tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-341974552024-03-21T19:26:43.919+05:00the maldivian linux bloga dream, a possible reality. "Freedom"chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-17157348046202172822010-02-10T01:41:00.001+05:002010-02-10T01:42:59.951+05:00Thaana Fonts Package for Linux (.deb)<i>Vishaah shared the file is mailing list. </i><br />
<br />
The package installs the following fonts:
<blockquote>
9603ran.ttf<br />
Aafrasmy.ttf<br />
Aafthedu.ttf<br />
Aahthedu.ttf<br />
Afk2p.ttf<br />
Akko.ttf<br />
Akurub.ttf<br />
Amufk2.ttf<br />
Athiri01.ttf<br />
Athiri02.ttf<br />
Athiri03.ttf<br />
Athiri.ttf<br />
Bismi.ttf<br />
faruma.ttf<br />
Faseyha.ttf<br />
Faseyp.ttf<br />
Ilham.ttf<br />
mvboli.ttf<br />
Mv Elaaf Formal.ttf<br />
Mv Elaaf Lite.otf.ttf<br />
Mv Elaaf Normal.otf.ttf<br />
Mv Iyyu Formal.ttf<br />
Mv Iyyu Nala.ttf<br />
Mv Iyyu Normal.otf.ttf<br />
Mv Radhun.ttf<br />
Raadha.ttf<br />
Radafala.ttf<br />
Radhafp.ttf<br />
Radhap.ttf<br />
Randhoo.ttf<br />
Randp.ttf<br />
Thaana.ttf<br />
Thanabuw.ttf<br />
Utheemp.ttf<br />
Utheem.ttf<br />
Waheedp.ttf<br />
Waheed.ttf</blockquote><br />
Download: <a href="http://mlugmv.googlegroups.com/web/dv-mv-fonts_1.0-1_i386.deb">dv-mv-fonts_1.0-1_i386.deb</a>Harishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835108839700803709noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-53856081343419706902010-02-10T01:31:00.001+05:002010-02-10T01:36:42.558+05:00MOSS Monthly - Your Monthly FLOSS MagazineThere is a growing community of FLOSS. MOSS decided to publish a monthly magazine for FLOSS Community. 2 Issues are already out.<br />
<br />
MOSS Monthly Issue #2<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://moss.org.mv/images/mag-201002_100x141.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://moss.org.mv/images/mag-201002_100x141.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Download: <a href="http://moss.org.mv/downloads/moss-mag_2010.02.pdf">http://moss.org.mv/downloads/moss-mag_2010.02.pdf</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">MOSS Monthly Issue #1</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
<a href="http://moss.org.mv/images/mag-201001_100x141.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://moss.org.mv/images/mag-201001_100x141.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Download: <a href="http://moss.org.mv/downloads/moss-mag_2010.01.pdf">http://moss.org.mv/downloads/moss-mag_2010.01.pdf</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To contribute, Submit your articles to magazine@moss.org.mv before 31st of each month. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">#Important Links:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://moss.org.mv/Front">MOSS</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/mlugmv/">Forum (Mailing List)</a></div>Harishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835108839700803709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-67839492585187451822009-05-22T22:03:00.005+06:002009-05-22T22:23:13.926+06:00Translating into Dhivehi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZMkNjCh1KgHfkm1qbp8LcZ-EtdJfzPSYT0lS428_Mdb-ZQKZebAIWORRK90vgXzcGfBy_Y30aPSD44MY1kmoUkThBCdEy2_VaQ5NmuF2YLLGztkDr_u5OFgmxX_tLhDauCj3cQ/s1600-h/screenshot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZMkNjCh1KgHfkm1qbp8LcZ-EtdJfzPSYT0lS428_Mdb-ZQKZebAIWORRK90vgXzcGfBy_Y30aPSD44MY1kmoUkThBCdEy2_VaQ5NmuF2YLLGztkDr_u5OFgmxX_tLhDauCj3cQ/s320/screenshot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338682343896838802" border="0" /></a><br />The work on <a href="https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+lang/dv">Ubuntu Dhivehi Translation</a> recently have picked up speed with new members joining in the team and contributing.<br /><br />We request all individuals who are willing to contribute to join us in helping with the translations. You can join the team by clicking <a href="https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+lang/dv">here</a> and registering yourself as part of the team.<br /><br />You would be able to get more help and participate in the discussions <a href="http://groups.google.mv/group/divtranslators?hl=en">here</a>.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-62550537651532939382008-08-16T13:56:00.003+06:002008-08-16T14:33:51.226+06:00Neo FreeRunner<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7_bxefzvqgCznWgaOqz6OSv7G7S6iFF1dcVv3t5H4QpZK_3RcKmeJK17-4mdCeZLN9TU3bMtFEfu7lLxwaN03CaCmGH9RCI0WAfaaF19tbWYWbl_BGvD7jLiCIepe9X-fcG3sw/s1600-h/200px-Freerunner02.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7_bxefzvqgCznWgaOqz6OSv7G7S6iFF1dcVv3t5H4QpZK_3RcKmeJK17-4mdCeZLN9TU3bMtFEfu7lLxwaN03CaCmGH9RCI0WAfaaF19tbWYWbl_BGvD7jLiCIepe9X-fcG3sw/s400/200px-Freerunner02.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235030867876845490" border="0" /></a><br />Windows mobiles, OS X on Apple iPhone; what about Linux? Maybe not even close to the others, but it's here on the mobile handset arena too. It's been around for a while and been talked a lot, however it's not done as good as the rest of the OS's for mobiles. One reason for this maybe that Linux is a platform for open source developers and a "platform" has been missing for most of the community based developers. Motorola has Linux based phones; Google is leading on the <a href="http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html">Android</a> platform. Many others like Access Linux Platform, OpenZaurus and Qtopia are all examples of Linux based mobile OS's.<br /><br />The good news now is we have an open source mobile phone, the "<a href="http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware">Neo FreeRunner</a>" (The previous version was the Neo 1973), the phone runs Openmoko Linux which is I guess Debian based like Ubuntu is. So what difference does it make? "Freedom"! now developers can freely modify and develop the as they please ( ability to modify the operating system and software stack). This is in no way yet the replacement for iPhones or your avrage Nokia Nseries phones. It's assumed that most of the users of the Neo FreeRunner will be hardcore hackers who want to explore and experiment. There can be good commercial applications as well, as it's an open platform but this is yet to be explored. One area which I would really wanna go into this is to implement a "Thaana" based phone. This might be the ideal platform for it. Linux supports Thaana and with some effort I am sure it will be easy to implement a Thaana based GUI into the phone. Not that I want to be the one who is assigned with the task; but it's a good challage for those of you out there who are willing to give it a try.<br /><br />Other such platforms besides Neo include TuxPhone and the Greenphone.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-91815810152131330432008-07-27T08:02:00.002+06:002008-07-27T08:06:48.077+06:00Google gadgets for linux<a id="Project_Description">Google Gadgets for Linux provides a platform for running desktop gadgets under Linux, catering to the unique needs of Linux users. We are compatible with the gadgets written for </a><a href="http://desktop.google.com/" rel="nofollow">Google Desktop</a> for Windows as well as the Universal Gadgets on <a href="http://www.google.com/ig" rel="nofollow">iGoogle</a>. Following Linux norms, this project is open-sourced under the Apache License. <p>An important area where <a href="http://desktop.google.com/linux" rel="nofollow">Google Desktop for Linux</a> is different from its siblings on other operating systems is support for gadgets. Now, the Linux version of Google Gadgets will extend the gadgets platform to Linux users. By enabling cross-platform gadgets, a large library of existing gadgets are immediately available to Linux users. In addition, gadget developers will benefit from a much larger potential user base without having to learn a new API. </p><p>There's two main components to the application: one is a common gadget library responsible for running and presenting a gadget, and the other is a host program that allows the user to choose gadgets and run them on the desktop. Currently we have hosts written for GTK+ and QT, with the GTK+ host offering a sidebar similar to that of Google Desktop for Windows.<br /></p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLndm1zcqXVO8A_7XvJ8kReM6BtGKzJx4YqtVcfZwEjJAvFT0nxwiIRF_kgEgGMmmGxQBB_Zl7CZr3lQM930hdDHuejGNcudDYTGD9rmcZw8VHnWdGz06aKcjEaJaUkZZrEl6/s1600-h/ggl-standalone.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLndm1zcqXVO8A_7XvJ8kReM6BtGKzJx4YqtVcfZwEjJAvFT0nxwiIRF_kgEgGMmmGxQBB_Zl7CZr3lQM930hdDHuejGNcudDYTGD9rmcZw8VHnWdGz06aKcjEaJaUkZZrEl6/s320/ggl-standalone.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227508895828207874" border="0" /></a></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Download</span></p><p>http://sharedzilla.com/en/get?id=177785<br /></p>Harishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835108839700803709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-73760350820027535312008-07-27T02:59:00.003+06:002008-07-27T03:58:23.737+06:00VyattaRouters is becoming as much part of our networks as switches and other networking equipments. Often we find network administrators seeking total solutions to provide inter connectivity, security and scalability. Often the choice is over-priced, inflexible products from proprietary vendors. End result being that even the total cost of ownership of these hardware is not justified. Here we are referring to solutions ranging from internet security to basic routing and everything in between.<br /><br />Its funny when you know you can cut down on the costing by 50% to 80% with alternative solutions. Namely linux based solutions. However the best part is only a few would choose such a path. I don't have an answer to why so, maybe again it's FUD... anyway solutions such as <a href="http://www.vyatta.com/">Vyatta</a> is amazing products, which can save you so much on costs and gives you a strong flexibility.<br /><br />Vyatta is a debian based Linux distribution which is designed/specialized with networking applications and management interfaces for those applications. Today often we see Linux based solutions implemented to manage our internet gateways, etc at our homes and offices. These setups are deployed using the conventinal linux routing/firewalling tools. Vyatta steps a bit ahead of the conventinal Linux distributions and specilized to be a router/firewall/VPN with a special command line interface like the cisco IOS specilized for the funcationality. Anyone who is familier with cisco IOS will easily be able to pick on this interface and deploy networks easily.<br /><br />Vyatta comes with a live CD which you can boot and easily install on to a machine. Its got specilized CLI which can easily let you configure the machine as a router/firewall or a VPN server. To cut it short; if you are looking into implementing a cisco based solution, before you decide on a solution vyatta will be an ideal solution to look for as an alternative. This is very much applicable if you are on a tight budget.