Mozilla, Return of the Lizard
http://www.ccnmag.com/index.php?sec=mag&id=295

Internet Explorer Limbo

In May 2003, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 will be the final 'standalone' installation version of their browser. "Further improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS," they said. That means countless people are stuck with this version until Microsoft's next operating system, Longhorn, is released. Rumor has it, that won't be until late 2005, if not later. And, of course, they'll all need to upgrade to Longhorn to use it. But what good alternatives are there? Mozilla, for one.

The Lizard Goes Open Source

On January 22, 1998, Netscape Communications, Inc. openly released the source code -- the human readable recipe -- to its popular Web browser, Netscape Navigator. This was a rather surprising move, and one many attributed to Microsoft's default inclusion of Internet Explorer in its operating systems, which had quickly eaten away at Netscape's market share.

Mozilla has come a long way since it stomped its way into the Open Source realm. It was awarded "Best of 2003" in the Web browser category by PC World magazine, and was called "Beyond Bliss" by Time magazine. Forbes called it "a breath of fresh air compared to [Internet] Explorer." Its market share has grown from practically nothing a few years ago to anywhere between 5 percent and 30 percent, depending on whom you ask. That doesn't sound like much, but when you consider how many people are actually on the Internet, that's anywhere between 40 and 250 million people.

The trip hasn't been easy, though. It took a few years for developers to catch on and help clean up what was there. By mid-2000 they delivered what could be considered a 'production-quality' browser, but it ran very slowly and still had some bugs. Most people stuck with IE or the old Netscape 4 version they had been using.

In the summer of 2002, version 1.0 finally hit the streets. But only a year later, AOL (who had bought Netscape Communications), decided to pull the plug on Netscape. They signed a deal with Microsoft to use Internet Explorer in their products, and thus ended the so-called "browser wars." For the time being, at least...

Fortunately, AOL didn't leave the Mozilla developers empty handed. They invested $2 million in the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit that provides organizational, legal and financial support for the project.

More than a browser

Mozilla is more than just a Web browser. It's a suite of Internet tools that include the browser, an HTML Web page editor, an e-mail and Usenet newsgroup reader, and an 'IRC' chat client.

Mozilla is available for a bevy of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, OS/2, HPUX, Solaris, BSD, and others. Mozilla has also been translated to over 50 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

Navigator

The Mozilla browser, called Navigator, includes all the features you'd expect: standard security features, a password manager, a cookie manager, and a file download manager.

It also supports 'tabbed browsing,' which allows you to visit multiple Web pages simultaneously without having multiple windows open. You can even bookmark a group of open tabs, so you can open the same set of pages again later in one fell swoop. Or, set a group of URLs as your default home pages.

A built in pop-up blocker lets you surf without annoying little windows intruding on your space. When a site tries to pop up a window, a small icon appears on Mozilla's status bar, letting you decide whether you want the window to appear. Of course, you can also manage what sites are blocked or not blocked by default.

Similarly, the image manager lets you block images from certain sites, to keep advertising at bay, block offensive photos, or simply speed up the rendering speed on your favorite Web sites.

The form manager lets you record what you've entered into a Web site's online form, so you can quickly pull it up later. Let Mozilla do the typing for you.

For people who share their computer (but don't bother creating separate logins for everyone in the household), you can create profiles, which allow users to keep their preferences, bookmarks and other settings separate from each other.

Tools for Web Developers

Along with being praised as one of the most standards-compliant browsers, Mozilla includes built-in tools that help Web site developers do their job: DOM Inspector, a tool that can be used to inspect and edit the live Document Object Model of any Web document or XUL (Extensible User-interface Language) application, and Venkman, which provides a powerful JavaScript debugging environment.

Composer

The normal mode of Mozilla's built-in HTML editor is 'WYSIWYG': what you see is what you get. Spacing of your page, due to images, tables and other elements, looks almost exactly like you'd see it in the Navigator component. Outlines are drawn around tables and images, allowing you to resize them with your mouse.

In HTML mode, each HTML tag on a page is shown as a little icon. It's as if those invisible little tags have crept right onto the page. A little "IMG" tag appears within each image. An "A" (for 'anchor') appears to the left of each link. And "TD" appears at the top left of each HTML table cell. Double-clicking on these links lets you change their attributes (like, where an "a href" anchor should link to).

There's also an HTML source mode, where you can hand-edit the HTML like you would with Notepad, as well as a preview mode, that shows you the rendered page right in the composer window.

When you're done, you can publish your finished work to your Web-hosting provider via FTP or HTTP.

The E-mail Client

Mozilla's e-mail client includes some top-notch features, too. It has a built-in junk mail control that helps filter your spam. It's 'adaptive' -- it uses the Bayesian classification method, which requires that you first train it by showing it a bunch of mail that is junk, and then a bunch of mail that is not. Then, you let it auto-classify new mail for you. If Mozilla makes any mistakes, you can correct them, and it learns from it.

Mozilla lets you manage your mail with labels and mail views -- color-code your mail to help prioritize it, and sort your mail with views to help you get through it more quickly. You can read mail from multiple ISP accounts with Mozilla, too.

Lighter Applications for the Weight-Conscious

One of the biggest complaints about Mozilla has been that it's slow. While newer versions (like the recently released version 1.6) are much faster than before, some people still want as little 'bloat' as possible. Luckily for them, there's Mozilla Firebird and Thunderbird. Firebird is a small, light and fast Web browser, based on Gecko, the part of Mozilla that actually renders Web pages. It doesn't include e-mail, HTML editing or other features you don't need to just browse the Web. Thunderbird is a standalone e-mail and newsgroup client.

Themes and Extensions

If you're bored with the way your browser looks, the Web site themes.mozdev.org contains dozens of themes or skins for Mozilla-based browsers. There are even projects to turn Mozilla into a locked-down, 'kiosk'-style public access terminal.

The Web site extensionroom.mozdev.org has a collection of extensions for Mozilla, such as mouse-gesture support (go back a page by simply shoving the mouse to the left, reload a page by moving the mouse in a little circle, etc.), auto-scrolling for hands-free reading, search engine toolbars, and even a set of card games that run right in the browser.

Download it Today

The latest version of Mozilla, plus tons of other information about the project, the software, and the foundation, are available at www.mozilla.org. If you'd rather purchase the CD version, you can get a copy for as little as $3 at store.mozilla.org. Finally, for all the latest news, as well as some great articles on Mozilla, check out the mozillaZine at: www.mozillazine.org.

Bill Kendrick is the president of the Linux Users' Group of Davis www.lugod.org, and writes cell phone games for a living. He can be reached at: bill@newbreedsoftware.com.


- posted by sankarshan @ 3/04/2004 05:23:00 AM 0 comments

 
RMS speaks about Free Software and other issues
Richard M Stallman is...well RMS. Attempting to put forward an abridged version of RMS does grave injustice to both the man and his vision. During 2003-2004, RMS visited India more than once. His recent presence at the World Social Forum (WSF - 2003) at Mumbai is a highlight of the hectic activity seen in the Free Software Foundation of India.

This interview was conducted through e-mail for Freedom Matters - the magazine of Free Software Foundation of India. Kindly read 'SM' as Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay. 'RMS' on the other hand needs no further introduction.

SM: In recent times a lot of software development activity in Free
Software is visible from India, how do you react to this upswing ?

RMS: I'm glad to see that Indian programmers are now contributing
to the world-wide free software community, as well as using what
the developed world has written. This is a sign that the
programming community in India has matured.

SM: Free Software in Education forms an important aspect of the Free
Software Foundation's projects - what are your visions for the future
with regard to India ?

RMS: It is essential for schools to use free software. With free
software, schools can offer those students who are interested in
software the opportunity to learn in depth. By using exclusively
free software, they can teach all students the habit and custom of
sharing with their neighbors.

Those reasons apply in all countries, but in India the struggle to
liberate the schools has become particularly acute. Microsoft is
tempting Indian schools with gratis copies of its user-subjugating
operating system, but not all is going their way. In Kerala, the
choice of system to use in school has become a political issue.

SM: The Free Software Foundation as a public interface is primarily an
advocacy group - do you feel that the various regional chapters need
to exert more ?

RMS: That is an easy question. Until we win the victory and
secure lasting freedom, we always need to do more ;-).

SM: You have been a frequent visitor to India in recent times, what is
your opinion on the level of awareness ? At the media level ? At the
government level ? In the general population (sample size being
audience at your lectures) ?

RMS: The Indians I can speak with, and those who come to my
speeches, are those who speak English. So I cannot form a picture
of what the general population of India thinks. You, who live in
India and speak the language of your region, can do this much
better than I can.

However, I can affirm that the level of media interest is quite
high, compared with other countries.

SM: It is still a widely known fact that government circulars and
tender notices still mention 'non-free software' by name as mandatory
requirements - example being the explicit mention of the 'zip format
of Winzip 8.1' in Income Tax forms - in your opinion, how should this
be tackled ?

RMS: I thought Winzip was the Windows version of gzip, and that it
was free software. But since I have never been a Windows user, I
am not certain. You could check this.

However, on the general point I agree with you that governments should
not recommend specific non-free programs. They should not recommend
non-free programs at all.

SM: You have always been critical of the need to 'copyright'
scientific knowledge, how do you think the FSF should be involved in
creating an awareness at the ground-level ?

RMS: To free up the redistribution of scientific papers, we need
to raise awareness of the issue among scientists and among the
government officials that fund research.

It would be useful and effective for the Indian government to
place a condition on all government-funded research: that the
organization which receives the funding shall republish on the
web, every scholarly paper published by its faculty, staff or
students, within a few months after the paper has been accepted
and published by a journal or conference, and shall do so in a way
that gives everyone the right to redistribute verbatim copies of
the paper. India's leadership would be followed around the world,
and the journal publishers' stranglehold over science would
crumble.

SM: Your views on the recently concluded World Social Forum...

RMS: I could not tell much about the forum as a whole; my view of
it was limited to my speaking and interviews. However, Professor
Nagarjuna told me that most of the activists who heard my speech
about free software subsequently visited him at the FSF India
stand, and that they have learned to understand that if they wish
to make the world a better place by spreading computer facilities
to the masses, this has to be done with free software.

SM: Do you think that it is feasible for the FSF to be involved in
creating a project repository by encouraging Free Software Development
at the University level through microgrants ?

RMS: I don't know whether microgrants are an effective method for
this, but the FSF can certainly help in an experiment to find out.


Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay is a member of the Free Software Foundation of
India along with the FSF-India West Bengal Chapter. He can be reached
at sankarshan at bengalinux dot org
- posted by sankarshan @ 3/03/2004 08:19:00 PM 0 comments

 
An interview with Javed Tapia, Director Red Hat India
With the announcement of the Fedora Project, various analysts have predicted a shift in the corporate strategy for Red Hat. In an interview for Indian GNU/Linux Users Group - Kolkata, Javed Tapia (Director - Red Hat India) talks to Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay about Fedora and other current issues.





SM: Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay sankarshan at bengalinux dot org


JT: Javed Tapia Director - Red Hat India




SM: There has been a lot of talk about 'Fedora' - what exactly does the Fedora project signify ?



JT: The intention of the Fedora project is to use the early adopter community as well as the hobbyist/tinkerer to continue to define Linux and Red Hat Linux in particular. Changes and innovations in the Fedora Project will be incorporated into the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product line.





SM: Is Fedora really a bleeding edge unstable environment or does it exemplify Red Hat's global policy of contributing to the community ?



JT: Fedora will be actively participated by Red Hat, but will involve a greater community participation as well. So, the transformation of the Red Hat product line is in a sense a maturing of the product to bring Red Hat Linux into the enterprise





SM: How does the value addition begin with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux segment ?



JT: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux line was created to specifically
address the comments and concerns of CIOs, IT directors etc who have, over the years, indicated that they are less likely to deploy Red Hat Linux into their core systems because of the perceived churn of the product. They require a fairly unchanging product that lasts for between 18 to 36 months so that they can realize return on investments as well as be able to deploy products such as Oracle, SAP, WebLogic etc into the datacenter. Also, these ISVs require time for deployment of their products and if the Red Hat Linux product keeps moving the "goal posts" as it were, it will be difficult for them to gear up support.





SM: Red Hat has some unique success stories with the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission in MP - what has been the progress from then on ?



JT: We have set up a full fledged support and service center in
Bhopal for Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission (RGSM) to address their
requirements.





SM: Can we see such implementations in other states ?



JT: Yes, we are in talks with various state governments for their
requirements.





SM: Tell us something about the Localised Red Hat distributions...



JT: We are on localisation and very soon localised Red Hat
distribution will be a part of our offerings.





SM: e-governance seems to be the 'word' in vogue, how is Red Hat participating in the process ?



JT: Red Hat is actively engaging with various state governments for
their e-governance requirements. Moreover, we are in a process of signing MoU's with various bodies which are instrumental in Government's e-governance initiatives.





SM: With the (not too) recent acquisition of SuSe by Novell, do you think that the market is big enough for more players ?



JT: Attractive markets attract new players. We expect these moves. It simply validates the enormous customer interest and market opportunity in Open Source technology, and the progress Red Hat has achieved as the industry leader.



We're committed to remain a pure-play Open Source technology company.
That's what is creating value for customers, and our results speak for
themselves (AOL, Amazon, 7 of 10 Wall St. institutions, financial results, #1 market share, #1 in partnerships). There's no reason now to reinvent our business strategy; Novell's move validates the soundness of
our strategy.



We are of the strong opinion that the market is mature enough for new
players. This would surely increase the overall Linux market space in
India.





SM: Red Hat India began when 'Linux' as something of a hacker phenomenon, now even chief ministers are talking about it - how well do you think has the market evolved ?



JT: The open source movement is making strides in India with the
developer community in the country also evincing stupendous interest
in the Linux platform.



In India there is a huge momentum in the state governments of
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Various government departments in India have readily adopted Linux as a
preferred platform. For instance, Pune based supercomputer maker and R&D
institution, C-DAC has recently announced a major deployment of Linux.





SM: Certification and education programs are a strong point with the company - could you tell us more about the division ?



JT: In the education sector, we are supporting lot of engineering
institutions towards their Open Source initiatives. Moreover, We have
a properly laid program for the certification on Red Hat Enterprise
Linux.





SM: Industry-community interaction is one of the most exciting aspects of F/L OSS movements, how does Red Hat participate in these ?



JT: Industry - community interaction is a crucial part of Open
Source movement and we at Red Hat acknowledge the importance it holds.
Fedora is one such project of participation.





SM: Any plans for such events in Kolkata ?



JT: In the past we had many events in Kolkata for eg with Webel. We
are keen and looking forward to many events in Kolkata.





SM: I would like to thank you for your time, it has been a pleasure talking about Red Hat India Pvt Ltd and the IT scenario.
- posted by sankarshan @ 3/03/2004 08:18:00 PM 0 comments

 
Five Lessons Open Source Developers Should Learn from Extreme Programming

Five Lessons Open Source Developers Should Learn from Extreme Programming by chromatic -- It may be harder to see how Extreme Programming (XP) can apply to open source projects, especially those without a formal customer. But to build a successful open source project, you must solve many of the same problems you'd face with an in-house project. Here chromatic, author of Extreme Programming Pocket Guide, offers five lessons open source developers can learn from XP.

- posted by sankarshan @ 3/03/2004 06:47:00 AM 0 comments

 
Radio suffers as Colombo bosses call the shots
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)"
To:
Subject: [bytesforall_readers] Radio suffers as Colombo bosses call the shots
Date: Sunday, February 29, 2004 3:45 sakal

*** Please pass the word around. We need more to join this campaign.***

DO YOU believe that radio has a role in enhancing communication among the
common(wo)man in India? Join a network meant to campaign for the opening up
of genuine community radio in India. Click on the link-below to sign-up on
the 'Community Radio-India' mailing list. FN (Frederick Noronha)
_______________________________________________
cr-india mailing list
cr-india@sarai.net
https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india

PFM2058 | 22/10/2003 | 970 words
Radio Suffers As Colombo Bosses Call The Shots

By Nalaka Gunawardene

COLOMBO (PANOS FEATURES) -- Soon after conquering Mount Everest half a
century ago, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay turned on their transistor
radio -- and the first thing they heard was an overseas broadcast of Radio
Ceylon, from more than 3,000 kilometres away. They joined millions of people
across the Indian subcontinent who regularly tuned in to these broadcasts. A
pioneer in broadcasting in Asia, Radio Ceylon for decades informed and
entertained an overseas audience many times the population of Ceylon, now
Sri Lanka.

How times have changed. The once influential, popular and monopolistic
state-owned radio in Sri Lanka has been completely sidelined in the past
decade. A cacophony of privately-owned channels now crowd the airwaves --
albeit only in the FM band -- competing with each other to inform, entertain
and sell consumer goods to the island nation's 19 million people. The
product of media and economic liberalisation, these channels are operated by
half a dozen companies, each struggling to make money in a market that until
recently was depressed by a protracted civil war.

Loss of listenership and advertising revenue are not the only problems that
plague Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), successor to Radio Ceylon.
Over the years, successive governments have misused the station for
political and state propaganda. Inconsequential and boring speeches of
politicians were broadcast in full.

