[LI] ilug-cochin minutes for Jan 2000

[Shanker Balan <shanu@xxxxxxxx>]

Date: Sunday, 16th January 2000
Time: 3 pm - 5:30 pm
Agenda: - none -
Venue: Professional Services, Broadway
Attendance: 15 Heads

                -- Minutes --

The agenda was intentionally left unset so that we could frame one
before the meeting as per the recommendations of the attendees. This
proved to be a very bad idea as very little on the agenda could be taken
up. The day was spent bashing each other on all possible topics like...

- To use *free* distributions like Debian not *closed* distros like RHL
- The relevance of free software and proprietary software
- All software should be free
- PCQ pushing *only* RHL is detrimental to the interests of the Indian
Linux community
- Whether Linux is really ready for the Desktop
- RedHat: Darth Vader of the Linux world
- Debian: Luke Skywalker of the Linux world
- Linux India list being a RHL centric and un-friendly to non-RHL users

Mr Srinath M, Scientist at the Central Marine Fisheries Research
Institute (CMFRI) Cochin, gave us a valuable insight on the working of
his department and other govt research departments with regard to
computerization. Though it is currently Unix and MS Windows, he plans to
deploy Linux systems where ever possible in his dept. He also spoke
about the challenges and restrictions he has to face in govt
institutions. The lug wishes him success and all possible help in his
quest to revolutionize the computer department at CMFRI.

He gave us valuable advice on promoting Linux to government
institutions. However, the future for Linux in public institutions looks
bleak as it was reported that the Kerala govt has purchased MS products
worth Rs 300 crores! Competition in the software world, he emphasized,
was highly necessary for driving innovations.

Ramakrishnan, Texas Instruments, barged in to say a few words before
leaving for B'lore by the 6:15 bus. We were shocked when he informed us
that TI had shifted their development platform from UNIX to NT and the
users are now having fun rebooting their NT workststations twice a day.
:) It seems that TI is considering getting back to UNIX again for
stability reasons. Guess they learnt it the hard way! ;-)

BTW Ramakrishnan, hope u made it to the bus stop on time! :-)

Before i close, i want to add that ilug-cochin has completed one full
year in operation. Here are some statistics -

Number of attendanees for the 1st meeting: 7
Attendees for this meeting: 15
Mailing list subscribers: 22
Peak attendance for a meeting: 28 
Average attendance: 13+

Join the ilug-cochin mailing at: 				                     
http://www.egroups.com/list/ilug-cochin/info.html

And finally, a spl thanx to Sudhir Gandotra for providing us space at
netshooter.com for the homepage:

        www.netshooter.com/ilug-cochin


-- Shanu
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - = = (SHANU) = = - -
  St. Albert's College             Debian/GNU Linux 
  Cochin  India				Potato Powered


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