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-91211345517669760452008-07-03T00:30:00.002+06:002008-07-03T00:53:51.826+06:00LocalizationIts always been a dream to have a full working OS/GUI which is localized for us. Many times a lot of people challenged that on me, stating that this was no use. Maybe so, my whole point was getting it done, so I did not care much about those comments. It was not that I was looking to sell that work or create a business case out of it, so who cares. I don't know for what reason maybe the kick of doing it; what ever. With this I did some work till end of 2006. Always the work was slow due to various reasons; now the main factor being I am too occupied with other work and party have lost interest.<br /><br />The whole point of this post is to get the interest back to people who might want to start off with something alike. Maybe guys who have the same kind of interest as me and others. Thaana fonts are already working for most OS's and web browsers. We can word process, make web sites, etc.. but should this be the end of it? I think not. We should move on and do more.<br /><br />Linux is one good platform for this; the open nature of Linux enables us to implement these features in the OS easily. Bangladesh recently launched their version of Ubuntu; why can't we? I don't see a reason why it can't be done.<br /><br />Few things to think about and do are.. implementing the locale on Linux; this is easy job; partly I have done some <a href="http://chopey.blogspot.com/2006/05/first-locale-test.html">work</a> as well.. here is the link on <a href="http://www.mlug.mv/downloads/dv_MV.txt">mlug</a>. Then comes the translation projects, which again is easy; but need a good translation team. So far the most successful projects on localization been the <a href="http://dv.wikipedia.org/">wikipedia</a> project (even thought its a web based project its a great job by the team who is involved).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.flickr.com/55/149798935_4bdd11feb2_o.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://static.flickr.com/55/149798935_4bdd11feb2_o.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I hope some people will restart work on localization for Linux.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-10287062188919837322008-06-28T23:56:00.004+06:002008-06-29T00:03:34.305+06:00Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v1.0.4-39<div align="left">Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v1.0.4-39 for Linux<br /><p> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Zhb5FRyTXio5B2wVmUaZ2ModxWZPPXNivYUK3shz1CkTkOi5fc6FwxtaOBFn8n-5NCvkDu8BMTNPmAyhpbLlbXA6LtlXH-4Npny-K-26Q-JnyKAIL-gbtc-CFsZkcGkaXmDN/s1600-h/1214347696_symantec_antivirus_016.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Zhb5FRyTXio5B2wVmUaZ2ModxWZPPXNivYUK3shz1CkTkOi5fc6FwxtaOBFn8n-5NCvkDu8BMTNPmAyhpbLlbXA6LtlXH-4Npny-K-26Q-JnyKAIL-gbtc-CFsZkcGkaXmDN/s320/1214347696_symantec_antivirus_016.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216993584217183474" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> Symantec AntiVirus combines industry-leading, real-time malware protection for desktops and servers with graphical web-based reporting, centralized management and administration capabilities. For next generation antivirus protection, which combines Symantec AntiVirus with advanced threat prevention to protect endpoints from even the most sophisticated attacks. </p> <p><strong>Key Features</strong><br /><br /> - Advanced, enterprise-wide virus protection and monitoring from a single management console.<br /><br /> - Integrated Web-based graphical reporting.<br /><br /> - Support for Symantec AntiVirus Client on Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.</p><p><br /></p><p> <strong>Download from Rapidshare</strong><br /><br /> http://rapidshare.com/files/124914328/SYMAV10439Lnx.rar.html</p><p><br /><br /> <strong>Download from Depositfiles</strong><br /><br /> http://depositfiles.com/files/6201463</p><br /></div>Harishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835108839700803709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-9386957361071789592008-05-03T22:53:00.003+05:002008-05-03T23:03:21.813+05:00Ubuntu<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBUQolv11LS-lKuBrJvypZoIsx69ETYZZKkhxzWfvFAZ09V_XuvohzIe5hg3sTG8sDuGqiMaNW2orhnKIQII3TnvDzOCU0zvG-RKn9pEXLMnDy8EkhXk434afXKg1mYIqj9J68AQ/s1600-h/Screenshot.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBUQolv11LS-lKuBrJvypZoIsx69ETYZZKkhxzWfvFAZ09V_XuvohzIe5hg3sTG8sDuGqiMaNW2orhnKIQII3TnvDzOCU0zvG-RKn9pEXLMnDy8EkhXk434afXKg1mYIqj9J68AQ/s400/Screenshot.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196213149902446146" border="0" /></a><br />I've been trying the new Ubuntu 8.04 for the last few days; I can say that this is the best Linux distribution thus far for desktops that I have used. Everything seems to work as it should and its damn good and stable.<br /><br />If you are one of those guys; who tried Linux a few years and thought it was not ready for the desktop; then I strongly suggest you try this one. One of the key advantages is that you can even install it over your existing windows partition. Try it out; if you like it; get rid of Windows, I know a few who have already done so. :)chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-7119753102093659382008-01-06T00:44:00.001+05:002008-01-06T01:00:28.770+05:00Asus Eee PC<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/10/10-25-07-asuseeepc.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/10/10-25-07-asuseeepc.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><blockquote>Asus teamed up with Xandros to develop a customized version of the Linux operating system for the new Eee PC, running KDE environment. Microsoft Windows requires a significant amount of storage space on the tiny 4GB SSD, and the added cost from installing genuine Windows would have added to the final retail price of the Eee PC. Xandros developed a point-and-click user interface that looks and acts similar to Windows … but easier.</blockquote><br /><br />Besides the Fact that the notebook runs on Linux; its small, nice and best of all damn cheap. The Eee PC can be had for as little as $299. <br /><br /><blockquote>At its core, Asustek makes motherboards -- more than any other company. Asustek motherboards are the heart of Sony's PlayStation 2 consoles, Apple MacBooks, Alienware PCs, and some HP computers.</blockquote><br /><br />To read a full review click <a href="http://linux.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/review-asus-eee-pc-701-4g/">here</a><br /><br />This is a fine example of adoption and acceptance of the Linux OS and the desktop into the consumer markets. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tFLJJw6WRqM&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tFLJJw6WRqM&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />Note: Its already out in the market now; get it :) From ebay the price is about $250.00 to $420.00chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-75795716656314193172007-11-24T08:09:00.000+05:002007-11-24T09:32:20.093+05:00One laptop per child<a href="http://laptop.org/en/index.shtml">One laptop per child</a> is an ongoing project which like the name says is aimed at providing a laptop per child, mostly focusing in the underdeveloped or developing nations. The project has been on for around almost 2 years now, and the final prototype is out and ready to be shipped. Each of these laptops costs around USD $100. They don't sell individual units, but rather its sold in bulk quantities to the governments or other originations. Already a few countries have lined up for the initial order.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMao4-5kiCqBfHBnSFRumb1QMFPW8V-Cl5h5SGnEgJpQLoUvlI_wm8MNdcHXd_0ORTaKRU4q3imyTTXmrgH3AmnfA7HWxZDwZ32NC_oEo6j3u5GNPn5P5szaLgcy5bG_8dcsbO9A/s1600-h/n639711262_436478_1169.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMao4-5kiCqBfHBnSFRumb1QMFPW8V-Cl5h5SGnEgJpQLoUvlI_wm8MNdcHXd_0ORTaKRU4q3imyTTXmrgH3AmnfA7HWxZDwZ32NC_oEo6j3u5GNPn5P5szaLgcy5bG_8dcsbO9A/s200/n639711262_436478_1169.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136247102422862034" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOL5Xine3lAT_VZyC2WqZC8rLk_4CalIaH-Z4oGrRzKufNomNXb6B5EQstGPqyUiqWr7QUdq6eOfFwlvfWdQSZDdJTYUX1o_1xg5uO61OSlHSaIw9gWCKQJyBQd2K0qdmKDVozQ/s1600-h/n639711262_436479_1453.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOL5Xine3lAT_VZyC2WqZC8rLk_4CalIaH-Z4oGrRzKufNomNXb6B5EQstGPqyUiqWr7QUdq6eOfFwlvfWdQSZDdJTYUX1o_1xg5uO61OSlHSaIw9gWCKQJyBQd2K0qdmKDVozQ/s200/n639711262_436479_1453.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136241583389886658" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />A few days back I was able to meet up with one party who have been contracted for the distribution of these laptops based in Hong Kong. Fortunately they have agreed that they are willing to accept smaller orders based on some conditions, like considering the population of our small country. All we need to do is raise the funds for these laptops.<br /><blockquote>The laptop helps children build upon their active interest in the world around them to engage with powerful ideas. Tools for writing, composing, simulating, expressing, constructing, designing, modeling, imagining, creating, critiquing, debugging, and collaborating enable children to become positive, contributing members of their communities.</blockquote>How? Ok, lets start small. If we take an atoll like Felidhu Atoll (V), from the Population and Housing Census of Maldives 2006; it shows that they have around 334 children between the age of 6 and 14. This is a small amount, if we multiply this by lets say 100 (avg unit cost) plus 40 (extra for shipping, etc) its close to 47,000 USD. This is not a big amount when you think about what benefits it will bring. With this amount we should be able to provide a laptop per each child between the age of 6 and 14 in that atoll. Its a start.<br /><br />Next big question is who will raise or provide the funding. Frankly I don't know, but one suggestion is we can approach the local cooperates, get them to sponsor some amount. Providing $5000 for major companies in the Maldives will not be a big problem. This is where help is needed. I don't know how many of you might be interested in such a project, but it will be great if some people will be willing to participate in this and make this a reality.<br /><br />Anyone willing to participate?chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-13225171283867333032007-06-23T21:07:00.000+05:002007-06-23T21:14:13.090+05:00Web OSRecently there have been a bit of a hype on so called "Web OSes". Its kinda joke, when people ask me about them. I mean how can they even consider a web application an OS? Maybe you might call it a virtual desktop. That might be a better term. I don't need to explain more, the definition of an OS is below(from wikipedia).