the maldivian linux blog

Thaana Fonts Package for Linux (.deb)

2010-02-10T01:41:00.001+05:00

Vishaah shared the file is mailing list.

The package installs the following fonts:

9603ran.ttf
Aafrasmy.ttf
Aafthedu.ttf
Aahthedu.ttf
Afk2p.ttf
Akko.ttf
Akurub.ttf
Amufk2.ttf
Athiri01.ttf
Athiri02.ttf
Athiri03.ttf
Athiri.ttf
Bismi.ttf
faruma.ttf
Faseyha.ttf
Faseyp.ttf
Ilham.ttf
mvboli.ttf
Mv Elaaf Formal.ttf
Mv Elaaf Lite.otf.ttf
Mv Elaaf Normal.otf.ttf
Mv Iyyu Formal.ttf
Mv Iyyu Nala.ttf
Mv Iyyu Normal.otf.ttf
Mv Radhun.ttf
Raadha.ttf
Radafala.ttf
Radhafp.ttf
Radhap.ttf
Randhoo.ttf
Randp.ttf
Thaana.ttf
Thanabuw.ttf
Utheemp.ttf
Utheem.ttf
Waheedp.ttf
Waheed.ttf

Download: dv-mv-fonts_1.0-1_i386.deb

MOSS Monthly - Your Monthly FLOSS Magazine

2010-02-10T01:31:00.001+05:00

There is a growing community of FLOSS. MOSS decided to publish a monthly magazine for FLOSS Community. 2 Issues are already out.

MOSS Monthly Issue #2

Download: http://moss.org.mv/downloads/moss-mag_2010.02.pdf

MOSS Monthly Issue #1

Download: http://moss.org.mv/downloads/moss-mag_2010.01.pdf

To contribute, Submit your articles to magazine@moss.org.mv before 31st of each month.

#Important Links:

MOSS

Forum (Mailing List)

Translating into Dhivehi

2009-05-22T22:03:00.005+06:00

The work on Ubuntu Dhivehi Translation recently have picked up speed with new members joining in the team and contributing.

We request all individuals who are willing to contribute to join us in helping with the translations. You can join the team by clicking here and registering yourself as part of the team.

You would be able to get more help and participate in the discussions here.

Upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04

2009-05-15T15:27:00.003+06:00

Ubuntu is a Linux-Based Operating System that is perfect for Desktops, Laptops and Servers. Ubuntu is one of the best and popular Linux distributor.

Follow this post to Upgrade your Ubuntu version to Ubuntu 9.04 (Most Recent Release) [Code Name: "Jaunty Jackalope"). In this post I'll only include "Network Upgrade for Ubuntu Desktops" which is most recommended one.

Start System/Administration/Update Manager. (If you do not see "Update Manager" in the list, launch the Synaptic Package Manager and install the "update-manager" package.)
Click the Check button to check for new updates.
If there are any updates to install, use the Install Updates button to install them, and press Check again after that is complete.
A message will appear informing you of the availability of the new release.
Click Upgrade.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

Source: (Ubuntu[dot]com)
For more info on upgrading Ubuntu, Visit the Source link.

Free Open Source Video Editor for Linux

2009-02-03T15:47:00.001+05:00

I've seen many open source video editors for Linux. But Acidemux is better than all of those video editors i have used.

Acodemux is specially designed for simply cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports allmost all the file types. (Including: VI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF)

This program is written and available for almost all distributions of Linux that are capable of compiling C/C++, GTK+ and the SpiderMonkey ECMAScript scripting engine.

Key features of Acidemux include

User Friendly interface
WYSIWYG cutting, appending, filters and re-encoding into various formats
mux and demux audio streams into and out of video files

Download Avidemux 2.4.3

Ubuntu Muslim Edition (UbuntuME) 8.10

2008-11-24T19:04:00.002+05:00

What is UbuntuMe?
UbuntuMe is a customized version of Ubuntu. Its useful and targeted for Muslim users using Ubuntu.

UbuntuMe comes with Islamic Softwares.

More Information & Download - Here

Ubuntu - Best Linux Distributor?

2008-10-02T15:19:00.005+06:00

Few weeks back Lifehacker posted a poll, Whats the Best linux distributor? so far Ubuntu got more votes.

Nowadays Ubuntu has become too popular in Maldivian Teens.

Run Windows Apps 100% Seamlessly on Ubuntu!

