ILUG(GOA): Linux meet, Dec 18 report

[Frederick Noronha <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

INDIA LINUX USERS' GROUP (GOA) * BRIEF REPORT OF MEETING 18.12.99

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LINUX -- one of the hottest things happening today in computers.
If you're not teaching your students Linux, they're missing out.
India Linux Users Group (Goa) offers free support to computer 
institutes that wish to teach Linux to their students. Contact 
grbhat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Prof Gurunandan Bhat) or arvind@xxxxxxxxx 
(Arvind Yadav) or fred@xxxxxxxx (Frederick Noronha) for details.
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India Linux Users Group (Goa) met on December 18, 1999. It was a 
marathon meet that went on for over 200 minutes. We were thrilled 
to have Linux guru Atul Chitnis present for the meet.
It was also really nice to have some prominent computer gurus 
representing major Goa-based firms -- like Dempos, Philcorp, 
ControlNet and others -- present for this small but very 
interesting meet.

Some prominent decisions and suggestions:
* DMC College Mapusa student Vishal Chodnekar stressed the need 
to encourage private computer training centres to offer courses 
in Linux.
* Earlier decision to hold a Linux instal-fest was reviewed. It 
was decided to go ahead with the same, and Prof Bhat suggested 
that the Panjim-based school, Mustifund, would be willing to act 
as a partner for staging this programme. 
* CDs with Linux kernel and applications (including Star Office) 
would be burnt and made available to those interested, at cost.
* Set of applications relevant for the teaching of computers in 
schools would be put together, to allow for the easy spread of 
Linux popularity.
* Prof G R Bhat said he was working on a plan to give a Tiswadi 
school (Rosary-Dona Paula) a Linux-based shared Internet access 
and email accounts for students. 

Some feedback that came up at the meet:
* Dempo deputy GM Mr Mahambre says he got "hooked onto Linux" 
when he started hearing good reports about it of late. But the 
lack of free machines, pressures of work and Y2K pressures means 
his firm is yet to get into Linux. "We are still in an 
experimental stage," says he.
* Vivek Pai Angle of the Agnel Polytech Computers Lab wanted to 
know if ILUG could help the institution in setting up Linux. 
There were pledges for help on this front.
* PhilCorp's Anil Seth said the photography major was using Linux 
for a number of applications. The firm had also developed a 
point-of-sale Linux-based software for photo-labs.  There were a 
group of six to seven persons working on that application at the 
Tivim Industrial Estate, and over a dozen working on Linux in the 
firm. Other polytech students were also accepted to undertake 
Linux-based projects, he reported.
* ControlNet's Sunil Nambiar said the firm was using x-based 
applications for connecting to Sun systems. Earlier, it used NT, 
but now it has six to seven stations using Linux for desktops, 
and one Internet server.
* Arvind Yadav pointed out that Star Office had been downloaded 
both by the National Institute of Oceanography and Goa 
University, and he planned to cut these onto CDs for 
distribution.
* Members at the meet spoke about the atrocious prices that some 
proprietary software was being quoted at.
* Atul Chitnis reported that NIIT was a corporate leader in Linux 
usage. It already had 500+ installations, and had already 
announced a new Linux course, teaching RedHat 6.0
* Chitnis also felt that not sufficient was being done in India 
to "Indianise" Linux as an operating system, with regional 
language fonts. Diverse efforts are being undertaken in different 
directions, he lamented.

Many technical problems were discussed threadbare, and the 
presence of Atul Chitnis helped all of us at the meet.

Please note: ILUG(Goa) meets on the last Saturday of every month 
at the Computer Society of India, 3rd Floor, Opposite Navtara, 
Panjim Market Area, Panjim. (Ph 22 96 05) Next meeting: Jan 29, 2000.

Present for the ILUG-Goa meeting on Dec 18, 1999: 
* Atul Chitnis, Bangalore 
* Anselm Almeida, Scientist, NIO anselm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Animesh N Nerurkar, Auto Engineering Student punni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Prakash R Mahambre, Dy GM (EDP) Dempos EDP@xxxxxxxxxx
* Vivek Pai Angle, Lab Asst, Fr Agnel's Polytech Ph 22 80 20
* Sunil Nambiar, ControlNet India suniln@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Arvind Yadav, Online-Goa, arvind@xxxxxxxxx
* Alhad Caculo. Ph 23 19 61
* Anil Seth, Philcorp aseth@xxxxxxxxxxx or anilseth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Vishal Chodnekar, Student BSc (Comp Sc) viren00@xxxxxxxxxxx
* Oscar Mascarenhas, Dy Mgr, Goa Carbon. mascaren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* B B Shaha, ETDC (GoI) etdc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Prof G R Bhat, Goa Univ. grbhat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* D Shankar, Scientist, NIO shankar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Dominic Fernandes, Software Engineer Herald hppltd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Frederick Noronha, Journalist fred@xxxxxxxx 

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INDIA LINUX USERS' GROUP (GOA) NEXT MEET: JAN 29, 1999 4PM CSIGOA
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