Free software update!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/27941.html 
Linux Clusters 
A group of French developers working under the Open Source GPL have 
released a Linux Operating System, called Clic, which has been 
specifically developed for clustered environments. The product is aimed 
at harnessing the power of multiple low-cost PCs and turning them into 
high-end computing power. And you can try it for free thanks to the open 
source initiative. The group of collaborators includes Mandrake 
Software, the French Linux distributor, and Bull, with sponsorship in 
part by the Reseau National des Technologies Logicielles in France which 
appears to be Government backed 
 
http://www.dqindia.com/content/industrymarket/newsanalysis/102102301.asp 
GOI and Linux 
The Government of India seems to have finally woken up to the fact that 
if the country needs to retain its #1 status as the IT service 
provider to the world, it has to look inwards. Interestingly, the 
realization seems to have come with China, which is already a name to 
reckon with in the hardware sector, flexing its muscles to beat India in 
the software game of IT. And what better way to take competition head on 
than to take a leaf out of the competitor's strategy book. Hence the 
decision by the department of technology (DIT) to launch a countrywide 
drive to promote the open source operating system Linux as the "platform 
of choice" 
 
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/61/27953.html 
NEC unveils fault-tolerant Linux server By ComputerWire 
Posted: 06/11/2002 at 10:17 GMT 
NEC Corp has announced the European release of its first fault-tolerant 
Linux server, the Express5800/320La, which has been developed in 
conjunction with fault tolerant server specialist Stratus Technologies 
Inc. Tokyo, Japan-based NEC's two-way Intel Corp processor-based dual 
redundancy server uses the same hardware architecture as Stratus's 
ftServer and its own Express5800 Windows fault-tolerant servers. The 
architecture enables all processing and I/O commands to run on redundant 
components in lockstep with fault-tolerant failover in the case of 
module failure 
 
http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/11/05/1851250.shtml?tid=19 
A kinder, gentler Perens is going Global now - by Tina Gasperson - 
Wednesday November 06, 2002 - [ 09:02 AM GMT ]     
One thing you have to admire about Bruce Perens: he has lots of ideas 
and he's not afraid to implement them. Before the door was fully closed 
behind him at HP, he started Sincere Choice to counter Microsoft's 
"Software Choice" initiative. Now he's heading up a new non-profit: the 
Global Technology Policy Institute. GTPI is acting as an umbrella for 
Sincere Choice and other Perens initiatives like the Royalty-Free 
Standards project and the Computer Customer Representation project. More 
than that, it is a covering for Perens himself, who would like to 
maintain his status as an Open Source evangelist. Sounds easy. But these 
things do take money.  
 
AFRICA: USING OPEN SOURCE TO STRENGTHEN CIVIL SOCIETY 
http://africa.rights.apc.org/ 
Open source is rapidly gaining ground in Africa as governments, civil 
society and the private sector begin to recognise the benefits and 
relevance of the movement to African Information and Communication 
Technology (ICT) development. 
 
SCHOOLNET NAMIBIA SAYS 'NO THANKS' TO MICROSOFT 
http://allafrica.com/stories/200211040406.html 
"Shafted [by Microsoft] for a paltry US$2 000? Not in your ... wildest 
dreams," writes SchoolNet Namibia founding executive director Joris 
Komen in an open letter to Microsoft regional manager George Ferreira. 
In the strongly worded letter, Komen claims Microsoft's offer of free 
software and a terminal services project to rival SchoolNet's existing 
Linux system will set SchoolNet Namibia  back more than $24 000; a price 
the organisation is not able or willing to pay. 
  
101 REASONS TO USE MOZILLA AS YOUR WEB BROWSER 
http://www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/arts/reasons.html '101 things that the 
Mozilla browser can do that IE cannot' - a list of the  
wonderful features of this under-utilised web browser. I use Mozilla all 
the time, on Windows and Linux, and I suggest you read Neil Deakin's 
article and then go to www.mozilla.org to download your free copy! 
  
Thanks, 
 
Sunil 
 
===== 
Sunil Abraham [MAHITI] 
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur 
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA 
Ph/Fax: +91 80 5352003. Pager: 9624 279519 
[email protected] http://www.mahiti.org