<br /><blockquote>An <b>operating system</b> (<b>OS</b>) is a set of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programs" title="Computer programs">computer programs</a> that manage the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_hardware" title="Computer hardware">hardware</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software" title="Software">software</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_%28computer_science%29" title="Resource (computer science)">resources</a> of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer" title="Computer">computer</a>. An operating system processes raw system and user input and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the system. At the foundation of all system software, an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_%28computers%29" title="Memory (computers)">memory</a>, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_networking" title="Computer networking">networking</a> and managing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system" title="File system">file systems</a>.</blockquote>Do I still need to say more?chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-33615771616011970872007-05-12T13:08:00.000+05:002007-05-12T14:01:01.385+05:00Maldives and FLOSSBack to the topic of application of FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) in the country. To start off its worth to note the lack of awareness of OSS (Open Source Software) and its benefits, specially at the grass root level. Its worth to note the following point that of all the countries in South Asia except Maldives, Open Source has been applied in the field of education.<br /><br />Unlike the neighbors and most countries, the Government of Maldives neither seem to have any policy on Open Source nor any government backed projects are running on Open Source. If we look at our neighbors the case is very different. Example; The federal Government of Pakistan has allocated a budget of US$ 1 million for Linux development and US$ 3 million for other open source projects. The Ministry of Science & Technology under Technology Resource Mobilisation (TReMU) has formed the Task Force for Linux for outlining strategies, seminars and planning with regard to Linux [<a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.trmu.gov.pk">www.trmu.gov.pk</a>].<br /><br />Moving on closer, Volunteers from Lankan Linux User Group (Lk-LUG), Lanka Software Foundation (LSF), Virtusa, ICTA and other organisations working on Open Source like Eurocentre, hSenid etc. launched an open source disaster management system, ‘Sahana’ (meaning peace or calm in Sinhalese). The system has been implemented and authorized by Centre for National Operations (CNO) of Government of Sri Lanka to help relief work in Tsunami affected areas. I've personally worked along with companies like hSenid and they are developing and exporting solutions based on OSS implementations. The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka is the single apex body involved in ICT policy and direction for the nation. It is wholly owned by the Government of Sri Lanka. ICTA recognises Open Source and is a strong supporter in the development of FLOSS in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been a strong contributor to OSS projects like the Apache Project.<br /><br />The Indian Government doesn’t rule out the use of proprietary software in favour of open source software. However, there are government agencies like Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), National Informatics Centre (NIC) and other Indian states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal etc. who are extensively using and advocate the use of open source. Back in 2002, the Government of India has announced that all government tenders would stop specifying Microsoft or any other vendor's name, while floating software tenders. Thus this will open ways for Linux vendors. It plans to set up special interest groups, which will include people from academia, and industry, which will explore means to deploy Linux in e-Governance, defense and education.<br /><br />The policies Maldives has on OSS are unknown and doubt if there would be any , ever. I guess we cannot blame the government for this. An initiative has to be taken at an individual level first and moved on. So far the Maldives doesn’t seem to be undergoing any major open source movement except for the existence of the Maldives Linux user Group (MLUG). This too is mostly or totally inactive. There is no official recognition of the organization nor an effort has been made to make it official. The reason maybe the lack of interest.<br /><br />Reference <a href="http://www.csdms.in/csdms/pdf/FLOSS_draft_rpt.pdf">http://www.csdms.in/csdms/pdf/FLOSS_draft_rpt.pdf</a>chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-60974032976721529532007-05-12T10:36:00.000+05:002007-05-12T10:54:46.236+05:00Linux and MoviesIn the recent times, Linux has dominated the movie making industry, with moves such as Titanic, Blade, Star Wars, Final Fantasy, XXX, Harry Potter , Load of the Rings , Shrek and many more high profile movies. Studios such as Disney, Pixar , Sony Pictures, Dream Works and ILM has been known to widely use Linux in there productions.<br /><blockquote>Linux is the most popular operating system for big budget feature film animation and visual effects, with more than 95% of the servers and desktops at large animation and visual effects companies. People outside the film industry, and even inside the industry sometimes, don't realize that Linux is so big at large studios. Linux is the norm in Hollywood and considered the state-of-the-art. In this upside-down world where Windows and Mac are minority operating systems, Linux evangelists would be hard-pressed to find anyone left to convert. The free operating system built by the people for the people has been embraced foremost by film studios. -<span style="font-size:78%;"><i><span><i><span style=""><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Robin Rowe</span></i></span></i></span></blockquote><br />Here is a useful list of Free and commercial related tools for Linux<br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.ati.com/products/workstation.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >ATI</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - workstation graphics drivers and GPU</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/baselight.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Baselight</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - grading and finishing</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.2d3.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Boujou</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - matchmove</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.nucoda.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Conform</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - editing system</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.davsys.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >DaVinci Revival</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - color correction</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://software.franticfilms.com/index.aspx?page=deadline"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Deadline</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www4.discreet.com/flint/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Flint</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - visual effects</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.iridas.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >FrameCycler</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - playback</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://film.nvidia.com/page/gelato.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Gelato</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.sidefx.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Houdini</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - animation and compositing</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.aliaswavefront.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Maya</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - animation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.massivesoftware.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Massive</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - crowd simulation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.mentalimages.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Mental Ray</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.mokey.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Mokey</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - stabilization</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.mokey.com/products/monet/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Monet</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - motion tracking</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.d2software.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >NUKE</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - compositing</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadrofx.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >NVIDIA</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - workstation graphics drivers and GPU</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.idruna.com/photogenicshdr.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Photogenics</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - HDR painting and retouching</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.ifx.com/pages/products.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Piranha</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - editing system</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.platform.com/products/LSF/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Platform LSF</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.pipelinefx.com/prod-qube.info.php"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >qube!</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.spectsoft.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >RaveHD</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - DDR playback and HD conversion</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.nextlimit.com/realflow/index.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >RealFlow</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - water modeling</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.realsoft.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >RealSoft</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - 3D modeling, animation and 3D paint</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="https://renderman.pixar.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >RenderMan</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://seriss.com/rush/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Rush</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.heuris.com/hollywood/AboutRushplay.htm"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >RushPlay</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - digital dailies</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.apple.com/shake/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Shake</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - compositing</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.softimage.