Colin Charles Agenda

Yay for OpenOffice.org. We’ve gotten 1.1.1rc out. (release notes)

The OpenOffice.org folk, with our education subproject, is looking for a mascot. Students have come up with interesting drawings, so go vote for our OOoEdu mascot now!

And…look, folks encouraging the use of OpenOffice.org to create a PDF or MS Word resume! For our Indian friends out there, Pravakta is interesting speech technology for OOo.

Issue #7 has been released. In this issue I cover quite a bit from the docs project (which has been rather active!), testing for the IIIMF, configuration issues, as well as plenty of notes on FC2 test1.

In other interesting notes, FedoraNews.org now accepts donations, and there’s even a cafepress shop.

Got some most useful work completed – got Yellow Dog 3.0 completely installed on the iBook G4. The X config basically got easily solved via using the fbdev driver, rather than the radeon module. Disabling the HorizSync and VertRefresh meant that X runs at a full 1024×768 – Anaconda didn’t detect the 14″ screen appropriately and the values gave 640×480 resolution. This is to be updated to Fedora Rawhide when bandwidth permits.

Fedora Core 2 test1 has gotten onto potter, which was my last FC1 box, tracking updates-testing. The upgrade took a good three thours! On other notes, something interesting on kernel 2.4.22 showed up when I ran free:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 384192 382608 1584 0 948 15996
-/+ buffers/cache: 365664 18528
Swap: 524280 524272 8

Well, the one home, one PC campaign (PC Gemilang) has been launched. 100,000 PCs are available, for RM998. Celeron 1.7GHz, 128MB RAM, 40GB disk, and Gigabyte motherboards. Including monitor, and full multimedia set; Microsoft XP Home and Microsoft Works Suite costs an additional RM149 (also known as Package B). Upgrade to a P4 2.4GHz with an additional 128MB stick is RM400.

This package is “cheap” (I wish there was more RAM though). There’s a support network out there (55 support centres as well as 200 retailers nationwide), and we’re going to be building it more than anything. March 15th, orders “open”, and once they reach the expected 100,000 mark, they will stop. I reckon TMNet will be providing Internet access as well.

Pleased to note that the Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Multimedia spoke English most of the time. The MoU was signed, and the open source PC’s will have Fedora Core, OpenOffice.org and GNOME. This is a big win for all the projects dear to me – 100,000 possible Fedora, OpenOffice.org and GNOME desktops. Rock on!

What did I do? Prepared a presentation (with lots of screenshots) to run on the naked Fedora Core 1 machine. When the Minister (Leo Moggie) unveiled everything, Microsoft had some chit-chat, and I presented what Linux could do (tried very hard not to bag Microsoft, and only mentioned virus outbreaks rather than other nasties). Microsoft had so much lead time to set up their box and they even had a bloody TV card in it. I had no Internet connection, a complete Personal workstation of Fedora, I couldn’t even get a VCD playing. Good thing I had my OOo presentation :)

The Ministry has greater aims than PIKOM – they want 500,000 cheap PCs by the end of the year. Leo Moggie has mentioned that consumers now have a “choice”; Will the average Malaysian pay RM149 for XP Home/Works, when they can get it for RM20 at the pirates? More Fedora machines ought to go out I hope… They’ve admitted that they have learnt a lot from Thailand and their Linux roll-out.

Windows is going to be a Bahasa Melayu version only, but there will be an upgrade to an English version if users want it; so this means that you’ll pay. Consumers, beware. About RM400, off-the-cuff, from Butt Wai Choon, Microsoft’s marketing man (pricing is not finalised). And there’s no option to upgrade to Office… Vendor lock-in is prevalent here, and I’m surprised Pikom didn’t push harder to not allow this – Thailand after all told Microsoft to go fool other countries (in not so many words, when they turned down the USD$35 versions).

There will be two mobile unit that will go around the country, to promote awareness. Cost of owning the PC, via a per capita income basis, used to be about 13%; it’s going to be reduced to about 7-8% now. It should also be clear that this is a private sector initiative, and the government is only facilitating this (so there’s less chance this will become another failed EPF OdaSaja scheme).

Update: Thailand has gotten this “Package B” idea thing happening too. Well, I guess competition is good; keeps us FLOSS folk on our toes. Again, the Pikom guys deserve a pat on their backs, and Xavier, and all rock!

On other notes, Novell is trying out Linux in Malaysia too it seems. For one company. Hmm, makes me wonder… Got to contact some birds there.

It’s been openly said that the FedoraNews.org folk need to work closer with the Docs Project. Finally, the discussion has burst out on a private list with the fedoranews.org folk.

Worries that freedom and flexibility have been thrown up. And of course, the fact that fedoranews is not only about what’s in Fedora Core (but also extras,alternatives,legacy, et al). I’ve gone on stating that peer review is a Good Thing™.

And that FedoraNews.org will still exist for reviews, comparisons, etc… its just that the good HOWTO’s or even guide’s ought to be merged with the Fedora Docs project. The current status of the docs project IMHO, is dismal (I’ve yet to have the need to edit anything, for example). And people have complained about articles on fedoranews.org for instance, not being as accurate as they should be.

My take? Fedoranews.org is still the place for newbies to go. Reviews, et al will still be there. Just the useful HOWTO’s/Guide’s (let’s follow the tldp as an example) should exist at the docs project & at the fedoranews website.