2008-09-15T17:51:00.002+06:00

I know that most of us Linux user usually cringe whenever we need to *god forbid* use a Microsoft WIndows machine. So we created applications like Wine in an effort minimize the contact with that horrid machine. With Wine a big percentage of Windows only apps could run on Linux, which more or less takes Windows out of the equation and lets us interact directly with our favorite App. Another solution of course would be installing Windows on a virtual machine.

But running an app on a virtual machine doesn’t eliminate Windows from the equation. Right? So I will show you now how to run Windows apps 100% seamlessly on Ubuntu. You know something like this:

Tools

Windows installed on Vmware. ( I assume you have one or know how to create one)
rdesktop, you can grab that from apt-get or directly download it from their site
SeamlessRDP, download it an extract it in your Windows VM in c:/seamless

What to do:

In Windows VM

In the Windows VM, get the local IP address of that machine using the Ipconfig command in DOS.
Also give that machine a static IP (Not DHCP). This will help you later when invoking the launch command, you won’t need to change the IP everytime
Create a new Windows admin user, let’s call it Linux for now (Password:123123)
Finally, we want to make Windows launch without a Desktop. So launch your registry editor (regedit in run) and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> Explorer. Once there create a new DWORD entry and call it “NoDesktop” and then change it’s value to 1.

On Ubuntu Linux

Right click on your desktop and choose “create launcher”. In type, keep it as is (application), for name name it whatever you please (I named it Windows-VM), and in command type in “rdesktop -A -s ‘c:\seamless\seamlessrdpshell.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe’ 192.168.1.104 -u linux -p 123123?. Of course you will need to change the IP to your IP and the password (123123) to whatever password you chose. Thats it! Double click on the launcher and you will shortly get a the Windows taskbar on the bottom. Of course if you want to totally get rid of MS nuisance, just enable the autohide option

Original Post

Neo FreeRunner

2008-08-16T13:56:00.003+06:00

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 Android platform. Many others like Access Linux Platform, OpenZaurus and Qtopia are all examples of Linux based mobile OS's.

The good news now is we have an open source mobile phone, the "Neo FreeRunner" (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.

Other such platforms besides Neo include TuxPhone and the Greenphone.

Google gadgets for linux

2008-07-27T08:02:00.002+06:00

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 Google Desktop for Windows as well as the Universal Gadgets on iGoogle. Following Linux norms, this project is open-sourced under the Apache License.

An important area where Google Desktop for Linux 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.

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.

Download

http://sharedzilla.com/en/get?id=177785

Vyatta

2008-07-27T02:59:00.003+06:00

Routers 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.

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 Vyatta is amazing products, which can save you so much on costs and gives you a strong flexibility.

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.

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.

Localization

2008-07-03T00:30:00.002+06:00

Its 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.

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.

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.

Few things to think about and do are.. implementing the locale on Linux; this is easy job; partly I have done some work as well.. here is the link on mlug. 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 wikipedia project (even thought its a web based project its a great job by the team who is involved).

I hope some people will restart work on localization for Linux.

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v1.0.4-39

2008-06-28T23:56:00.004+06:00

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition v1.0.4-39 for Linux

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.

Key Features

- Advanced, enterprise-wide virus protection and monitoring from a single management console.

- Integrated Web-based graphical reporting.

- Support for Symantec AntiVirus Client on Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Download from Rapidshare

http://rapidshare.com/files/124914328/SYMAV10439Lnx.rar.html

Download from Depositfiles

http://depositfiles.com/files/6201463

Ubuntu

2008-05-03T22:53:00.003+05:00

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.

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. :)

Asus Eee PC

2008-01-06T00:44:00.001+05:00

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.

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.

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.

To read a full review click here

This is a fine example of adoption and acceptance of the Linux OS and the desktop into the consumer markets.

Note: Its already out in the market now; get it :) From ebay the price is about $250.00 to $420.00

One laptop per child

2007-11-24T08:09:00.000+05:00

One laptop per child 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anyone willing to participate?

Web OS

2007-06-23T21:07:00.000+05:00

Recently 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).

An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. 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 memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating networking and managing file systems.

Do I still need to say more?

Maldives and FLOSS

2007-05-12T13:08:00.000+05:00

Back 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.

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 [www.trmu.gov.pk].

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.

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.

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.

Reference http://www.csdms.in/csdms/pdf/FLOSS_draft_rpt.pdf

Linux and Movies

2007-05-12T10:36:00.000+05:00

In 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.

