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Ask About the Iraqi LUG

Posted by Roblimo on from the Linux-everywhere-for-everyone dept.

Yes, there is a Linux Users Group in Iraq. When it was first mentioned on Slashdot it only had two members. It's grown a little since then, as has The Iraqi Linux Group Portal. Adam Davidson, an American reporter in Baghdad who helped start the group, has agreed to answer your questions about Linux in Iraq. Please post only one question per comment. We'll email Adam 10 of the highest-moderated questions, and post his answers verbatim (except for HTML formatting) when he gets them back to us.

3 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Encryption by I8TheWorm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not trying to be a troll at all, but with Linux, does it matter? It's not produced (in many cases anyway) by a US company which is bound to US law. Are there any other reasons, i.e. international law, that would restrict the use of stronger encryption than the US allows in Iraq?

    One of the finer points to be made regading use of Linux is none of it (again, unless you use a distro from a US company) is bound by US law, and least that's how I percieve it.

    --
    Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
  2. Re:Encryption by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, Sun Microsystems for example makes sure that your IP belongs to a well-known and trusted subnet before it allows you to download code that may infringe on export rules.

    Which accomplishes... Nothing?

    "Hi, Mom&Pop's Hometown ISP? I'd like to sign up with you. Yup, great, can I pay for a year in advance via direct deposit? Good. Okay, yeah, I'll need a shell account, does that present a problem? No? You'll have it active in fifteen minutes? Great. Thanks, bye".

    Poof, any amount of attempted IP-to-geography mapping completely defeated. Saddam47@momnpop.com now appears to come from Sandusky, Ohio, not Tikrit, Iraq.

    And that even goes so far as to assume someone has to pay for such obfuscation of their physical location... Personally, although I live in the US and don't need to circumvent export rules to do anything, I have a number of accounts in various places to get around strange policies I've encountered (such as "only from a .edu", or "only from South Dakota"). And not a single one of them have I ever needed to pay for (nor steal them, which a "real" criminal probably would not hesitate to do).

  3. the best question asked yet.... by pauly_thumbs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How can we help? Are there ways for Americans to donate machines to the Iraqi people and what types of machines are needed most?

    Here in Seattle there are lots of PII's at the Goodwill - great for Linux use :)