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >SoftImage</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - animation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.discreet.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Smoke</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - editing system</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.iridas.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >SpeedGrade</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - color correction</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.2d3.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >SteadyMove</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - stabilization</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.usanimation.com/main/index.php?phpLang=en"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >US Animation</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - cel animation</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Animation Software and Modelers</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.anitmt.de/index.shtml"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >AniTMT</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - animation with POV-Ray</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.blender.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Blender</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - modeler</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Celestia</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - spaceflight simulation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://fl-inventor.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >FL-Inventor</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - 3d toolkit</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.reptilelabour.com/software/flow/index.htm"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >flow</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - particle animation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.tweakfilms.com/main/gto.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >GTO</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - geometric data format and Maya plug-in</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://k3d.sourceforge.net/new/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >K-3D</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - animation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.kpovmodeler.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >KPovModeler</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - modeler for POV-ray</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://libgloop.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >libGLOOP</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - particle simulation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.dedalo-3d.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >MakeHuman</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - humanoid animation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://moonlight3d.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Moonlight3d</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - modeler</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.povray.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >POV-Ray</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > and <a href="http://megapov.inetart.net/">MegaPOV</a> - modelers</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://terraform.sourceforge.net/index.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >TerraForm</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - terrain simulation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://truevision.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >TrueVision</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - POV-ray modeler</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.tml.hut.fi/%7Etilmonen/vee/home.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >VEE</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - particle animation</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.wings3d.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Wings3d</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - modeler</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Audio Software</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://ardour.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Ardour</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - multitrack recording/editing</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Audacity</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - audio editor</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.ladspa.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >LADSPA</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - audio plug-ins</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://sweep.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Sweep</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - audio editor</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Cluster Software</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >OpenMOSIX</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - cluster</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://povmosix.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >povMOSIX</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - POV-Ray on OpenMOSIX</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Editors</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://celtx.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Celtx</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - Screenplay (text) editor</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://cuisine.bigasterisk.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Cuisine</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - DV NLE (Development abandoned due to employer)</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.kinodv.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Kino</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - DV editor (A really simple editor based on the vi interface keystrokes)</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://users.pandora.be/acp/shotcut/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Shotcut</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - DV NLE (A new FLTK-based editor)</span> </li></ul> <p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Sometimes people are looking for Linux and open source, but other times people are just looking for free. A nice free editor for Windows/Mac is <a href="http://www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp">Avid Free DV</a>.</span></p> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Linux Distros for Multimedia</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://64studio.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >64 Studio</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>-based distro</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.grafpup.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >GrafPup</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - <a href="http://www.puppylinux.org/">Puppy</a>-based distro</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Movie Playback</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.cinepaint.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >CinePaint</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - flipbook</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Mplayer</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - AVI, Quicktime, MPEG</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >VPC Movie Player</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - AVI, Quicktime, MPEG</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://xanim.polter.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Xanim</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - Quicktime</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://xinehq.de/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Xine</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - AVI, Quicktime, MPEG, DVD</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Paint/Retouching</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.cinepaint.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >CinePaint</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - painting and retouching</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.graphicsmagick.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >GraphicsMagick</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - batch image conversion</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://imagemagick.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >ImageMagick</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - batch image conversion</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Renderers</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.3delight.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >3D Delight</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - Renderman-compatible renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.aqsis.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Aqsis</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer</span> </li><li><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >BMRT - removed as part of legal settlement with Pixar</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://telgarsky.com/matusacode/cug.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Cug</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - equation renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.pawfal.org/Software/fluxus/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >fluxus</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - animation from sound</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/%7Eokan/Pixie/pixie.htm"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Pixie</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - RenderMan compliant renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Radiance</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://surf.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Surf</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - equation renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.yafray.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >YafRay</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://zrcube.