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. - Robin Rowe

Here is a useful list of Free and commercial related tools for Linux

ATI - workstation graphics drivers and GPU
Baselight - grading and finishing
Boujou - matchmove
Conform - editing system
DaVinci Revival - color correction
Deadline - render queue
Flint - visual effects
FrameCycler - playback
Gelato - renderer
Houdini - animation and compositing
Maya - animation
Massive - crowd simulation
Mental Ray - renderer
Mokey - stabilization
Monet - motion tracking
NUKE - compositing
NVIDIA - workstation graphics drivers and GPU
Photogenics - HDR painting and retouching
Piranha - editing system
Platform LSF - render queue
qube! - render queue
RaveHD - DDR playback and HD conversion
RealFlow - water modeling
RealSoft - 3D modeling, animation and 3D paint
RenderMan - renderer
Rush - render queue
RushPlay - digital dailies
Shake - compositing
SoftImage - animation
Smoke - editing system
SpeedGrade - color correction
SteadyMove - stabilization
US Animation - cel animation

Free Animation Software and Modelers

AniTMT - animation with POV-Ray
Blender - modeler
Celestia - spaceflight simulation
FL-Inventor - 3d toolkit
flow - particle animation
GTO - geometric data format and Maya plug-in
K-3D - animation
KPovModeler - modeler for POV-ray
libGLOOP - particle simulation
MakeHuman - humanoid animation
Moonlight3d - modeler
POV-Ray and MegaPOV - modelers
TerraForm - terrain simulation
TrueVision - POV-ray modeler
VEE - particle animation
Wings3d - modeler

Free Audio Software

Ardour - multitrack recording/editing
Audacity - audio editor
LADSPA - audio plug-ins
Sweep - audio editor

Free Cluster Software

OpenMOSIX - cluster
povMOSIX - POV-Ray on OpenMOSIX

Free Editors

Celtx - Screenplay (text) editor
Cuisine - DV NLE (Development abandoned due to employer)
Kino - DV editor (A really simple editor based on the vi interface keystrokes)
Shotcut - DV NLE (A new FLTK-based editor)

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 Avid Free DV.

Free Linux Distros for Multimedia

64 Studio - Debian-based distro
GrafPup - Puppy-based distro

Free Movie Playback

CinePaint - flipbook
Mplayer - AVI, Quicktime, MPEG
VPC Movie Player - AVI, Quicktime, MPEG
Xanim - Quicktime
Xine - AVI, Quicktime, MPEG, DVD

Free Paint/Retouching

CinePaint - painting and retouching
GraphicsMagick - batch image conversion
ImageMagick - batch image conversion

Free Renderers

3D Delight - Renderman-compatible renderer
Aqsis - renderer
BMRT - removed as part of legal settlement with Pixar
Cug - equation renderer
fluxus - animation from sound
Pixie - RenderMan compliant renderer
Radiance - renderer
Surf - equation renderer
YafRay - renderer
zRcube - renderer for POV-Ray

Free Render Queues

BlenderWebRender - tiny Perl render manager
Condor - render queue
DrQueue - C-based render queue with Python
g4u - network hard disk cloner (uses NetBSD)
ImpFarm - small Perl render queue for POV-Ray
Maui - render queue
OpenPBS - render queue
Platform Rocks - render queue
Sun Grid Engine - render queue
SuperConductor - small Qt/C++ render queue
Torque - render queue

Free Shader and GPU Tools

BrookGPU - GPU compiler
Cg - NVIDIA GPU compiler
Sh - shader language
Shrimp - shader writer

Free Titler

There's nothing comparable to Apple Motion that's free. Here's a simple Python program called ReelTitles.

Odd Free Tools

Often recommended by those who've heard of them but never used them personally, people enthusiastic for these tools aren't working at studios.

Source http://linuxmovies.org/

Internet Kiosk to e-Government

2007-05-11T22:29:00.000+05:00

Surely 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).

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.

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 JBoss exist. As for database servers, Oracle might be the obvious best choice.

Why Government Should Really Choose Open Source

2007-05-06T12:52:00.000+05:00

Recent 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.

I guess the strength of NCIT 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.

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.

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.

to be continued ....

NTFS on Linux

2007-05-04T12:36:00.000+05:00

For 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 ntfs-3g which provides full read/write support for all NTFS partitions. (in lamemens terms, lets access your Windows partition from Linux)

For Ubuntu, follow the following instructions.

edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list at the end of the file add the following lines.

