Linux Manipur

What is Linux Manipur?

Linux Manipur is a virtual organization, whose primary aim is to create and spread awareness for Linux or Free* and Open Source Software in Manipur and the North East. It focuses and seeks to help and guide the students and computer users, share domain knowledge, discuss technical issues etc. All interactions are done via the internet.

It is a not-for-profit group, and by not-for-profit, we are not an NGO. We do not have any external fundings and all fundings so far as from internal accruals. Whatever we do, we do by putting in our time, energy and money; we are not doing it for any profitable business. We do it for the love of freedom (of software), ethics, sharing, excellence… and most of all for the love of Manipur, doing things in little ways we can.

There are no physical offices or staff. We got together as a group voluntarily four years ago, striving to create and sustain technical knowledge. There are about 300 people connected via our mailing list**. There is no hierarchy; everybody in the group came forward voluntarily. However, a Core team takes the lead for crucial decisions for any work or activity. About 20 people scattered across the country and abroad, and about five people based in Imphal constitute the core team of this group. Anyone who is active and takes initiatives becomes a part of the core team. In the past, we have conducted free workshops, seminars and installation demos besides our main annual event (FOSS 07 and FOSS 2008). Among the members who reside across the globe we exchange technical knowledge, helping each other with technical collaborations and issues and above all, sharing knowledge.

We are now trying to reach out to the new generation of Manipur from the hills and valley alike, who are living on the razor’s edge - somewhere in between their world of hopes/dreams and the state of our homeland which is getting paralysed in every front; to show them what Computers and Linux is all about, and guide them whenever they need us.

To the University/Boards/Authorities

Many educators are convinced that it is far more important for students to study computer science fundamentals than to practice specific applications. One of the reasons for this is computer science fundamentals will remain valid for many years from now, whereas the specific application programs, especially the proprietary ones that do not conform to industry-wide standards, are constantly changing and those currently in use will likely become obsolete in a few years. It is high time that our authorities include GNU/Linux in the syllabus of schools and colleges of Manipur.

Please visit our site www.linux-manipur.org, please feel free to ask for help/support/guidance by joining our mailing list at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-manipur/ or by just sending a mail to info@linux-manipur.org.

What is Linux?

The awareness of Linux in Manipur is discouragingly low. Simply put. Whenever we put on the computer in our offices or homes, we see the screen displaying 'Windows'. That's what we know as “operating system"; it is a bunch of programs that are needed to run the computer (i.e. the hardware). Windows and other operating systems like Mac OS, AIX, HP-UX etc are examples of what is called as 'proprietary software'. In proprietary software, the product knowledge or the source code (program instructions in their original form) is not given to the user, and the user should also pay license fees to use them.

The licenses for proprietary software are designed to take away our freedom to share and change it, the license fees are also very costly, and to use without license is a criminal offence. The user is at the hands of proprietary software vendors. By contrast, the licenses of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) are intended to guarantee our freedom to share and change free software - to make sure the software is free for all its users.

The hurdle we have to cross in Manipur is 'ignorance', a lot of people don't know about Free and Open Source Software. 'GNU/Linux' or popularly known as just 'Linux' is a prominent example of FOSS.

Linux is a product of the Internet era. In contrast to proprietary operating systems, like Windows which have been developed by highly paid programmers employed at corporations, Linux has been developed virtually by an informal, world-wide network of unpaid (but highly skilled and motivated) volunteers who communicate via the internet, for the love of sharing, for the love of technical excellence.

Few things that everybody should know about Linux

1. It is free software; anybody can download it from the internet, or buy the CD for some hundred rupees, or borrow it from friends and make copies of it, and install it on any number of computers without any limitations. For Microsoft's Windows you have to pay about Rs 4000/- as license fees to install it in one single computer. You may say you got it for free of cost from friends and shops that sell pirated CDs, but in the eye of the law you are a criminal, since their licenses don’t allow you to do that.
2. The source code (the programs) is available and anybody can modify it to suit their needs. This serves the most important ethics of programming - sharing of the source code, rather than hiding it.
3. It is more powerful, more secured, more reliable, more stable.
4. Non Quantitative Issues:

1. Freedom from control by another
2. Protection from licensing litigations
3. Flexibility
4. Social/Moral/Ethical Issues Innovation

To the Schools/Colleges

School/College is where people come to learn. Opting for Linux will be economical (where schools and colleges have limited funds). Most of all, the open access to the source code gives the students the opportunity to study how computers really work rather than to just learn how to use them.

Students should:

1. Be given the opportunity to see how their new tools work.
2. Be given the opportunity to examine the inner workings of software.
3. Be given the opportunity to extend the functions of their tools, where they see or imagine possibilities.
4. not be held back by locking the toolbox of the Information Age
5. not be told that they must:
1. not peer inside
2. not try to discover how it works
3. not share their tools with others
4. not use their tools without paying money to the software overlords, under penalty and punishment of law.

* Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.

** Linux Manipur Mailing List – a list of e-mail addresses of people identified by a single name, such as linux-manipur@yahoogroups.com. When an e-mail message is sent to the mailing list name, it is automatically forwarded to all the addresses in the list. Mailing lists are an easy way for people to share professional and technical information: hackers often set up ad hoc mailing lists so that they can collaborate on a single piece of programming. It is also possible to join mailing lists devoted to special topics and social and leisure interests.