Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FossNews Weekly
Issue : 20
Team : T.Shrinivasan ( tshrinivasan@gmail.com ) , K.Balavignesh ( kbalavignesh@gmail.com )
Date : 05032009
Join Mailing List at http://groups.google.com/group/fossnews/
Contents
1. fossconf09
2. Open Source India Tech Days 2009 at Chennai
3. Download the Linux Starter Pack
4. A Call from UbuntuWeblogs.org
5. The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source
Alternatives
6. UK government backs open source
7. VPN Virtual Private Network and OpenVPN
8. The 12 Best Firefox About:Config Performance Tweaks
9. Cheese : Easy to use WebCam application for Linux
10. 25 Top 3D Linux Games
1. fossconf09
The fossconf09 at TCE,Madurai, was successfully conducted.
Highlights
a. Visitors: about 1300 excluding tce students (which may about 500)
b. All talks were well received good attendance(good by our standards >10)
c. Demo stalls this time have upstaged all the previous demo's we have conducted. About 10 topics
including gcc, shell scripting and commands were done by school students i.e 9th and 11th
standard.
Two schools were involved TVS matriculation school and Srividhyalam Matriculation school,
Madurai. These students performed exceedingly well.
We slightly changed the prizes that we planned. Here is what we awarded.
a. Best project: Tamil spell checker by Selva & team from Jaya Engg College. Rs.2000/
b. Best student speaker: Mr.Anirudh of VIT for talk on virtualisation Rs.2000/
c. Best demo stall to TVS and Srividhyalam Schools. Since TVS school had
more stalls we awarded
TVS Matriculation School : Rs.2000
Srividhyalam School : Rs.1000
d. An appreciation award (a.k.a party fund) to the TCE organising team Rs.2000
Free Open Source Software News 2
On the whole it was satisfactory, much better organized than last year.
On behalf of ILUGC We thank the management, principal,staff and students of tce for the excellent
work they have done. A special thanks to Prof.Shalinie, HOD of CSE TCE.
We thank Jaya Engg College Prof.Kumaran and Students for major participation in projects and
demo.
We extend thanks to fellow ILUGC members and NRCFOSS team for the success.
See the snaps at
http://fossconf.in/content/fossconf09pictures
We thank Senthil Kumaran (stylesen) for snaps.
Free Open Source Software News 3
2. Open Source India Tech Days 2009 at Chennai
India's leading Open Source event is coming to Chennai with the aim to spread awareness about
how Linux and other open source technologies can help India to survive, and thrive, despite these
'hard times'!
• Manage IT infrastructure better and at lower cost using Open Source.
• Develop software “cheaper, faster and better” using Open Source.
• Why Open Source makes sense for Governments, SMEs and educational institutions.
To answer these questions, FOSS experts from across the globe and India are converging together at
Open Source India Tech Days. Undoubtedly, India's biggest Linux and Open Source event, OSI Tech
Days is scheduled to happen in Chennai from 12th to 14th March 2009 at the Chennai Trade Center.
Powered by NRCFOSS, CDAC, FOSII and LINUX For You, the threeday event will aim to enable
India, and Asia, to face the meltdown with the power of open source and Linux technologies.
OSI Tech Days
Date : 12, 13, 14 March 2009
Venue : Chennai Trade Center, Nandambakkam, Chennai
There are many events and talks for the entire three days.
Registration for SILVER PASS is free.
Register at
http://www.osidays.com/users/delegate09.php
See more at
http://www.osidays.com
Free Open Source Software News 4
3. Download the Linux Starter Pack
New to the wonderful world of Linux? Looking for an easy way to
get started? Download our complete 130page guide and get to
grips with the OS in hours rather than weeks or months. We show
you how to install Linux onto your PC, navigate around the
desktop, master the most popular Linux programs and fix any
problems that may arise.
Download the Book from
http://www.tuxradar.com/linuxstarterpack
4. A Call from UbuntuWeblogs.org
Hi, this is a call to the Ubuntu bloggers around which are not yet on UbuntuWeblogs.org to join it
and get their blog aggregated.