Not that the private commercial channels have completely fulfilled their
expectations: after the initial novelty had worn off, discerning listeners
found that they could take only so much of the popular culture dished out by
young announcers endlessly chattering in a mix of Sinhala or Tamil with
English. Yet, on balance, many have come to the conclusion that even bad FM
radio is better than SLBC.

Private channels moved closer to their audiences by presenting news in
colloquial and friendly Sinhala. Not so SLBC, which insists on using an
imperious and archaic version of the language.

*Our listeners immediately welcomed news in spoken Sinhala, and only a few
pundits raised objections,* recalls Asoka Dias, news director at Sirasa FM
which pioneered this innovation. *Now everybody does it -- at least in
selected news formats.*

It was Sirasa FM -- the first private channel started in 1992 -- that turned
broadcasting in Sri Lanka upside down. Nimal Lakshapathiarachchi, its
founder director, recognised the critical need for new formats to make radio
more engaging and relevant in the multimedia age. Arguably some of these
were in the *tabloid* mould, but Sirasa -- and other FM channels -- have lured
back a whole new generation of listeners.

Major gaps remain. Most FM signals can only be picked up in urban areas, and
their profit-oriented owners are unlikely to invest further to achieve rural
coverage. SLBC is the only station broadcasting on medium wave, short wave
and FM bands -- and, in spite of considerable media freedom granted by the
current government, it remains *His Master*s Voice* on all key political,
social and economic matters.

And in spite of having more choice than ever before, many Sri Lankans
regularly listen to foreign broadcasts.

By far the biggest gap concerns community radio.

SLBC broadcasts from all corners of the country, including stations located
in remote areas. The channel involves local people in programme production,
and it maintains a strongly agrarian audience. But listeners have no say in
running the stations -- these are managed by a tight bureaucracy in the
capital Colombo, whose rigid guidelines control content: strictly no
politics, and nothing remotely against the government in office.

But, although touted as such, SLBC is not community radio, which is supposed
to promote access, public participation in production and decision-making
and listener-financing -- where each listener contributes a small amount
towards the running of the radio station.

In Sri Lanka, ironically, only armed rebels have challenged this state
dominance by running clandestine channels. The Marxist People's Liberation
Front ran Rana Handa (Sound of Victory) in the 1980s when it spearheaded a
youth insurgency. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- the
guerrilla group now talking peace with the government after two decades of
war -- ran Voice of Tigers which made a mockery of Colombo's broadcast
regulations.

In November 2002, the government granted a license for LTTE to continue its
broadcasts legally, a move that has since been contested in courts by other
citizen groups.

But that's the first -- and so far only time the state has accommodated such
a request. Four successive governments since 1992 have refused to grant
broadcast license to non-profit, non-governmental or cooperative groups.
Organisations such as Sarvodaya -- the country's largest development NGO --
are keen to use the airwaves for public benefit, but their requests have
been ignored.

A major bottleneck is the discretionary broadcast licensing system that
lacks transparency, accountability and consistency. As a result, the electro
magnetic spectrum -- a public property -- has been plundered by officials and
politicians who have granted licenses to relatives and business cronies.
Some licenses have been traded for huge sums of money. The FM band is now
saturated.

Governments have never explained why community groups are not given
broadcast licenses. Senior officials have sometimes cited fears of media
misuse for 'anti-social' or political purposes. Strangely, such concerns
don*t seem to extend to profit-making companies, some of whose channels are
openly aligned with political parties.

Meanwhile, the smokescreen of so-called 'community radio' has been used by
bureaucrats hand-in-glove with commercial interests to block the evolution
of broadcasting to the next stage * where community media are owned, managed
and sustained by the people.

'Colombo Calling' was the station call in the early days of radio
broadcasting in colonial Ceylon. Eight decades on, Colombo is still calling
the shots. A few token rural transmissions of the state cannot redress this
huge imbalance, no matter how they are dressed up. The first step towards
truly community media is to demand the real liberation of the
airwaves./PANOS FEATURES

Nalaka Gunawardene is a media commentator and a director of Panos South
Asia.

This feature is published by Panos Features and can be reproduced free of
charge. Please credit the author and Panos Features and send a copy to MAC,
Panos Institute, 9 White Lion St, London N1 9PD, UK. Email:
media@panoslondon.org.uk

Photos (c) Panos Pictures except where otherwise credited. Panos London is
a registered charity number 297366 Site development by viplondon. Design by
John F McGill.

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- posted by sankarshan @ 2/29/2004 06:54:00 AM 0 comments