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Sri Lanka Declares an Open Source Week
AnuradhaRatnaweera writes "Sri Lankan Government has declared (Google cache) the week starting from the 5th of September as the National Free and Open Source Software Week. The FOSS Community, Government's ICTA and the industry are working together to organize the week's events including the FOSSSL Conference and Asia Open Source Symposium. The week has been selected to end (well, almost) with the Software Freedom Day."
See here for why its a bad (and extremely annoying) idea to make every other word in the summary a link.
AN Open Source Week. Seriously.. are we outsourcing editorial work to India, too?
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
Slashdot announces a gramer/spelink wek
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I suppose this is to lure people away from warez?
What are you expecting to find here?
If they celebrate open source and free software, they're essentially attacking proprietary and costly software. And if you're not paying for software, you're hurting American business. And if you are hurting American business, you're a terrorist.
Time to attack that piddly nation and that fat lazy western science fiction author!
Now that Sri Lanka supports open source, 2005 is sure to be the year of the Linux desktop!
Note to mods: I'm probably being sarcastic.
I mean, making what seems like a holiday for open source...next it will become a religion...
Ummm...Oh yeah. Nevermind. Too late.
I, for one, welcome our new Sri Lankan Open Source Celebrating Overlords.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Sri Lanka is also on the front line against Indian Imperialism and likes open source.
Go Sri Lanka !!!
Wow! thats a really powerful ally to have in the movement.
What is next? 'Podunk Idaho says no to AOL for a week' ?
Sheesh.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"Sri Lanki Declares Open Source Weak." Open source isn't weak, you insenstive Sri Lankan clods... Oh wait, where did I put my glasses?
Online citizen journalism from the inner city: The View From The Ground
It's not exactly silicon valley... Do people even care about rights ensure by the GPL when they'd probably be ecstatic to have a magic wonder box that can compute results in seconds!
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
Sri Lanka has a population of 20 million and has 19 political parties.
--
Faith-based lying? Faith-based killing?
I work for a company called Interact whose hardware/software runs cell phone networks down there... and yes They DO run Linux! ;)
This is really a slow news day when the news of a small developing nation declaring it a "open-source week" can make it to the front page. Anybody can declare it a "week", and unless there's some hard commitment and actions behind it it's not really news. I heard Elbonia may consider declaring open-source month, if slashdot editors are in need of news.
the source for this week?
WFT does this have to do with Sri Lanka or open source week?
I have a settop box and yes it runs Linux, woopie.
You mean all 100 citizens?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I don't know what your problem is, I use Linux exclusively for over 5 years now and I get everything done without any problems.
/. crowd repairs the Windows computers of their family, friends, and neighbours.
Then today the family got called together for a problem with my sister's WinXP pc. When I arrived my father was already running a virus scanner, and it had detected a trojan. So I wanted to open a browser and check it out. Problem: the scanner window was always on top. Great (it soon became clear the software was full of UI bugs).
Then my sister started complaining that some games didn't work, and mentioned something about DirectX versions. I simply told her I don't know and I don't WANT to know. After all these years, DirectX STILL has those problems??
So tell me again why XP would be superior? I think there are gems and horrible apps on both platforms, and if you don't know what you're doing you're screwed anyway whatever platform you run. I mean, as soon as something goes wrong they become dependant on the nearest computer geek they can find. I'm sure 90% of the
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Oh, nice, another proprietary software advocate to rebuff!
``End users do not care if software source code is open to the winds or kept locked in a vault south southwest of Area 51. They care that it is cost effective, easy to use, and does what they want.''
Which is where OSS has the edge. If it doesn't work the way you want it to work, you can customize it. You may not be able to do so yourself, but chances are other people are in the same situation, and one of those will make improvements that help you, too. Had the software been closed-source, the only options would have been to license the software and modify it, rewrite it from scratch, or hope that the authors improve it for you. Neither of these are typically very effective, and all are available with open-source as well.
Given the greater potential for customization, the (typically) lower costs of purchase and upgrades, and the fact that the software can still be maintained if the original authors abandon the project, it would seem that open-source software is more cost effective than proprietary software, too.
Of course, this is assuming all else is equal. It shouldn't come as a surprise if an open-source office suite lacked some features and polisht compared to a closed-source one that was started about 10 years earlier.
``This obsession with the words "free" and "open" is getting way past bizarre now and I think becoming raised to the level of religious fervor and dogma as a method of practicing psychological CYA in avoidance of "not getting it" as to why Windows and those who program on it continue to kick OSS ass consistantly.''