For Ubuntu EDGY :

deb http://flomertens.free.fr/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://ntfs-3g.sitesweetsite.info/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all

Note: For the users of 7.04, execute the following and can skip the next 3 instructions.

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g ntfs-config

Next execute the following code

wget http://flomertens.free.fr/ubuntu/givre_key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Then ...


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Next do the following


sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

and...


gksu ntfs-config

Or you could just have launched it via the system tools menu.

If you are a Fedora user, just execute the following (assuming you have yum installed)


sudo yum install fuse fuse-libs ntfs-3g ntfsprogs ntfsprogs-gnomevfs

Linux is Linux

2007-04-24T03:11:00.000+05:00

With the small but increasing awareness and interest on Linux, the question of distributions keep coming up (example this post on Typos). 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.

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.

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.

Partition Considerations - Linux Partition Table Structure

2007-03-20T09:06:00.000+05:00

File 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.

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

On IDE hardware, Linux supports a total of 63 usable partitions; on SCSI hardware, a maximum of 15 partitions.

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.

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.

Multi-OS Booting

2007-03-20T00:10:00.000+05:00

Linux 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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

# dd if=/dev/hda of=MBR bs=446 count=1

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:

# dd if=MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1

out of topic

2007-03-19T23:05:00.000+05:00

Ok, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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" :P

Linux Hardware Compatibility

2007-03-14T22:49:00.000+05:00

The 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.

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.

Binary vs. Source Drivers
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).

Lets start

2007-03-13T20:28:00.000+05:00

I'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.

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.

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.

Following is some points to consider.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.

06-Oct-2000

2007-03-12T23:11:00.000+05:00

I was browsing through http://web.archive.org/web/20010428165102/www.inmaldives.com/pages/Articles/ 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).

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.� 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.
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.
By early 1990�s Microsoft became the richest company on the planet.� 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.

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.

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� �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.

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.� 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

Contributors Needed

2007-03-12T20:54:00.000+05:00

Hello guys,

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. :)

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.

jump through the windows with FREE Wine

2007-03-12T19:10:00.000+05:00

Wine does not always come in glasses and bottles. Wine also comes in other forms, like emulators. Wine maybe hated and even forbidden to Maldivians but in case of Linux, wine sure is the answer to a lot of people. Answer in the sense to questions like can Linux run MS Office, and other applications like games. Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix. The purpose is to run Windows programs (apps) on Linux and alike. But I guess it might not be very right to say wine is an emulator. Wine is more a re-implementation of the Win32 API, kind of like allowing applications to run as if on the native OS.

The project has been around for many years, and it has gained a very good progress too. Its worth looking into Wine, if you are looking to run some windows applications on Linux. I had the need to run MS Project and wine was the answer. At times when you work in an office environemnt you are left with no choice but to stick with some applications for various reasons like compatibility between the coworkers. At these kinds of situation wine really comes in handy. Wine also is good when you want to run some games on Linux. But I personally feel if you are a game guy, you should be on windows or have dual boot.

As for the applications that run over wine, there is a lot. Here is a list of applications from wineHQ.

If you are looking for more compatibility with applications at a commercial level, CrossOver will be a good choice to look into. Its the commercial version of wine. The list of application is bigger and its easy to manage the applications as well. Its got support for applications like IE 7, MS Office 2003, Outlook 2003, iTunes and even Photoshop CS2.

Now I know, there might be some people who might ask, "Can wine or crossover run Vista". daaa! you never know. :) For those there is answers too, maybe not with Wine though. Anyway thats a different topic.

Linux and Maldives ?

2007-03-10T17:51:00.000+05:00

Now that Vista is here, what have changed? Nothing so far. Most who have experienced has a few comments to pass, like they like the new looks and they need to upgrade or buy a new machine. Some claim its too much MacOS X , but others feel its just Microsoft. Which ever, Vista is here to stay. The new improved Office is damn good, in terms of functionality and new looks, I'd always give credit to the MS Office team for doing a good job.