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >zRcube</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - renderer for POV-Ray</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Render Queues</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/bwr"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >BlenderWebRender</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - tiny Perl render manager</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Condor</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.drqueue.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >DrQueue</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - C-based render queue with Python</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >g4u</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - network hard disk cloner (uses NetBSD)</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.imp.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >ImpFarm</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - small Perl render queue for POV-Ray</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://supercluster.org/maui/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Maui</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.openpbs.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >OpenPBS</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.platform.com/products/Rocks/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Platform Rocks</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://gridengine.sunsource.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Sun Grid Engine</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://superconductor.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >SuperConductor</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - small Qt/C++ render queue</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.clusterresources.com/products/torque/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Torque</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - render queue</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Shader and GPU Tools</span></h4> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/brookgpu/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >BrookGPU</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - GPU compiler</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://developer.nvidia.com/page/cg_main.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Cg</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - NVIDIA GPU compiler</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://libsh.org/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Sh</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - shader language</span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://shrimp.sourceforge.net/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Shrimp</span></a></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" > - shader writer</span> </li></ul> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Free Titler</span></h4> <p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >There's nothing comparable to Apple Motion that's free. Here's a simple Python program called <a href="http://bigast.com/post/reeltitles">ReelTitles</a>.</span></p> <h4><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Odd Free Tools</span></h4> <p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Often recommended by those who've heard of them but never used them personally, people enthusiastic for these tools aren't working at studios.</span></p> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://linuxmovies.org/odd.software.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Cinelerra - Quicktime NLE</span></a></span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://linuxmovies.org/odd.software.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >GIMP - 8-bit paint</span></a></span> </li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://linuxmovies.org/odd.software.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;" >Jahshaka - Compositor</span></a></span> </li></ul>Source <a href="http://linuxmovies.org/">http://linuxmovies.org/<br /></a>chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-66966507285637943552007-05-11T22:29:00.000+05:002007-05-11T23:36:47.523+05:00Internet Kiosk to e-GovernmentSurely its not the future of Maldivian ICT. I don't know why NCIT thinks that Kiosks will be or should be something very important. Even if we decide that the need for information access is urgent and important, then ministries like Min. of Information should be the party who should be taking interest in these Kiosks not NCIT. Its another story about the infrastructures which will be provided for such projects. Anyway whats the big deal about these Internet Kiosks? I have no idea at all. Most Maldivians today now have the access to internet, and soon almost everyone will have it. The GSM networks and other telecommunication infrastructures already has made this a reality. This is one area where Linux has proved itself here in the Maldives. We could today proudly say the Maldivian Internet domain is powered by Linux (Thanks to a few open minded individuals).<br /><br />The e-Government project mainly talks about portals and connectivity. The questions which should be asked might include, the cost factors, being future proof, security and alike. There is so much things to be considered when it comes to building such a huge network. Laying the cables is just 2% of the work. Having a physical medium and border routers does not get anything solved. I guess very important factors will be things like storage management, application frameworks and redundancy. How will the so called portals be hosted, and what will be the platforms. Will they be outdated in 2 years after implementation? How much will they cost? How secure are they? These are all questions that pops up to ones mind. What about the hardware, the processing powers? Will we need to purchase new servers, etc every year? Is there proper planing done on them? Or just the latest trends have been followed without thinking into the future and cost factors? There is so many questions and most will be answered with experience and knowledge. Other important issues like once we setup the hardware infrastructures what about the software or the applications? Who will develop them? What will be the costs, etc. My obvious guess is an external party will be given the contract for developments. Huge amounts of money will be dumped into these developments. Anyhow it will be interesting to watch how these projects progress and the end results. My obvious guess is, we should not try and reinvent the wheel. Meaning we would not be the first country who would be implementing such a solution in the world; so there is so much to learn from. Anyhow it all comes down to policy making and how well the teams know their subjects. Just by attending a few workshops conducted by UN won't give the required skill and the expertise, but we need a lot more help and consultation. We won't even need to look too far out , countries like India and China already have gone through these stages and are key players in the technology world. I hope the foundations of our countries ICT won't be like the old Majeedhee magu, which was laid out with cement floors which took little time to crack.<br /><br />I sure hope they would not be M$ .NET (dot NET) based, then it would be such a big joke but its very highly likely that this would be the case. It would be really sad to see such options being adopted while proven and OSS technologies like <a href="http://www.jboss.com/resources/government">JBoss</a> exist. As for database servers, Oracle might be the obvious best choice.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-25407345255420541132007-05-06T12:52:00.000+05:002007-05-06T14:25:22.754+05:00Why Government Should Really Choose Open SourceRecent years we have seen a lot of adaptations of OSS in the governments across the globe. The reasons are obvious, being the cost factor and the open nature of the applications. Which give a big advantage. Countries such as India, China, Brazil, Russia, Germany and Taiwan were among the first countries who adopted Linux a few years back. Its not just the cost factor that drives this change, its got a lot to do with awareness of technology in the policy level as well. Which we unfortunately lack a lot here in Maldives.<br /><br />I guess the strength of <a href="http://www.ncit.gov.mv">NCIT</a> in Maldives is very poor and limited. Notably I guess the organization lacks experienced and enthusiastic individuals. We have heard of expensive networks been laid, and buildings go up with a very few or null results thus far. Mostly my guess is the expertise is imported and not very well applied. Also the FUD factor within the local policy makers restricts a lot of development. For example the recent ICT policies which were published a few years back, is already outdated before even they were implemented. I guess NCIT needs to be more proactive and also think outside the box. Having a good ICT foundation will contribute a lot to countries such as Maldives.<br /><br />I really get frustrated when expertise is imported and applies from other countries, when locally we have them. Its a lot of money which is being wasted. This is very common within the enterprises and is really a bad news. The justification which will pop up next will be that we o not have such expertise or resources within Maldives. My answer is why? This is where NCIT should step in. Even if we think economically developing a strong ICT infrastructure will greatly benefit us. We don't need oil or diamond mines to develop this sort of economy. But its very sad to know these things will never be discussed or seen seriously. Basically to conclude there is not much future for the Maldivian ICT industry thanks to the policy makers and economists. Selling just a few thousand PC's per year does not make us a technologically aware country. Fact is though so many people carry PDA's in there pockets, we are far far lagging behind and no action is being taken to improve it.<br /><br />Encouraging OSS developments and smiler projects will definitely change things and creating opportunity for individuals and local companies can be a start. But the basic foundation is at the educational level. Anyway, this is just my view. There might be things that I don't know or fail to see.<br /><br />to be continued ....chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-60219572058541150022007-05-04T12:36:00.000+05:002007-05-04T13:42:10.075+05:00NTFS on LinuxFor centuries we have been struggling with this problem. Aham! well for years actually... The support for NTFS partitions had always been an issue. Often I get asked about it, the solution has been around for years too, but never stable and not really how we want it to be. Now for almost a year we had had a new driver called <a href="http://www.ntfs-3g.org/">ntfs-3g</a> which provides full read/write support for all NTFS partitions. (in lamemens terms, lets access your Windows partition from Linux)<br /><br />For Ubuntu, follow the following instructions.<br /><br />edit the file <span style="font-style: italic;">/etc/apt/sources.list</span> at the end of the file add the following lines.