[Fsf-friends] Some feedback: LINUXForYou
FN
fred@bytesforall.org
Sat, 15 Feb 2003 12:44:55 +0530 (IST)
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SOME FEEDBACK to the recent first issue of India's first mag devoted wholly
to Free/Libre and Open Source Software, * LINUXForYou*:
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o Get-up excellent, value-for-money real good. This was only to be
expected from a ElectronicsForYou-stable publication.
o Depth of information, fair to good.
o Coverage of India-related issues: poor. Much of the focus was on
the corporate world and its products. This may be a good policy
to draw adverts. What about those idealistic youngsters slogging away
unnoticed across the length and breadth of India. Except for Avneesh
and Shivaas (Page 9) these go largely unnoticed.
o Clarity of vision: poor. Lot of focus on "Open Source". Free Software
and the ideals that launched it (from the 'seventies and before,
not just since 1998) seems to have got, in this magazine,
intentionally or otherwise, overlooked. Again, this may be good
for luring the business world; but certainly not helpful in
building up an ethical basis for sharing software (and ultimately,
knowledge) among those who need it.
o Open Source and Free Software have common origins but now
different emphasis. It would be best if *both* are covered, rather
than excluding one or the other. The term FLOSS (Free/Libre and
Open Source Software), popularised by an Indian in Holland,
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, covers both adequately. As it has been argued,
'Free Software' and 'Open Source' describe the same category of
software "more or less" but say different things about the
software and about values. The GNU Project continues to use the
term "Free Software" to express the idea that freedom, not just
(good) technology, is important.
o Illustrations: could be improved. Understandable for a new mag
o Participation by the GNU/Linux community (both Free Software and
Open Source): marginal. Linux-India gets a low-down mention in a
listing of websites.
o Focus on different distros: poor to fair. Seems to continue the
trend of focussing mainly on the main (commercial) distros, e.g
RedHat and Mandrake, as other Indian computer mags have done.
The inclusion of Knoppix is a great decision though. Otherwise,
distros like Debian get ignored or mentioned just in passing.
As an Indian mag, products like Elx (the distro from Hyderabad)
could merit a closer look.
o The editorial was particularly well written.
o Once again: do we need a CD with every issue? Won't this push
up costs? My favoured model is SPIDER, Pakistan's Internet magazine
(Rs 35 rupees per issue, i.e. Pakistani rupees, which might be
around Rs 30 or less INR. Printed on inexpensive newsprint,
full colour, over 100 pages, packed with info, focus in large
measure on local issues!)
o Can LFY put it's money where it's mouth is? Suresh
Ramasubramanian <mallet@efn.org> has already point out to
Bharathi's posting on ilug-chennai that the LFY website
uses ASP script, and has a website which is "designed
primarily for (Microsoft's) Internet Explorer". If
GNU/Linux is really so good technology, why not accept
it before selling it to the rest of the globe?
o Some writers seem to be accepting Microsoft's logic
and arguments quite willingly.
o What's lacking in the mag:
-Links to all LUGs around India (even LinuxMagazine from Europe
has a listing of some Indian LUGs) with URLs, mailing list
details
-Schedules of different LUG/GLUG meets planned in India
-Profile of various GLUG/LUG websites and mailing lists
-Greater focus on innovative GNU/Linux work from students
and individuals within India
-More reporting on the GNU/Linux scene in Asia, particularly
South Asia
-Possible reproduction of columns such as BraveGNUWorld
-More interaction with GLUGs, FSUGs and LUGs across India.
o In conclusion: This mag is going to help spread awareness about
GNU/Linux. But whether it also helps build the ethical base of
Free Software (which started everything off, in a sense) is a
big question. As of now, it's not showing any signs of doing so.
o To quote RMS: "The interest in the software is growing faster
than awareness of the philosophy it is based on, and this
leads to trouble. Our ability to meet the challenges and threats
... depends on the will to stand firm for freedom. To make
sure our community has this will, we need to spread the idea to
the new users as they come into the community. But we are failing
to do so; the effort to attract new users into our community
are far outstripping the efforts to teach them the civics of our
community. We need to do both, and we need to keep the two
efforts in balance." LINUXForYou is going to be doing a great
job on one aspect; on the other, there are not much signs that
it plans to do anything significant yet... (FN)
--
_____ _ _ _
| ___| __ ___ __| | ___ _ __(_) ___| | __ Freelance Journo, Goa India
| |_ | '__/ _ \/ _` |/ _ \ '__| |/ __| |/ / http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
| _|| | | __/ (_| | __/ | | | (__| < http://www.bytesforall.org
|_| |_| \___|\__,_|\___|_| |_|\___|_|\_\ http://opennews.indianissues.org
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference