Hi all this is sreekanth here. I have been closely watching that a war has been
going on in the mailing list for the last 2 or 3 days. I am happy to know that
both sides have shown a White Flag at last. But it hurts to see that it becomes
rude sometimes. We are all here to share our views and ideas amongst each
other. And this mail i am sending now is not to take any 'sides' as such.
Its really sad to see that we are becoming so close minded sometimes.
Every person has the right to express his views regarding a particular topic
and in this case Mr.Praseed did so. He has basically been a programmer on
Microsoft Windows Platform for quite some time now and so quite obviously when
he does explains things to us, this will come in. I dont know how many people
in this mailing list used GNU/Linux as their first operating system. My first
experience with computers was on Windows 98. And i believe majority had Windows
as their first experience. And even in my early days with GNU/Linux, i was a
99% Windows and 1% GNU/Linux User. But as time went on, i explored and found
out that around 95% of my problems had a solution in this beautiful operating
system. And now as i type this mail, i am proud to say that i stand at 99%
GNU/Linux and 1% Microsoft Windows. Well, that 1% is a hardware problem for
which i still haven't found solution
for. If that is found out, then it will be 100%. And also i owe a lot to ILUG
for helping me shift this ratio. I believe we should be more matured, polite
and professional in dealing with situations like this. I appreciate the efforts
taken by Mr.Praseed in sharing his programing knowledge with us. Now we are
acting like parents asking their child to run immediately when its only
starting to walk. He has taken the first step. Lets help him explore the new
world he is in. I strongly believe that his programing talents would be of
great resource for the community in the future too. Making provocative remarks
is not the way we must do things here. If someone tries to be provocative,
he/she should be dealt with peacefully. As far as a programmer is concerned,
platform is not an issue and that's exactly the stand Mr.Praseed is taking. He
had learnt how to program in Windows and now he is figuring out how to program
the same thing in GNU/Linux using the
knowledge he has. Let him experiment and explore. It will be a learning
experience for us too right?. Even though making and using of nuclear weapons
is evil, don't we still learn how a nuclear weapon is made in 12th Standard?..
And the same nuclear energy is used to power millions of homes.. So its just
that how we use the knowledge which matters. i think we should also take this
in the same way, bcoz this is also knowledge.
Now, Mr.Praseed, i would like to appreciate you for the presentation on
"GUI Programing on GNU/Linux"; which unfortunately i was not able to attend due
to some personal reasons and i really feel i missed it. But went through the
PDF that was pasted in the mailing list and was really impressed about the
research that you have done, even though you are from
the Microsoft World.
http://mail.ilug-cochin.org/pipermail/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org/2010-June/004776.html
I have a few suggestions though. We would be really happy if you could
apply these programing skills of yours into FOSS programing tools more
prominently. We are definitely expecting more info and technical presentations
from you.
Friends, What we seem to forget now is that we are working for the
benefit of the community. We are not a private ltd company. And as an
organization, our success lies in bringing our so called 'enemy' to our side.
Not degrading or destroying it. But lets at least take some pain in bringing
some quality programmers into our lot. The amount of contribution our country
has made to FOSS is very very small compared to what other countries do. And i
personally believe that and increase is possible only by bringing common man
and quality programmers towards us. For this to happen, we might have to go
their way first..and then as time goes they will come our way...bcoz every
human being has the ability to analyze good and bad.And let them have the
"Freedom" to choose what they want. Our challenge will be to convince them to
join us. This should not be done by force or degradation.
What FOSS in our country is lacking now is quality projects. We do start
off with projects but end up bcoz of lack of funds or quality programmers.
Majority of programmers do not know how to make a living using FOSS, owing to
which they do not take initiative to come into this field. Some people come in,
but back off bcoz when their parents ask them "how are u gonna earn?", then do
not have a definite answer. It is our responsibility to educate them on how to
achieve this. According to me, reaching to the Home user and fresh programmers
is the way to achieve the awareness and spreading that we are looking for. So
lets open our arms to every sort of people out there. Lets show them the
quality we have and lets give them the "freedom of choice". Lets work towards
this goal actively and create a market for FOSS at least in our state, so that
businesses can bloom on it and create lots of job opening in our sector. I
dream of a day when some of the
best programmers in India will be part of ILUG and The Free Software movement.
As the saying goes.."Rome was not built in a day".Lets make it a bit faster and
steady. We have the power to make it BIG. And we can and will make it BIG. Lets
hope for the best....
With Best Regards,
S.Sreekanth
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