<br /><br /><u>For Ubuntu EDGY :</u><br /><br />deb http://flomertens.free.fr/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all<br />deb http://ntfs-3g.sitesweetsite.info/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all<br />deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all<br /><br />Note: For the users of 7.04, execute the following and can skip the next 3 instructions.<br /><br /><code style="font-style: italic;"><span><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g ntfs-config</span></span></code><br /><br />Next execute the following code<br /><br /><code><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">wget http://flomertens.free.fr/ubuntu/givre_key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -</span></code><br /><br /><br />Then ...<br /><code><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">sudo apt-get update</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">sudo apt-get upgrade</span><br /></code><br />Next do the following<br /><code><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">sudo apt-get install ntfs-config</span><br /></code><br />and...<br /><code><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">gksu ntfs-config</span><br /></code><br />Or you could just have launched it via the system tools menu.<br /><br />If you are a Fedora user, just execute the following (assuming you have yum installed)<br /><code><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">sudo yum install fuse fuse-libs ntfs-3g ntfsprogs ntfsprogs-gnomevfs</span></code>chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-92034263631221765772007-04-24T03:11:00.000+05:002007-04-24T04:02:15.356+05:00Linux is LinuxWith the small but increasing awareness and interest on Linux, the question of distributions keep coming up (example <a href="http://blog.fourthirty.org/?p=61">this post on Typos</a>). The question should be "Which Linux is best for me?", and other questions like "Will the distribution work with my hardware?". The good news is, the times has changed. Mostly all standard distributions has good compatibility with most hardware (if not all common desktop hardware). I guess when it comes to selecting a distro , it should be based on the application and task that you need to complete. It does not matter which distribution you install, as long as your requirements are met. Basically this can be divided into two major categories, servers and desktops. Again further you can sub categories them based on your requirements.<br /><br />When it comes to Servers, you have many applications too, same goes for desktops. Choosing a server distribution is mostly easy, since it will be limited number of tasks that you would mostly want to archive. Example intranet server, file server, mail server, db servers, web server, etc. Mostly resources management should be given the first priority and hardware compatibility. Next you decide if the selected distribution has good support for the application that you wish to use the server for. Example Oracle, RH and Suse has good good support for Oracle, but if you just wish to run Postgres you might decide to go with Debian. If your boss thinks you need support for all Server OS's again RH and Suse might be the best choice. Other factors like the hardware compatibilities are important issues, example if you want to have automated backups using external backup systems or using storage arrays you need to ensure that the hardware vendor has support for the selected distribution or if the distribution can support them. From my personal experience mostly RH/Fedora, Suse and Debian are the best choices for Linux based servers. I can't comment on Slackware since its been almost 10 years since I ever used it. But I know a few people who think Slackware is one of the best choices too, so the choices differ. Based on different factors, like how comfortable and confident you are with the distribution. Gentoo is also getting famous and very much recommended, but personally I do not have any experience with it. <br /><br />As for Desktop OS 3 major distributions are dominating these days. Fedora, OpenSuse and Ubuntu. Fedora is RH based, OpenSuse is Suse based and Ubuntu is Debian. 3 are good choices and it differs on which you are most comfortable with. I've been too used to RH for the past 10 years and I go with Fedora others choose Ubuntu since its very flexible and stable like Debian. The Ubuntu community has also targeted the distribution for newbies, making it easy to install and use. Very much the same concepts are used for Fedora and OpenSuse. I guess here the presentation and choice of application are the key factors. Ubuntu and Fedora use Gnome as the default window manager where else OpenSuse used KDE. Other factors like how easy it is to install and update packages matter. I guess Ubuntu is best when it comes to this last factor, followed by Fedora. Choosing which one you prefer and like the most, is totally a personal choice. Best method will be to experiment around and then choose.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-87521376128921655952007-03-20T09:06:00.000+05:002007-03-20T09:07:59.533+05:00Partition Considerations - Linux Partition Table StructureFile systems are not typically created on bare hard drives; rather, they are created on partitions. On Intel-compatible hardware, Linux defaults to using Microsoft-style partition tables. The Microsoft partition scheme allowed up to four partitions to be created on a hard drive. These partitions are referred to as primary partitions. Only one of these partitions may be active at a time; the Microsoft Master Boot Record will try to boot the active primary partition.<br /><br />Microsoft eventually realized that people might need more than four partitions, so they modified the partitioning system to allow creation of more partitions. To do this, they developed a special type of primary partition, the extended partition. The extended partition is not a functional partition, and no file system can be created on it; rather, it is simply a container for other functional partitions, called logical partitions. In the Microsoft partition scheme, up to four primary partitions can be created, one of which can be an extended partition. Within the extended partition, up to four logical partitions can be created, producing a potential total of seven (three primary and four logical) usable hard drive partitions. Linux extends this scheme slightly by allowing more than four logical partitions to be created in the extended partition<br /><br />On IDE hardware, Linux supports a total of 63 usable partitions; on SCSI hardware, a maximum of 15 partitions.<br /><br />Partitions serve many useful purposes. They impose maximum size limits to file systems, making them useful security tools for constraining usage of system resources. Similarly, some other security tools on Linux, such as quotas, are implemented at the level of the partition. Furthermore, partitions make it easy to divide up hard drive space into smaller functional units, simplifying long-term system management.<br /><br />RHEL/FC typically use a minimum of three partitions to install on Intel-compatible hardware. The first of these is a small partition, /boot. This boot partition should normally be 75 to 100 megabytes in size; it will contain only the essential system files which Linux needs to boot. In the past it was usually set to be much smaller, around 20 megabytes, but now the recommended size has increased so that multiple kernels can be installed simultaneously. The second of these partitions is a swap partition, used to page out programs from RAM. This partition is typically 256 - 512 megabytes in size, though appropriate size will vary with the machine’s intended function and the amount of RAM installed. The third, required, partition is the root partition, /. This partition needs to be large enough to contain all other files that will be installed by RHEL/FC.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-33399241959155712122007-03-20T00:10:00.000+05:002007-03-20T00:13:15.272+05:00Multi-OS BootingLinux can happily co-exist with other operating systems on the same computer. Other operating systems may have constraints on which partition and, if more than one hard drive is available, on which drive they can be installed. Linux has no such constraints and can be installed on any partition(s) on any drive.<br /><br />Since Linux plays nicely with other operating systems during an install, it is best to install it last. Other operating systems will often wipe the master boot record during install, causing grief if Linux is already installed.<br /><br />Depending on what operating systems are installed, you may be able to have several installed OS’s make use of the same partitions. For example, if your laptop has several different versions of Linux installed (perhaps Fedora, SUSE, and Debian) then at a minimum you could create a single shared swap partition that is mounted by each of the three Linux installations.<br /><br />Even if you were booting between completely different operating systems (such as both Linux and Microsoft Windows) you still may choose to create a data partition that will be mounted by both operating systems. In this case, it is recommended that you create the partition and filesystem while booted to Windows. Linux tends to be more versatile and flexible in the partitions that it will accept and should be able to mount whatever the Windows partitioning program creates.<br /><br />If you are unsure what changes an installer might make to your master boot record, then you can create a backup of the boot record before starting the install. The procedure described here uses the GNU dd command. If you already have Linux installed on the system, then issue the command from a terminal as root. If you do not have Linux, then use a bootable Linux disk or CD:<br /><br /># dd if=/dev/hda of=MBR bs=446 count=1<br /><br />Then copy the resultant MBR file to a safe location. If you need to restore the master boot record later, you can issue the following command after copying the saved MBR file into the current directory:<br /><br /># dd if=MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-38534782634328226902007-03-19T23:05:00.000+05:002007-03-20T00:00:12.560+05:00out of topicOk, I know what I am gonna post is bit out of the context of the blog title.. but anyways. If you are a web developer or an application developer, we all have used one or more scripting language or programming language. So I just thought I'd try to bring in an old subject again. Which is best? Oh no! thats a question no matter how bad is, is always asked.<br /><br />Lets see, in Maldives if we go with popularity my guess is Visual Basic will come in first. It has its reasons, but I would say VB is kind of not so interesting any more as it use to be. As more and more people move to web based applications, yeah ASP is always there. But more people turned to PHP then ASP. Maybe PHP has its positive advantages. Its mostly easy to learn and develop, maybe thats one reason why its the choice. The next reason might be that there is so many PHP based sites and help out there. Examples and tools. So much FREE stuff and projects, just ready to be "used". But always one can say ASP has all these advantages too. I would partly agree too. Maybe one more added reason is a lot of hosting is based on *nix, and it does not mostly support ASP. So the obvious choice becomes PHP. Anyway reasons can be lots and favorites can differ as well.