UbuntuWeblogs.org, also known as Planet Ubuntu Users, aims to create a central place for all
Ubunturelated weblogs. Unlike Planet Ubuntu, this Planet is open to anyone who writes about
Ubuntu or any derivative.
If you have a blog and have not yet joined UbuntuWeblogs, please consider the chance.
http://ubuntuweblogs.org/
Here’s the submission page
http://ubuntuweblogs.org/submit.html
Free Open Source Software News 5
5. The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source
Alternatives
Not every proprietary program can drive a person crazy, right? Some, like Norton Ghost, are superb
tools for anyone to use. But, the fact that these tools are proprietary can drive open source fanatics
up a wall.
The following fifty proprietary programs are listed in no particular order within broad categories
along with their open source alternatives. In some cases you could probably write your own book on
frustrations with the proprietary programs shown here. In other cases, you’ll discover that the open
source alternative isn’t quite up to snuff yet. And, in other cases still, you’ll learn that some
proprietary programs are real gems, but that the open source advocate can replace those gems with
equally shiny objects from the open source repertoire.
http://whdb.com/2008/thetop50proprietaryprogramsthatdriveyoucrazyandtheiropensource
alternatives/
6. UK government backs open source
The UK government has said it will accelerate the use of open source software in public
services.
Tom Watson MP, minister for digital engagement, said open source software would be on a level
playing field with proprietary software such as Windows.
Open source software will be adopted "when it delivers best value for money", the government said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7910110.stm
7. VPN Virtual Private Network and OpenVPN
This article will describe a configuration of Virtual Private Network connection by using an
OpenVPN application. Firstly, you will be exposed to some basic theory behind Virtual Private
Networks. Then, the article will guide you with stepbystep instructions on how to setup a
OpenVPN virtual private network by using Symmetric Key Encryption and Public Key Encryption.
This article is meant for everybody who possesses a basic knowledge of linux administration and
networking.
http://www.linuxconfig.org/VPN__Virtual_Private_Network_and_OpenVPN
Free Open Source Software News 6
8. The 12 Best Firefox About:Config Performance Tweaks
Here are a few of our favorite Firefox performance hacks, tweaks, and
productivity enhancements that can be made via the About:config of Firefox.
We show you stepbystep how to perform the tweaks and what each of the
tweaks are responsible for and how they improve your performance in Firefox
and increase your productivity.
http://techfragments.com/news/538/Software/The_12_Best_Firefox_AboutConfig_Performance_Tw
eaks.html
9. Cheese : Easy to use WebCam application for Linux
Cheese is an open source GNOME application that allows you
to use your WebCam for taking photos and recording videos.
Cheese has an intuitive interface which somewhat resembles
that of Phonebooth, a similar application available on the Mac
OS X Platform. Based on GStreamer framework , it allows you
to introduce various fancy graphical effects into your photos
and videos.
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2008/07/cheeseeasytousewebcamapplication.html
10. 25 Top 3D Linux Games
Linux has a bunch of 3D games. They are excellent alternate to commercial 3D games. It is so fun
to play with Guns and Car in a Three Dimentional world.
Here are the Top 25 Games.
Armagetron Advanced
Battlestar Galactica: Beyond the Red Line
BZFlag
Cube 2 “Sauerbraten”
Cube
Digital Paint’s Paintball 2.0
Flightgear
Frets On Fire
Gillo
Glest
ManiaDrive
Neverball / Neverputt
Planeshift
Free Open Source Software News 7
Racer
Savage 2: A Tortured Soul
Scorched 3D
SpringRTS
The Open Racing Car Simulator
TrueCombat: Elite
Urban Terror
Vdrift
Warsow
Warzone 2100
Wolfenstein: EnemyTerritory
Have a review of this games here
http://sathyasays.com/2008/01/12/25top3dlinuxgames/
Thanks
http://linuxtoday.com
http://fsdaily.org
http://lxer.com
To meet the FOSS users and to know/discuss more about FOSS, Join in
Indian Linux Users Group Chennai (ILUGC).
http://chennailug.org
http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
Prepared with OpenOffice 3.0.1