aashiks'in

I have been using Chromium web browser on my Arch Linux, on which Google Chrome is based. It was a pleasent experience. It loads fast, hogs less memory and loads tabs very fast. On the whole, I liked it so much that I use it for most of my browsing except for online banking. I do miss the extensions , but the speed and responsivness makes up for it.

Since it was a wee bit older ( it didnt have the extensions feature ), I thought I would update it via Arch User Repository. I had forgotten the exact name of the package so I did a search for Chromium and the following entry popped up on my screen.

“aur/iron 4.0.227-1 (125)
A web browser based on chromium without Google’s tracking ‘features’”

It was then that I realized that even chromium has phone back home features built into it. But it was then that another facet of FOSS world showed itself . SRWare took the source code, removed those tracking features and added features ( like ad blocking and and a later version of webkit ). I uninstalled Chromium right away and replaced it with Iron. I must say that its sweeter than Chromium. I think people should give it a try.

Shew. 2009 begins well for FSUG-tvm. We had four installfests planned this year.  One each at Barton Hill, Mar Baselios, SCT and LBSITW. The reason why there are no individual posts on each is because installfests have lost their novelty and has become generic. Nothing big to report you know. Routine stuff.  We have a set process now, and we can conduct an installfest anywhere, given enough notice. The toaster is helping us out too.

But the news here is not that.

The news is , we don’t get any install requests during our installfests.  All the installfests this year were more of public interaction sessions rather than extensive installation processes. In fact, only less than 5 systems were installed this time around, counting in all the installfests.

My theory is that everyone is now aware of what this whole “Linux” ( GNU/Linux) thing is about. GnU/Linux usage has risen so much that the curious ones , i.e) the ones who would have come to installfests , now have easier access to someone who knows how to install GNU/linux . They don’t need installfests now. They might have friends or relatives who will help them out. GNU/Linux users in Thiruvananthapuram are no longer a hobbyist crowd.

So FSUG-tvm will be moving on to the next stages. Giving hands on workshops. I don’t have a clear idea about how we will go about doing this, but the mailing list discussion seems to be evolving into something that will be viable.

Onward to a small report of each installfest

Barton Hill installfest borked. I think the event itself was cut down massively. I do not know the reason. And this was the only installfest in which I didn’t show up.

Mar Baselios installfest would have gotten more attention had we been placed a bit more closer to the main venue. We did get a few visitors and a bunch of mech students.  I can say that we did quite a lot of preaching there. Just four snaps, here.

SCT installfest : By far the best setup we ever got anywhere. Undeniable. Plus the organizers were very thorough. We could have handled a hundred installs in a day. We had enough (willing) volunteers. Anoop Jacob Thomas seems to have done awesome work there, motivating the students. The toaster was there too. But unfortunately, not many showed up. So we stood around watching people, chatting among ourselves, while the students handled the occasional visitors. Of course we preached to a few people there too.

LBSITW’s installfest was awesome in the sense that we broke through into a particular community which so far had not responded to all these happenings in technology.  LBSITW is the lone women only engineering college in India. And the fact that FSUG-tvm was able to reach into this women only community shows that women are interested in tech and they need only a venue which respects them.

The students at LBSITW who organized the fest were very motivated. While we expected these levels of motivation from any group,  LBSITW surprised us by exceeding them.  Hand drawn posters, a nicely positioned venue and well trained volunteers who really were eager and passionate about what they were doing.  And these students seemed to be loving the tech part too. The fact that all of them were women and they managed to arrange so much with little external support is appreciable.  I feel that everyone should learn from these students about how they approached the whole thingy. They knew exactly what they wanted and was ready to learn and work for it. Awesome job there, people. I expect them to carry it on and participate more actively in FSUG-tvm as well as other groups like Swathanthra Malayalam Computing . I took some photos of what they did.

Even though this post is about installfests ,  I would like to highlight one more thing. We managed to reach into CET. Contrary to what I expected, CET was the least enthusiastic student community when FSUG-tvm was started. They had stayed off even when the rest of the colleges took an active interest in FOSS. But now it seems that the sleeping giant is waking up.  When we went to give a talk there, we could feel it. I am hoping that they will gate crash the whole FOSS scene in Kerala and will take the lead when it comes to contributing code to other projects. They have that stuff in there. They just need some prodding .

Indeed , good things have been happening in Thiruvananthapuram  since 2009 began. I am happy to see a vibrant community in place of the ten member group that started off in 2007. Hats off to everyone.

The recent brouhaha over the government’s publication of a utility for Tax filing in Excel format, which goes clearly against the stated software policy ( link ) and community’s ( specifically, Anoop John’s ) response to it shows why FOSS should be encouraged.

When an issue like this occurs, if there is a healthy free software community in place, they will respond to it loudly and some actions speak louder than words. Kudos to Anoop for doing this. Anoop, your time was not wasted at all.

Here is my standing on FOSS. I had thought a lot and talked to people whose opinions i value before making the decision to adopt this stance

I love FOSS . I love good software – even if its proprietary.

There are context and situations for which FOSS becomes a solution.

FOSS is a must only when it comes to software used for governance and public education

I don’t care if Microsoft or other companies make money off their proprietary solutions. In fact the point of the whole FOSS thing comes into light only when we think about software as something that is used for solving problems faced by the society.

Governance is one such area . So is education.

A government or a population should never be under the mercy of a company who provides software for their day to day functioning. Community Owned Software [COS] would be a more appropriate term for FOSS in that light. A government using COS is not dependent on any external force for its software needs . The advantages include  job opportunities generated for software maintenance and customization as well as lower overall cost . The same arguments apply to education also.

Leave out the rest .There is no harm in making proprietary software or using it – whether to create something that will be owned by the community or not is your choice .

You can create and sell a wonderful app and make a living . It is perfectly alright. It is your code , after all.

Software is a matter of convenience. It makes life easy .

Lastly, don’t bash companies like Microsoft or Apple . Behind all their dirty tactics and copyright cases , there are developers . Respect their efforts .