<br /><br />So why not Python , Ruby or even Perl? Again its a difficult question. Ruby on Rails has had a lot of hype lately. Python has been doing so good. Yeah even the new blogger is Python based. Just like Rails, there is so many frameworks for Python too. Namely Zope, etc. Good old perl? Why not perl? So many people say perl is crappy. . I won't agree to it again. Maybe it does not have the elegance and neatness that most people look for. Yeah, but then again it depends on how you define that too. Maybe the code is not as sexy as Python or Ruby, but I won't say PHP or VB code looks neat. Perl has its own advantages and the power. I see perl more as a life saver. If you had used perl as a web development tool, you won't always agree with whats written out on most web sites about perl.<br /><br />Anyway, having said all that and trying to justify, I would still say PHP is the choice for most web developers. As for Maldivians, I guess the next stage is to evolve with frameworks and other tools. Like Trax for PHP or Seagull, etc. These tools really give you the leading adage. The development time is increased, where you can concentrate more on the business rules and really organize your code (again it depends on how you design too). But to cut short Ruby on Rails (ROR) is the next level. Its nothing new, but not very much seen to be used by the Maldivian development community. There is no best language or tools. It all depends on the problem at hand and what tools you are most comfortable with.<br /><br />There might be some people who will tell you that things like Java with frameworks like JBoss is the best solution. Agreed frameworks like Rails, does not come close to JBoss (again its questionable, but guess most will agree) and Java as a language is very mature. But does it really suit the problem at hand. As I have been told many times, "The best solution might not always be the right solution". But when one will tell me MSSQL with ASP.NET I would always ask questions. Thats me. Yeah, I it can be a good choice. I agree, but have you looked into other options? That might be the right question. So many of you out there are into computers and programming, but how many of you really experiment around with these tools or look for alternatives? Its kind of sad to see the development community in Maldives not growing by number. Being into development always helps you at some level. You can be a networking guy or a system admin, but if you are a developer as well then it puts you in advantage. I've seen so many occations, when or if the sys admins knew scripting they would have done a better job or could have saved time. Perl for example was developed for this same reason, for sys admins by a sys admin. Even if you are a Windows guy, being able to know windows scripting sure would help you. Keep aside developer, even if you are a finance guy or a business guy having to know how to write macros for Excel or Word sure helps a lot. How about those graphic guys? like who do flash or 3D stuff, they sure need scripting. So to code is no longer just for application developers, its must be something we all should know (well better if we do). Now I am not saying "konme dhiveh sakee program kuraa dhiveh sakah vamaatho ey" :Pchopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-39561638093845192442007-03-14T22:49:00.000+05:002007-03-14T22:56:12.986+05:00Linux Hardware CompatibilityThe two components of a Linux system that care about the hardware are the Linux kernel and the X server (xorg is the standard). In the early days of Linux, hardware support was spotty. The kernel developers wrote their own drivers for various hardware devices. The main issue was getting proper hardware documentation so that developers could write the drivers.<br /><br />With the rise of Linux’s popularity and market share, most hardware manufacturers have moved Linux support to being a “check list item.” Because of this, most hardware makers are openly making proper documentation available to Linux developers. Another big change is that it is becoming increasingly common for hardware makers to write and release their own internally developed drivers.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Binary vs. Source Drivers </span><br />To ensure maximum performance, reliability, and technical superiority, there is NO guaranteed binary or source level compatibility between major kernel versions. Because of this, when hardware manufacturers write their own drivers, open source drivers are strongly preferred. Source code availability enables the Linux community to maintain the drivers and keep the hardware supported in future versions of Linux, even if the hardware manufacturer loses interest (or goes out of business).chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-37724270757490382182007-03-13T20:28:00.000+05:002007-03-13T21:07:21.586+05:00Lets startI've been told by a friend that still there is people who need help on the basic. Well my answer was "Help is all over, just google for em". Guess his answer was logical, most don't like to "Read". Then I thought about making some basic help documents. Will that help, if they don't read? Guess not ey! But still I decided that I'd do some research and put up some documents. Hope they are of help.<br /><br />So to start off, lets talk about pre-installation conditions. Which basically means what you need to think about or do before you start to install Linux on a box.<br /><br />Certain things or aspects of the system can't be changed or leads to difficulties once you install and setup a system. It will be very good if you think about certain things before you just insert the CD and start to install.<br /><br />Following is some points to consider.<br /><ul><li>Is the hardware compatible with Linux? Meaning try to do some look into the hardware you own. Like if you have any special hardware. There might be a chance that it might not work. Example some usb modems, etc. So if you have doubts if always good to look into them before you install and then get frustrated after. Good news is most standard hardware does support, well almost everything now.<br /></li><li>Will the system require dual booting? If the system will boot to more then one OS, then attention should be given to what boot loader is used, and to configure the boot loader to boot to the desired OS. Example if you wish to run Windows and Linux on same box.</li><li>What partitioning scheme will be used? Software RAID and LVM are easier to configure at installation time (especially for the root file system). If traditional partitions are to be used, then it is best to select appropriate initial sizes; modifying partition sizes later can be both more difficult and more dangerous.<br /></li><li>What file system type(s) will be used? There are different file systems that you can use. Each of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. Its good decide on one, based on the usage of the system. Example will the system be used as a web server or a DB server, etc. Talking about them is best kept for another post.</li><li>What is the expected role of the system? Its good to decide on this and choose the packages that you will install on your system. From experience I know even though its easy to add and remove packages, often we don't do that and neglect to remove unneeded software packages after the initial installation. Always remember that every software package installed on the system can be a potential security threat or venerability. One of the very important thing in securing a system is to ensure that its not running any services that are absolutely not required. Even when I say this, I have often made this mistake.<br /></li></ul>Hope this is good for a start. Mostly this applies when you want to setup a server, on desktops most of the default installations would do fine. But its always good if you keep in mind somethings, which will put you into an advantage. For the posts that will follow I will try to look into more details to each of the points.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-68303372723790800432007-03-12T23:11:00.000+05:002007-03-12T23:23:26.548+05:0006-Oct-2000I was browsing through<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010428165102/www.inmaldives.com/pages/Articles/"> http://web.archive.org/web/20010428165102/www.inmaldives.com/pages/Articles/</a> which was a old web site owned by a friend and to whome I too contributed. Found the following artical dated at 06-Oct-2000, I thought I'd publish here. I know its old and kinda long. The funny part here is after 7 years still its the same issues. Same fights, almost the same topic. Its good in a way, I realised we kept up the fight and did not stop. I also noticed things has very much came as predicted before like. I said "Linux will make it to bed rooms", and it has . Finally we have learned too. So if you have time read on, sorry for a lot of mistakes though (as usual).<br /><blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Computers as we know it as we see today came into existence in the middle of the last century. Since then the speed of development has been faster then any other technology that we know of. It is not only technology that we have seen developing through this, but businesses as well. At the early days computers were not very affordable and there was no need to have them as a house hold product. Those days computers were used for Scientific and Commercial purposes or in other words for large-scale applications. It was in the early 1980�s that computers made it to our homes and offices, with the introduction of machines from companies such as Apple Computers and IBM. gave the name Macintosh (Mac) to there brand of computers. There were others as well, but it was these two companies who made it to the top and at one point IBM clones were introduced and which gave the PC�s a big lead. By then most people have started to realize the importance of computers especially in the business and office environments. As IBM gave the chance to Microsoft a small computer company owned by Bill gates and Paul Alien to develop the Operating System for their PC�s, they got a good opportunity to jump in to the Sean with a good reputation. This was just the Personnel Computer world, we have to remember the fact that these computers were designed for a bigger market which need not have much computing power like controlling mission critical appliance or manage a huge database like of a banking system. The Fact still was that major companies, which have been in the industry since the beginning, were still doing their homework, the introduction of PC�s or Mac�s did not stop them infract they were just babies then compared to what they had then.