Software Freedom Day-2008 at National Institute of Technology Karnataka
Software Freedom Day-2008 Celebrations were held at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India (NITK) from September 17-25, 2008. The Web Enthusiasts Club along with Linux User Group, NITK co-ordinated the SFD celebrations and ensured its success by making preparations well in advance so as to avoid the last minute hassles. The SFD event was a great tiumph and helped in spreading the FOSS culture in the campus.
Following were the events held during Software Freedom Day-2008
The Linux Install Fest: (17th – 20th September 2008)
In order to spread the use of Open Source and Linux Operating System, Web Enthusiasts Club had organized Linux Install Fest. Interested students registered on the club website and web club members personally went to room of every registrant to install Linux. After the installation of the operating system, our teams also installed the basic necessary software from our own cached repository. This was followed by a tutorial for people new to Linux, where we explained to them its advantages over closed source operating systems. Every participant received a free Ubuntu Linux 8.04 CD. Linux Install Fest was huge success with over 120 installations.
21 September (Day 1)
1. Inauguration by Director
The esteemed director of our college NITK inaugurated the event and stressed on the point that a moment of this sort [Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement] shouldn’t be restricted to one day and should be carried on throughout the year and appreciated the students in their endeavor to generate awareness among the masses (students) about the benefits and advantages of Open Source.
2. Talk by Naabo professionals
Professionals from Naabo, a company started up by our own college students, talked on the business model available on Open Source and how it can be exploited for successful business venture, as done by them. They also cleared other myths and doubts that Open Source model is not suited for business.
3. Guest Lecture by Mr. Mahesha Nanjundaiah, General Manager Compiler and Tools R&D, HP India
Mr. Nanjundaiah spoke on various technical aspects related to opportunities available to students in field of Open Source. One of his main points was India, having highest growth rate in the IT sector, contributes very less to R&D in core aspects of computing. India lags way behind other countries like even China and Russia when it comes to core R&D in computer science and encouraged the students to take up research in Computer Science. He also encouraged the students to become FOSS hobbyists and contribute to the field of computer science in that area apart from their routine work in companies employing them. He also pointed out that parallel computing in open source is a promising field with great potential, as currently most FOSS software lack this feature. Developing open source software with this regard will justify the corresponding advancement in parallel processing hardware.
4. Demonstration of Open Moko
OpenMoko, an Open Source alternative to iPhone, functions as good as iPhone and costs half its price and is very popular among the student developer community. Openmoko Linux is the software subproject of Openmoko. It uses the Linux kernel, together with a graphical user environment built using the X.Org Server, GTK+ toolkit, and the Matchbox window manager. The 2008 April Software Update (ASU) has added support for the Qt toolkit and Enlightenment 17. The OpenEmbedded build framework and ipkg package system (currently being replaced by the newer opkg package system) are used to create and maintain software packages.Native applications can be developed and compiled using various languages including C and C++.Initial versions of the software are developed for the hardware developed by the Openmoko project (Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunner devices from FIC). There has been moderate effort as yet in using the OS on other hardware platforms.
5. Compiz Fusion
Demo of 3D effects in Linux using Compiz Fusion as compared to in Microsoft Windows Vista Aero Features. Demo of Open Source games. ( Compiz Fusion is a collection of plugins and a configuration system for the Compiz compositing window manager for the X Window System. Compiz Fusion is the result of a merge between the old Compiz community plugin set "Compiz Extras" and the parts of the Beryl project that are independent of the window manager core.)
6. Debate on general issues related to Open Source
This was a debate open to all students and guests, involving open source software. This debate was indeed very special as it presented a hitherto ignored perspective. Here we compared the currently available open source software with their closed source counterparts with regard to usability only. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of various software from the user end including comparison among different open source software too and tried to answer the question as to how well do current open source software stand and whether open source can be a better option even for the group outside developers and enthusiasts.
In the end the students were able to gain from the experience of the guest lecturer and got a direction to work, for a better and challenging future in IT, than just chasing normal IT companies. The Open Moko and 3D effects demo was very fascinating and everyone was thrilled to see their capabilities.
23 September (Day 2)
Workshop on PHP and MySQL
- Workshop on PHP and MySQL conducted by our own Web Club students. The workshop catered to people who had some experience with C and C++ and little to no experience with PHP and MySQL.
24 September (Day 3)
- Introduction to Open Solaris – features like DTrace, zones, SMF, IPS.
- ZFS features – 128 bit filesystem, Self Healing data, high reliability, platter speed performance.
25 September (Day 4)
Introduction to NetBeans – Grand Unified IDE to compile C, C++, Java Programs and PHP scripts.
- Java Swing Worshop – Swing components, JButton, JRadioButton, JPanel, JCheckBox, JTabbedPane.
Email: <gaurav.mogre AT gmail DOT com>