So where does Linux come in...? Its a difficult question to answer, but my guess is a lot more people will experience Linux this year and some might even switch. I am talking about Maldives. One major reason why people don't switch between OS's is the cost factor. MS Windows is FREE too in Maldives, just like Linux is. :) Well its the same case for most of under developed and developing countries. So it does not bring a major importance when you say Linux is "FREE". My guess is if and when the cost factor "Hits" us, this might change. Maybe not for most individuals as home users, but at a cooperate level. When the organizations and companies need to pay for the license , etc. Example if the Maldivian government needs to pay the license for the the desktops and servers they own, its gonna be a big expense. The cost of upgrades, etc. I don't think there is much thought given about this as of now, but who knows. Example counties like Japan and India, they are moving into the Free and Open Source environments. Recently Tamilnadu has decided that the all new computers they will buy will come with Linux or Linux and Windows as dual boot. All schools will have Linux as the OS and some government offices will have both the OS's, the reason being that still they have some applications that depends on Windows OS. My guess is soon they will replace all these applications and might move 100% Linux. This has its advantages, mostly in terms of cost and the open platforms has technological advantages.

But for a country like Maldives, the move is not easy and not very practical. I feel one reason being to manage Linux it requires more skill then a windows platform. Which we lack. Windows guys are cheap and easy to get. We don't need much skill to administrate on windows platform. The rule is, if you can read English and know what you want. Most likely you will get things done (most of the cases). This is the biggest advantage I see with windows. Its designed with "not so skilled computer guys" in mind. But one can always raise questions and argue on that. Both the platforms has their advantages and opposite. So I would not say Linux is the "best" choice or windows is the "right" choice. It basically depends on your requirement and how much money and resources you have. This also counts for hardware too, not just the software costs. Windows is famous of being power hungry and it might not be very feasible to buy or replace new hardware every time there is an OS upgrade (which is the case with Windows). But things like the MS Exchange 2007 are really good products for office environments and still its hard to replace MS Outlook with clients like Evolution. But at the same time MTA's like sendmail has a lot of advantages and flexibility over Exchange. It all comes down to requirements. So you need to know when to choose what is bes t for you. Be it Linux, Windows or any other OS or application. My advise is don't be restricted , be open.

Finally the future of Linux on Desktop looks bright, Its been catching up and needs about 2 more years to be fully accepted by normal home users. In terms of looks and feel, I guess on the right track now with projects like Beryl and XGL, etc. Ubuntu might be catching up on this area, where they will attract new comers into Linux and maybe home users. Some still might argue that distributions like Fedora are much better (I think so too), but fact is Ubuntu is reaching out for the normal end users and they are doing a good job too. In the server side, Linux is unbeatable (web servers, application servers, email, etc) but to be practical presently in Maldives there is not much demand for anything like this much. Mostly people need File servers for windows environments and maybe just a DB server (since most developments in Maldives is based on MS, like MS SQL Server , .NET or just VB) they are based on Windows. When it comes to high end computing, like ISP's , banks and telecoms *NIX or Linux is better utilized and common.

So next level, lets just observe and document the progress :) and comment as we can.

News Post

2006-11-05T13:41:00.000+05:00

Dear Asia OSS Symposium Members,

It has been a loooong while since the 7th Asia OSS Symposium
in KL, Malaysia, hope you all are fine. This is Tomoko Asai @ CICC.

Center of International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC),
and Institute Technology Bandung (ITB）, together with
Ministry of Research and Technology Indonesia,
Ministry of Communication & Information Indonesia,
and The Institute of Engineers, Indonesia (PII) will hold
the 8th Asia Open Source Software Symposium in Indonesia.

Date will be from Feb 13 to 15, 2007 at Bali for the Asia OSS Symposium,
together with the CodeFest from Feb 11 to 12 at Bandung,
and Localization Workshop on Feb. 12 evening at Bali.

For the 8th Asia OSS Symposium, we would like to nominate
2-3 participants from each economy (19 economies) ;
1) one Full-Funded participant (supported by CICC)
Those who will be entitled only for public or non-profit organization,
not for commercial company people.
2) Private participants (supported by own expenses)

The deadline of nominating the participants, as well as
the detail of the theme and concept for the symposium,
will be announced very soon. Also website will be updated soon.

Thanks & Best Regards,
-------------------------------------------------
Asai Tomoko (Ms.)
Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC)
International Information Technology Lab.
Add: 3 Fl., NBF Ogawamachi Bldg.,
1-3-1 Ogawamachi, Kanda, Chiyodaku, Tokyo 101-0052
Tel: +81-3-5283-0811 Fax: +83-3-5283-0808
mailto:asai@net.cicc.or.jp / http://www.cicc.or.jp
Referer : http://www.mlug.mv/contact.php

the LUG

2006-09-11T12:06:00.000+05:00

we do have a LUG the url is www.mlug.mv