<span style="">� </span>The other fact was that they were not developing word processors or paint programs, but they were developing applications for high ending jobs. One other thing was no one predicted the future, maybe they did not know how big a market lies out there then. One example is, IBM giving the rights to Microsoft to sell the Operating System PC-DOS that was developed for IBM by Microsoft.</span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p>With the introduction of MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) for the PC�s and growing popularity of PC�s, many software companies saw the market for PC based Applications. They too started developing their applications for the environment. Example Word-Star (which was a very famous word processor), Word Perfect and Lotus-123 (a very popular spread sheet applications). This was all happening in the 80�s. Back then there were no GUI environments for the PC�s, but Apple with the introduction of their popular Operating System Apple II later Mac OS, with the WIMP environment was becoming very popular. At this point there were other applications from Microsoft as well, example MS-Word, MS-Works, but they were not major hits as it is now. With the introduction of Microsoft version of their GUI based environment Windows, which still ran on top of DOS started gaining popularity. Application such as Corel Draw were becoming famous, Microsoft themselves too started porting there applications to the GUI environment of theirs which took the maximum advantage of the environment over other vendors. Soon to crush applications like word star, Lotus-123, with very good marketing approaches. Microsoft designed and changed the way people look at computers, since majority of the world population knows nothing about computers and cannot spend there time learning all the commands how to configure a printer or launch an application, Microsoft made this easy for them. Microsoft introduced ways that made things very much easy for the normal man. Also this was where the market was. But the point here is that no one else saw this market before even if they did like Apple computers, they were never able to sell this products as good as Microsoft did. It is not innovation in technology, but in marketing. Most of the technologies where not invented by Microsoft for example most people agree that the GUI and OOP environments. This came from companies such as XEROX who where more in to R & D. It is very unfortunate that these people who invented and brought the idea up did not get much credit for it. So it is not right for one to say where were these people when Microsoft did it all. If I were to answer that I would say those people made the mistake not to see the money in it, but it was these people who contributed to what we see as it is now. Since Microsoft has enough wealth they have been crushing or buying off their competitors. Obviously this can be a debatable topic.<o:p></o:p></span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p>By early 1990�s Microsoft became the richest company on the planet.<span style="">� </span>With produced such as there new improved OS like Windos95 / NT. Still the fact is that these products where designed with the common man in mind, it is not the best operating system which was available. Since Microsoft�s target was money, for this they made their products colorful and friendly for the money world not for the technical world. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p>Soon since PC�s gained a huge popularity mostly because of the dropping in the price of hardware and awareness in the computer world, more and more people stared using PC�s. As a result their arose the need for sophisticated environments, which were more stable and reliable then the environments designed for the PC illiterate person. In the early 1990�s as more and more students got into computer science we started seeing major outstanding projects. Since most universities and colleges work on systems like Unix and other sophisticated environments. It so happens that most who are familiar with these environments after switching to or going back to the PC environment have hard time doing what they want to get done. It is also a very natural thing for the humans to compare between good and bad. As a result there were many people who were working to bring the famous UNIX environment to the affordable PC�s. Since UNIX was the ruling Operating System since it�s introduction in the 1970�s at AT&T. UNIX was used at various projects ranging from Graphical Applications such as the famous SGI systems to mission critical systems at NASA , where Microsoft Windows never made it. So no one can say where was UNIX when Microsoft made their Windows Operating System to every home. Well, as for me my answer would be even before Microsoft made it to the bedrooms, UNIX made it to the moon. Far beyond the reach of Windows.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p>In a combined effort in the year 1993 a computer student Linus Torvalds from Finland introduced an operating system, as we now know known as Linux. Linus was the one who contributed to the first kernel for Linux soon to be joined by many other programmers, from the Free Software Foundation. Also contributions such as X Windows system from the X Consortium were made. The operating system continued to grow under the dedicated cultivation of a host of other programmers and hackers all over the world, all connected through the Internet. The most unique thing about this operating system is that it is free and all the source code is open to anyone. This gives many advantages over other operating systems developed by companies as such. Since the source code is open anyone who wish can contribute to it and also as soon as they find a bug or an exploit they can fix it and report it. Also since it is a free operating system almost anyone can download or buy it at the cost of the CD and install it on their hardware and test it, as a result compatibility with Linux started to grow. Even though Linux was stared at a PC level it now offers Linux for very high-end machines such as Sun systems and Digital Systems. There is a port of Linux to all most all the hardware appliances. Ranging from Palm Pilots to Super Computers. Infect Linux opened a new approach of developing Super Computers to those who cannot afford one. Since it is the power of processors that gave the power to the Super Computers, people around the world started doing projects using<span style="">� </span>�off-the-shelf� parts (old 386/486 machines, etc). NASA leads one such project known as the �Beowulf Project�, using Linux as the operating system. Also many other universities have there own Super Computer made by them self through these sorts of approaches. Another major area where Linux is very famous is the server�s side. On the Internet a lot of Web Servers out their run on Linux as the operating system and Open Source projects such as �Apache�. Apache is the most used Web Server in the world. Other more complex areas such as at Boeing and US Post Department all run on Linux and Linux based applications not to mention projects which are done at NASA. A lot of contributions from members of NASA have been also put in this project, examples would be a lot of device drivers for Linux has been developed by a lot of NASA staff. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p>One area where Linux has been doing poor is at the desktop level for the normal user, since most of the developments for Linux has been done for technical people for technical purposes it has been doing poor on the desktop level for normal users, where Microsoft still stands strong. A good example will be the lack of a friendly user environment, but this is where the money lies and major companies, which develop applications for the end-users, are interested in this area.<span style="">� </span>It would be a waste to develop applications for an environment where there is not much market, it is true in certain aspects. For example for a normal end-user who uses computers as a stand alone machine to do word processing or to do desktop publishing will not know much technical stuff, so when Linux was introduced it was not designed for this group of users, as other UNIX environments has been. As the user base started to grow and as more and more developers joined the project this weak area has been getting a lot of attention and very powerful desktops environments have been created, example would be GNOME and KDE. Anyone who is familiar with Windows or Mac can easily find their way in and will love the flexibility and the open looks of it. Due to this reason the user base has been growing, it is predicted that the user base of Linux doubles every year. IF you happen to be browsing the Internet it would be a good idea to check on this figures and to check it out your self. Because of this fact many companies such as Corel Computers, Borland and companies like Oracle has ported their applications to Linux and are major supporters of Linux. Companies such as SGI, Corel even have their own distribution of Linux and are strong supporters of Linux. IBM, HP and Dell have started distributing their hardware pre-installed with Linux and gives support to Linux. All this has taken a few years to achieve not bad for free software, which is not owned by anyone. It was in 1998 that most companies announced that they would support Linux and started these projects. It is my prediction that in a near future Linux will gain a lot of support as from the end-users and will make it to the bedrooms as well. It has already made to the machines of the high-end users and it has made it to the space. At this point I would say if Linux was a company it might not have gained much popularity and support as it did or Microsoft would have crushed or bought them off. The obvious result would be we would not have access to advance technologies as we have now if not for idea�s like Linux</span></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"></span></span></p></blockquote><p style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p>chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34197455.post-57008675250541694012007-03-12T20:54:00.000+05:002007-03-12T21:11:41.254+05:00Contributors NeededHello guys,<br /><br />If you wish to be a contributor to this blog, Please email me (sofwath at hotmail.com). Would be great if more people will contribute to the blog. You need not be a Linux guru, anyone who has got interest and some knowledge is most welcome. The idea is to get views from everyone. Starting from the people who want to try or switch, to the expert users. Even people who hate Linux or never liked it. So we will know your experience too. The more enlightening the better it is. :)<br /><br />I know not many might want to join, but that's OK. Its just another try. But give it a thought. I want to make this more a "We" thing then "I". So help is needed.chopeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03378768352334896628noreply@blogger.com2