So Windows is kicking OSS's ass consistantly? I wouldn't say that, judging by the security track record, the stability track record, the quality of the user interface, the flexibility of the shell, the ability to run on hardware of various architectures and performance, the ease with which software written for other systems can be ported to it, the ability to customize it, the cost of purchasing it, and the comments I hear from people using the system on a daily basis.
F/OSS excels in all these areas and leaves Windows behind, and it seems at least plausible that many of the successes of F/OSS can be explained by the open availability of the source code and the adherence to existing standards.
``It's more about avoiding taking responsibility for writing what is still for the average end-user crappy, hard to use, esoteric, inaccessible software''
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I see more people struggling with installing software and keeping the system clean, up to date and secure on Windows than on Linux. It used to be the other way around, but nowadays you need to be more of a computer expert to effectively use Windows than Linux.
``I remember when I'd burn code that was less than what the other person expected out of me because it embarassed me.''
With all the stability and security issues, I can't help but think Microsoft isn't doing the same thing. Although there are many, many crappy open-source packages out there, there are also many projects that have very high standards for what code they will accept. I don't think you can generalize to the whole of open source here.
``Now the Internet culture of saying more nothing in more ways has invaded coding and we write things, call them open, and give away the source as freely as we blog.''
Which gives others the opportunity to adopt and improve your code if they feel like it, and ignore it if they don't. Had you posted the same code as a closed-source program, people wouldn't even _know_ how crappy the code was, let alone be able to improve it.
``If code is truly good and important, it doesn't matter if it is open or not.''
But how do you know the code is truly good if you can't see it?
``I don't use Xine, FC3, MTR, or a dozen other things because they are open.''
And damn well you shouldn't. Nobody is saying you should use software you don't like, just
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Sorry for this obvious observation: why would any small country not want to use open source?
:-) make arguments for my standardizing on Windows Desktops is a good idea - but, for developing countries open source IT infrastructure is the best.
The only possible answer would be to be compatible with the world of all-things-Microsoft, but OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, etc. have good compatibility when you need it.
I am very much of a computer nerd so using Windows, Linux, and OS X all on a dayly basis does not bother me, but for 'normal people', multiple learning curves are too big of a hit on productivity.
Start kids off in grade school with a reasonable Linux distro like (for example) Ubuntu with OpenOffice.org (or a lighter weight word processor on limited computers), and save money and build up local infrastructure and capabilities.
For large companies in the US and Europe, I could (if I wanted to, which I don't
Microsoft Declares Open Souce Weak
Cracks me up he gets attacked for stating the obvious. The attitiude that you really owe it to someone/yourself/Linux to spend ten hours digging through bad doc to get something to work as opposed to using an easy-to-install user-friendly app is a real problem with acceptance of OSS, even if mostly undeserved in the actual practice. It's certainly the party line often enough.
I mean, here he's telling you what OSS apps he uses (frankly it's more than I do) and he still gets "flamebait" and is a "Windows user to rebut".
Yes, Windows XP still kicking Linux ass in any real terms in nearly any desktop situation you'd care to find. It may be running 3/4 of the cool new embedded h/w, servers and POS boxes up the wahoo, but not to the user.
Remember the users? We're all users sometime, and frankly, the older get I get the less of my precious time I want to spend dicking around with some program that demands a semester at sea to get working.
Make it work, make it easy, and people will use it whether it's free or not. That's all he's saying.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Well, now that you're here: I think you forgot "unamerican".
nt
Calcutta declares an Open Sores week...
I kid I kid...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Sri Lanka at the edge of a civil war? Sounds like someone is trying to get some good press for their country.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
So, how's that Excel spreadsheet going? Your PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow's meeting?
Hmmm, maybe your definition of "getting everything done" is not the same as others.
5 years and no problems? What's your definition of a problem?
So let me get this straight, you were like, a guy running an upholstery shop with no more interest in PCs than your credit card system. That what a "normal" user is. And you switched to Linux and experienced no difficulties whatsoever, yes?
And then you "don't know and don't want to know" about how to d/l a common update to Windows, but the people who feel that way about Linux are ignorant? It sounds like your family had the situation well in hand before you came in with your preconceptions of How Things Work.
As far as OSS goes I suggest you're part of the problem, not the solution.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
So, how's that Excel spreadsheet going? Your PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow's meeting?
Oh, please! As if you can't make a decent spreadsheet using Linux! BTW, other Office Suites have been ported to Linux (remember what happened to WP?), I just don't see that happening to MS office because it's created by the same people who sell Windows. Basically it's one big lock-in. So maybe it's not that good an idea to use that particular suite you're refering to.
