[Fsf-friends] One morning at Farmagudi...

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

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ONE MORNING AT FARMAGUDI (GOA)....
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THREE YOUNG people were waiting outside the Mechanical Engineering
department, when we reached before 9 am. It was hard to say whether they
were students or teachers. George Easaw's Kochi-registered Maruti pulled up
within seconds. In some time, the lecturers trickled in. There were a large
number of women too. Who says GNU/Linux is male-centric?

	The day: a drizzly August 30, a Saturday just before Goa
	went into a long weekend (that carries on with bursting
	crackers for the next one-and-half, five, seven, or even
	21 days... during the state's widely-celebrated Ganesh 
	festival).

	The venue: Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi, about 20
	kms east of state-capital Panaji, en route to the
	sylvan temple belt of Ponda which meanders on a small
	crowded road, into the wildlife sanctuaries further east.

Mechanical engineering prof George Easaw <geasaw@vsnl.com>, the man
enthusiastically and steadfastedly promoting GNU/Linux, began by pointing
out that educating educators on Free Software was an imortant task. "It's a
long-felt need, we have the infrastructure, the government is funding us,
and so it's our duty (to do something relevant to society)," he argued. He
said their CAD Lab had been renamed as the Mechanical Engineering Software
Lab, marking a shift to experiment with a whole lot of software there.

	Principal DP Roy, a professor of the IIT-Bombay now overseeing
	the fortunes of the recently upgraded Goa Engineering College
	stressed the need to "get more" out of the college -- by
	spreading skills to others who matter.

Engico's mechanical department HoD (head of department) recalled the visit
of Richard M Stallman (RMS) to the college a year back, and the way this had
fuelled the enthusiasm of the staff and students.

	Soon afterwards, a hands-on session started. In a morning that
	saw everyone glued to their computers, the speakers took their
	student-lecturers around a range of challenges.

A brief brush with the command-line (pwd, mkdir, cd, chmod...). Quickly over
to browsing on GNU/Linux (Mozilla, very nice and easy). Abiword. Then over
to Magicpoint. Getting into and out of Emacs ("Free software never dies. It
keeps growing. Emacs is in its 21st version.") The Gimp. Gnumeric came next.

	By this time, George was asking: "His is the feeling now? How do you
	feel... working on GNU/Linux? You can just play around with it.
	Take a look at the colour selector. The possibilities are infinite."

These lecturers include engineers. Once they get started, and if their
interest does not flag, there's no saying where they would stop. Some of the
Mathematically-inclined were surprised to learn of the statistical
applications available with GNU/Linux distros. ("There's no need to use a
pirated copy of SPSS.")

	K V Madhav <kvmadhav at gec.ac.in>, an Economics lecturer at
	the Engico, came out with an interesting talk on using
	GNU/Linux for audio-video. "All work and no play makes Jack
	a dull boy. So, multimedia is the only place in computing
	where I find my creativity gets enhanced," as he put it.
	Madhav is himself new to Free Software, but has learnt speedily
	within months.

It was time to ask participants, which package they had found most
interesting and most useful. "Photoshop," said someone. They meant that
powerful GNU graphics and image manipulation program called the GIMP! Others
agreed that Gnumeric was the "most useful". 

	It was time to end up. There was a demo of a Red Hat 'Linux' 
	install. Some glitches later (doesn't this always happen when
	demoing?) it was thru. Some participants bought the copies
	of the entire operating system with associated tools, on
	three CDs, for a princely sum of Rs 50. Later, some of us
	headed off for the nearby town of Ponda, 3 kms away, and had
	a meal (with hot, boiling water... can't risk jaundice in
	this season) at a local 'khanavol' (an eatery serving 
	inexpensive home-style meals). By evening, the sun shone
	brightly, and it turned into another day of a magnificient
	Goan sunsets. FN
-- 
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Frederick Noronha (FN)        | http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist          | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com     | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
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