New tamil linux site

[M K Saravanan <mksarav@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

kindly go thru the following mess.
-- mks --

********************************************************************
M K Saravanan, 
Member Research Staff,
The AU-KBC Centre for Internet & Telecom Technologies,
Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University,
Chromepet, Chennai 600 044.
Tamilnadu, INDIA

Tel     (O): 91 44 2417885         Email: mksarav@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Telefax (O): 91 44 2402711         URL  : http://mksarav.tripod.com
*******************************************************************


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 16:58:20 +0900
From: Dr. V. Venkataramanan <venkat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hello and Greetings.

We are glad to present a new website http://www.tamillinux.org   It is 
mirrored at http://www.os4.com/tamil

This is an unifying effort of all linux efforts toward localizing to 
tamil language.  The site is both from the developer and the user point 
of view.  While we provide a platform for the linux developers to 
discuss their work, we also make their work available to the common 
user.  Simply put, we aspire to make this a one-stop resource point for 
all your tamil linux needs. 

The site contains, as of now, a lot of introduction to linux, user tips, 
how-tos, tutorials and other documents.  It also has pointers to other 
linux resources.  We plan to build up on it.  Also all tamil linux 
programs and utilities are available for the user from a single page 
(ftp access is also possible).  This is expected to grow further.  We 
plan to add discussions in the near future. All tamil material are 
presented in dynamic  TSCII fonts (no need to install any fonts).

Simultaneous to this, we are also setting up a Tamil Linux Project at 
SourceForge (sourceforge.net), this is a consortium of multinational IT 
companies such as VA Linux, HP, IBM, etc.  This project space will be 
made use for all developments.  Everyone is welcome to join this. The 
project related discussions are currently at www.egroups.com/tamilinux

Some of you may be aware; the recently released K Desktop Environment 
(KDE) for linux and unix operating systems version 2.0 supports tamil as 
one of the languages.  This for the first time in any indic languages an 
operating system user interface is available.  We are proud that tamil 
leads the way here. Mr. Sivakumar has planned and executed this project, 
with the support of some volunteers.  Thus it is possible to do most of 
your daily computer tasks -like editing, drawing, web browsing, ftp, 
dial up connection, file management, in tamil interface.  Linux as you 
may be knowing is a powerful multiuser, multitasking, operating system - 
even linux power operations like user and network management, task 
scheduling, etc. can now be done in tamil.  KDE also comes with an 
office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, illustration), 
siva and others are currently adding tamil support to this also.    An 
easy guide to setting up a working tamil computer is presented in the site.

Another elegant and powerful desktop for unix-like systems, GNOME is 
also now starting to wear tamil look.  Mr. Dinesh Nadarajah is leading 
the group.  tamillinux.org houses both these projects.  Mr. Sivaraj has 
written a powerful console support to tamil.  A few of us have also 
written documentation for these.  We welcome you to use and enjoy all these.

Mr. Maniam of iDNS.com, singapore has helped us in getting the domain 
name registered and ensured initial web support.  Mr. P. Asokan of 
Chennaionline (aaraamthinai) has provided additional web and ftp 
facilities.  We are grateful to them.  A voluntary initiative like this 
needs a lot of participation, even nontechnical volunteers can help in 
documentation and translation.  We look forward to your support. If you 
maintain a pointer to the websites, please include tamillinux.org also.

Now we welcome to the site http://www.tamillinux.org .  Please convey 
your suggestions and opinions.  Thank you,

Dr. V. Venkataramanan
Tokyo, Japan  9th Nov. 2000
venkat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS:  This is mailed to you/the group with a sincere hope that it may 
interest you.  We apologise if this is irrelevant to you.

Forward this mail, if you think someone/group might be interested.  Thanks.