And then you "don't know and don't want to know" about how to d/l a common update to Windows, but the people who feel that way about Linux are ignorant?
It was already the newest version. I was just saying that Joe Average has lots of problems with windows, but Joe Average knows people who will help him out.
Joe Average will also have a lot of problems with Linux, but if Joe Average knows people who can help him out, he will be able to use it just the same. Also remember that a Linux distro installs a lot of software you have to install seperately on Windows.
As far as OSS goes I suggest you're part of the problem, not the solution.
Thanks for expressing your opinion!
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
I know you can make a spreadsheet under Windows man, but let's face it, MS makes things easy for humans.
Trust me, I've worked with literally every Windows version ever, and for that matter every DOS version ever, and OS/2, CP/M, Solaris, Linux, etc. They all have their problems. When you say you've never had a problem using Linux it makes you sound like you really haven't tried to do that much. I'm sure that's not the case, but I think you're simplfying things a bit, no?
In the last 5 years I've processed 50M imaged documents and gawd knows how many ORM records using... wait for it.. Windows. Not my choice, really. But if you're a professional you make it happen.
What the original poster was saying, simply, was that people want easy to use stuff, and he's quite correct. The combination of free (as in beer OR speech) AND ease of use is what we need to get to.
Cheers...
BL
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Only a few has got computers here. But there are lot of activities happenning to change it. Including a project to put tens of thousands of GNU/Linux boxes in rural homes
Looks like many are thinking we are looking for FOSS as a cheap alternative, which is only a part of the story. We are more interested in the flexibility and independence than the cost itself.
And in terms of contribution, Sri Lanka hasn't been idle. For example, most of the Apahce Web Services contributers, including the lead, are living here.
Check out ELKS. It's a system based on Linux that runs on 16 bit PCs (including those based on the 8088).
Indeed, this is not the main Linux kernel, and the required changes will probably never be merged into the main tree, but it's at least theoretically possible to do so. The fact that this system is based on Linux is a testament to the flexibility Linux provides.
I'm not sure if ELKS is still being actively developed, but if you look at the main page, you'll see that it has been updated in 2003. This is long after Microsoft Windows abandoned stopped supporting the 8088 (that happened sometime in the mid-1980s IIRC).
Linux has also been known to run on watches, although it's entirely possible that current watches are much more computationally capable than 8088-based PCs.
Anyway, to make the point explicit: it's relatively easy to get Linux to work about pretty much any sort of computer. The most important reasons for this are:
1. It's open source, so if you have the skills and the tools, you can do it yourself. You are not dependent on somebody else to do it for you.
2. Linux has already been ported to a wide variety of hardware. Many assumptions about hardware working a certain way have been removed or put in architecture-dependent files.
3. Linux is based on a design (Unix) whose main innovation was portability, and the ability to run on low-spec hardware. Throughout Unix, the mantra has been Keep It Simple, Stupid. Also, the system is written in C, which was designed to abstract away from the differences in architecture.
4. Linux is less tied to a certain mode of interaction than other current operating systems. Whereas it's hard to imagine Windows without a GUI, Linux works fine with or without a GUI, with or without a keyboard, with or without a serial console, etc. etc. etc.
There is a snowball effect here; because of the easy access to the source (1), and the source being in a portable language (3), it's easy to compile Linux for a new device. In the porting process, assumptions about that hardware (2) and modes of interaction (4) will be isolated, making the code even easier to port to new architectures. This, in turn, leads Linux to compare favorable to competing OSes w.r.t. portability, increasing the chances that new devices will receive a Linux port. This reinforces 2, 3, and 4. Add to this the fact that the GPL requires sharing changes that you distribute, even 1 is reinforced, so there's a complete feedback loop.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
As I repeated somewhere else, my originally submitted title read "Sri Lanka Declares a FOSS Week", which was edited to "Sri Lanka Declares a Open Source Weak".
Seems as if there's an element of SARCASM around here! :D
After all y cannot a developing nation adopt OSS?
If it does the work that's required, and much robust than the 'BULL' gates stuff
I agree with one thing! Not half of the country but very few people know about Linux and that is true for Microsoft too!
This is something very funny for someone who can pay loads of money to tranxnational company like MS for thier software. In the Sri Lankan situation an assembled PC would cost around $500 and that too is very very expensive for most of the people in SL. Can somene imagine spending half of their income in an year (the average income in SL is around $1000) on PC and another hefty sum on proprietory software. This where the Linux come in. At present no one cares about Linux. But some one has to start some where. This is the time it has to start.