuntu Tamil Team put forth the idea, that a one day Monthly Training program be organized for people who purchase computers through the Association Members, on Ubuntu by the Association itself. This will motivate people to switch over to Free Software with confidence.

Sri Ramadoss and Siva from Ubuntu Tamil Team conducted the event. The second day event explored the Ubuntu Server capabilities for the TITA members. More demand were made on the Server segment.

It was a memorable event and Special Thanks for Tiruppur IT Association for providing us this oppurtunity. Our heart felt gratitude to Mr. Ravichadran, President of IT association, Mr. Babu, Mr. Thiyagu, Mr. Senthil and others for backing and helping us in conducting this event.

Intrepid Introduced..

Ubuntu Tamil Team had its Intrepid Release Event on Nov 09 at Erode. Erode IT Association had made complete arrangements for the event. Myself and Padmanathan from Ubuntu Tamil Team took part and conducted event.

It was a day long event with the participants introduced hands on to Ubuntu, starting from Ubuntu Installation, Setting Tamil Features, Listening to Songs, Playing Videos, Repository and package Management, GNU/ Linux File Structure etc.,

Keen Participants..

Participants took part with great interest. We made use of Cutomised Tamil Version of Ubuntu for the event which received great response from the participants. Special Thanks to members of Erode IT Association, Raja, Balu, Srinivasan, Manohar, Mutharasu for organising this event in such a short span of time, immediately after we called for hosting such an event outside Chennai, the Capital of TamilNadu.

Erode IT association has announced a Ubuntu Competition for participants to keep the momemtum going! This has paved way for more events, the details of which will be furnished soon

Document prepared for this event can be had from: http://ubuntu-tam.org/avanam/nigazhchi/2008/nov/erode/

Heart felt thanks for Erode IT Association for Organising this event

A book on Free Software Philosophy containing selected essays of Richard M. Stallman is being released in Tamil, as part of Software Freedom Day Celebrations, 2008.

The book will be released as part of following events:

1) Software Freedom Day Celebrations – 2008
Jaya Engineering College,
Thirunindravur,
Chennai.

Date: 20 Sep 08
Time: 9.30 AM

Contact Person: Sivaji – +91 99415 71690
URL: http://jayafossclub.org/

2) Freedom & Software Meeting
Russian Cultural Center
27 Kasturi Ranga Road, (near Cathedral Road)
Chennai-600018

Date: 21 Sep 2008
Time: 4.00 PM

Contact Person: N Balaji – +91 98407 87427
URL: http://www.freedomandsoftware.info/

You are cordially invited to attend the event(s) and pass on this message. Lets make it a memorable one.

PS: You can also help organizing a release party at your place with GNU/ Linux enthusiasts around. For more details mail us separately.

Related Link: http://kanimozhi.org.in/kanimozhi/?p=74
–
Amachu

Free Software - Richard M Stallman - Tamil

I hope this book will aid the efforts to convince Tamil Nadu to follow the path of Kerala: to migrate the public schools to free software. – Richard M Stallman, Sep 11, 2008

Where, When and How? Just wait the info is on its way

Ubuntu Kaippidi Thozhargal has been successfully put into practice from now on. We launched the scheme two months ago calling for volunteers who could hand over Ubuntu CDs in their cities/ town/ village if there is a demand.

Seven people have volunteered so far and we have sent packed set of Ubuntu/ Kubuntu/ Edubuntu/ Xubuntu CDs to them. If you reside near the localities of any of these people and want to get Ubuntu/ Kubuntu… Cds then please feel free to mail them. They will be pleased to share Ubuntu with Love!

We would love to see more volunteers enrolling into this scheme so that the CDs could be made available across Tamil Nadu anytime with ease.

Thangamani Arun, Team Contact of Ubuntu Tamil Team, took the responsibilty of the excecuting this scheme.

Prof. Deepak Phatak, IIT Mumbai sharing all he faced for taking a stance against OOXML at his blog: http://deepakphatak.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-is.html

Words of courage and encouragement.

We had a pleasant memorable time with Ubuntu Enthusiasts (eight of us) who turned out at Hotel Woodlands, TTK Road yesterday evening.

Shortly,

1) We launched the Ubuntu Kaippidi Thozhar Scheme. Dakshinamoorthy from
Virugambakkam was the first one.

2) We donated 10$ each to Drupal association & Wikimedia Foundation. (We use
both these tools in our Web-site http://ubuntu-tam.org)

3) Shared Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron CDs with Participants

4) Discussed a variety of Subjects. Approach FOSS community has to adopt to take Free Software to masses, Need for development of indigenous Softwares and common topics were also part of the discussion.

This entry also marks the entry of Ubuntu Tamil Team into its third year. So far we have been primarily focussing on Translations (Both GNOME & KDE), advocacy etc., its time that we have to start reaching out to some useful contributions in development as well..

Other related links:

Blog by Srinivasan: http://goinggnu.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/party-with-ubuntu/

Photos by Srinivsan: http://picasaweb.google.com/tshrinivasan/UbuntuParty

The photos in this post are taken by Badri. Thanks to him.