[Fsf-kerala] Fsf-kerala Digest, Vol 46, Issue 4
Ninan Sajeeth Philip
nspp at iucaa.ernet.in
Wed Feb 11 20:09:44 IST 2009
Hi All,
Last year, in the fsf-kerala meet at Calicut, I presented a pendrive/CD
version of Linux named Slax-atma . It was just an example of its kind. I
created it with the objective that students who can't afford to buy a laptop
should be able to work on a public machine (I mean, any PC) with the settings
they would love to have on their personal laptops - such as screen settings,
username, passwords, applications etc. Today, an 8 Gb pendrive costs hardly
Rs.300/- and I have the version of linux that can contain:
1. PHP, My-SQL and Webserver Apache
2. KMyMoney accounting package
3. Scilab, octave, R and other scientific packages
4. openoffice, latex and kile
5. gimp, imagemagic
6. avidemux, cinerrela
7. stellarium, kstars
8. periodic table, math tutor, typing tutor
9. hydrogen, roseguarden, timidity
10. vlc, kplayer, mplayer, ktv
and over 500 similar programs + Linux 2.6.27 kernel that can all be put on a
single bootable DVD or pendrive. The distribution also include scripts to
create and burn CDs DVD images on the fly to ease the distribution. Any
version can be installed to a pendrive or Windows machine (if one would
prefer to have dual boot without creating a dedicated partition) in just 3
steps and less than 5 minutes. I still work on the product and I made it just
with the objective to distribute it freely to school, college and research
students. I am sure that similar tools may be evaluated and can be
recommended to "those who are willing to listen" as the alternative to
preperatory software, which they claim are the only solutions available.
Cheers,
-Sajeeth
On Wednesday 11 Feb 2009 6:30:02 am fsf-kerala-request at mm.gnu.org.in wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Free Software in Higher Secondary (Renni P Mathunny)
> 2. Re: Free Software in Higher Secondary (Sasi Kumar)
> 3. Re: Free Software in Higher Secondary (Sasi Kumar)
> 4. Re: Free Software in Higher Secondary (Renni P Mathunny)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:34:39 +0530
> From: Renni P Mathunny <rennipm at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Fsf-kerala] Free Software in Higher Secondary
> To: fsf-kerala at mm.gnu.org.in
> Message-ID:
> <e3d27e440902100504t8c6adb8p72b5225622810408 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I hope most of you are aware about the use of proprietary software in
> higher secondary classes following Kerala Government syllabus. (CBSE is no
> exception, they also suggest using proprietary software.)
>
> It is very sad that the students, who have learned free software in high
> school classes are forced to learn/use proprietary software in higher
> secondary.
>
> Can we begin a campaign for revising the Computer Science and Computer
> Application Syllabus of Higher Secondary classes ? atleast to replace the
> proprietary softwares with equivalent Free Software tools? There is no
> doubt that the whole syllabus is to be revised. Outdated/obsolete
> tools/languages like Visual Basic 6.0 and ASP are still taught in Higher
> Secondary.
>
> The software/tools to be learned by students in higher secondary courses,
> are listed below. There are three different streams in Computer/IT --
> Computer Science for Science stream, Computer Applications for Commerce
> stream and Computer Application for Humanities stream. All of them are
> included in the following list.
>
> 1. C++ (Turbo C++ is usually used as the IDE)
> 2. SQL (MS-Access / Oracle / MS-SQL Server)
> 3. Visual Basic (Visual Basic 6.0)
> 4. HTML / DHTML / Scripting Languages (VBScript / JavaScript / Perl / CGI /
> ASP / JSP)
> 5. MS-Office
> 6. DTP (Adobe Page Maker)
> 7. Text Editors
>
> The syllabus did not mention anything about using Free software. But it
> suggests the different proprietary softwares that can be used.
>
> Regards,
> Renni
> -------------- next part --------------
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:18:14 +0530
> From: Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Fsf-kerala] Free Software in Higher Secondary
> To: Renni P Mathunny <rennipm at gmail.com>
> Cc: fsf-kerala at mm.gnu.org.in, ilug-tvm at googlegroups.com, Principal
> Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends at mm.gnu.org.in>
> Message-ID:
> <2c9cf4a00902100548u6d110247y241677827d9fb498 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> I think this is an important thing that we have to take up. Can we
> send letters from FSUGs? I will also arrange to send a letter from FSF
> India. Let us take this up seriously. We need to suggest alternatives
> too. I understand that they teach Tally for Commerce students. We may
> not have a Free substitute for it. So, perhaps, we can suggest
> alternatives. Maybe we can suggest that things like video and sound
> editing be taught to students of humanities. Please come up with
> suggestions.
>
> Best
> Sasi
>
> 2009/2/10 Renni P Mathunny <rennipm at gmail.com>:
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > I hope most of you are aware about the use of proprietary software in
> > higher secondary classes following Kerala Government syllabus. (CBSE is
> > no exception, they also suggest using proprietary software.)
> >
> > It is very sad that the students, who have learned free software in high
> > school classes are forced to learn/use proprietary software in higher
> > secondary.
> >
> > Can we begin a campaign for revising the Computer Science and Computer
> > Application Syllabus of Higher Secondary classes ? atleast to replace the
> > proprietary softwares with equivalent Free Software tools? There is no
> > doubt that the whole syllabus is to be revised. Outdated/obsolete
> > tools/languages like Visual Basic 6.0 and ASP are still taught in Higher
> > Secondary.
> >
> > The software/tools to be learned by students in higher secondary courses,
> > are listed below. There are three different streams in Computer/IT --
> > Computer Science for Science stream, Computer Applications for Commerce
> > stream and Computer Application for Humanities stream. All of them are
> > included in the following list.
> >
> > 1. C++ (Turbo C++ is usually used as the IDE)
> > 2. SQL (MS-Access / Oracle / MS-SQL Server)
> > 3. Visual Basic (Visual Basic 6.0)
> > 4. HTML / DHTML / Scripting Languages (VBScript / JavaScript / Perl / CGI
> > / ASP / JSP)
> > 5. MS-Office
> > 6. DTP (Adobe Page Maker)
> > 7. Text Editors
> >
> > The syllabus did not mention anything about using Free software. But it
> > suggests the different proprietary softwares that can be used.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Renni
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Fsf-kerala mailing list
> > Fsf-kerala at mm.gnu.org.in
> > http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsf-kerala
>
> --
> V. Sasi Kumar
> Free Software Foundation of India
> Please see: http://swatantryam.blogspot.com/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:20:19 +0530
> From: Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Fsf-kerala] Free Software in Higher Secondary
> To: Renni P Mathunny <rennipm at gmail.com>
> Cc: Fsf-kerala at mm.gnu.org.in, ilug-tvm at googlegroups.com, Principal
> Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends at mm.gnu.org.in>
> Message-ID:
> <2c9cf4a00902101950r7b5d74f5k13a33f4ea7dde167 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 2009/2/10 Renni P Mathunny <rennipm at gmail.com>:
> > See the attached file -- list of alternatives.
> >
> > But I am not aware about an alternative to Tally for Commerce students.
> > Creating an alternative for Tally is also a very improtant task, becuase
> > now a days auditors (FCA/ACA) are forcing even government firms to
> > buy/install Tally, becuase they are familiar with it. GNU Cash may evolve
> > as an alternative.
>
> Thank you, Renni for the document. I would also suggest that, when we
> write, we can also suggest changes in the syllabus that would
> introduce sensible alternative applications/software. For instance, I
> thought it would be interesting and useful to teach some tools like
> audacity, cinelerra and advanced image editing to, say, students of
> Humanities, Octave, gnuplot and xmaxima (and maybe Python) to students
> of Physics and Maths, and so on. Please give your suggestions.
>
> Best
--
Ninan Sajeeth Philip PhD Ph:91-469-2660510 (Res)
Reader and Research Guide, 91-9895369085 (mob)
Department of Physics, 91-468-2215543 (Fax)
St. Thomas College, 91-468-2313246 (Off)
Kozhencheri-689641
Kerala, INDIA e-mail:nspp at iucaa.ernet.in
Research Interests :Artificial Intelligence, Cryptography
home page : www.iucaa.ernet.in/~nspp
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