[உபுண்டு_தமிழ்]Jeremy's பக்கம்...

[ஸ்ரீ ராமதாஸ்]

முன்பே  பகிர்ந்து கொண்டது போல் ஜெர்மி வாக்ஸ்டாஃப் (WSJ) பின் பக்கம் வெளிவந்துள்ளது.

இணைய தளத்தில் www.ubuntu-tam.org ( You Say You Want a Revolution எனும் 
தலைப்பில்) பதிவேற்றப் பட்டுள்ளது.

----------------------------

You Say You Want a Revolution

-- Loose Wire on Ubuntu

New Open-Source Desktop Software Ubuntu
May Challenge Microsoft Windows
October 6, 2006

JAKARTA -- On the top floor of an otherwise nondescript shopping mall in 
south Jakarta, a little revolution is taking root.

Perched between a meatball-soup stall and a department store stands a 
modest Internet café called SoNet, indistinguishable from others that 
dot the Indonesian capital. It's only if you step up to one of the 11 
computer screens that you might notice their desktop software looks a 
bit different: It's not Microsoft Windows, although it looks a lot like 
it, with its start menus, buttons and windows. And it's not Apple, 
although with its color palette and uncluttered screen perhaps it could 
be. It's something called Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com 
<http://www.ubuntu.com/>), which in parts of Africa loosely translates 
as humanity toward others, and it just might change the way we use 
computers.

Here's the situation: Microsoft, with its Windows operating system and 
Office suites, dominates what we call The Desktop -- the programs that 
make up what you see and work with on your computer. There's Apple, of 
course, which carves out a significant niche and a loyal following. And 
then there's something called Linux, an operating system that is free, 
developed by passionate volunteers but too geeky to make much headway 
into our cubicles or homes. But some believe Linux can be an open-source 
alternative -- freely written, and free to tinker with. Chief among 
these believers is South Africa-born Mark Shuttleworth, a 33-year-old 
software developer who made enough money from the dot.com 
<http://dot.com> boom to first become a cosmonaut, and then pour more 
than $20 million into something called Ubuntu.

London-based Mr. Shuttleworth believes that while computer hardware -- 
the physical bits that form your computer or other gadgets -- has gotten 
more competitive, pushing down prices and pushing up innovation, 
software has by comparison been stifled by remaining proprietary. By 
giving away free desktop software, Mr. Shuttleworth believes he can 
reduce the cost of computing and make it as good as proprietary 
software. "At that point," he says, "I think we'll see a real surge of 
innovation."

Doubters should look at what happened to the browser, where open-source 
Firefox comes up with new features long before Microsoft's Internet 
Explorer. And it's not that developing a desktop environment is all that 
new. It's just that Mr. Shuttleworth's millions, and his focus on 
usability and design, have helped provide the foundation for some solid 
and professional software.

Ubuntu is pretty easy to install. Just download a single file (or if 
your Internet connection doesn't like 700 megabyte files, order the free 
CD) and launch it. The desktop environment itself is familiar enough to 
figure out but different -- dare I say classy -- enough to make you feel 
you're entering a new world. And it's not just the basic operating 
system: Included in the CD is an office suite, a browser and an email 
program, all of them open source and powerful enough for the needs of an 
average user.

So is it good enough for prime time and for you? If you're a power user 
who likes to connect gadgets, install lots of different software and 
needs things to be just so, then no. If you just want a fully 
functioning desktop and don't feel like splashing out several hundred 
dollars on software, then yes.

And while Mr. Shuttleworth hopes Ubuntu will continue to infiltrate 
desktops in the developed world, his eyes are mainly on the emerging 
one. In Chennai, Sri Ramadoss Mahalingam, a 23-year-old Indian, began 
work in August with a dozen fellow volunteers to translate Ubuntu into 
Tamil. He and his team are about a third of the way through. Not bad, he 
points out, considering Microsoft only translated Windows XP into Tamil 
in June -- five years after launch. Perhaps the biggest impetus for 
change, ironically, may come from Microsoft itself. As the company 
pushes governments to crack down on rampant software piracy, those in 
the developing world will have to make a choice between risking arrest 
and fines or installing legal software they can actually afford, which 
is likely to mean open-source (free) software.

When rumors reached the Internet café atop the Jakarta mall last year 
that there would be an antipiracy raid, it was a no brainer: All the 
customer computers were stripped of illicit Windows copies and converted 
to Ubuntu or one of its offshoots. Did customers complain? "A few were a 
little confused at first," says Minie, a member of the staff. "But after 
a while they didn't notice."

--Send comments to loosewiremail at gmail.com <mailto:loosewiremail at gmail.com>

-- 
அன்புடன்,
ம . ஸ்ரீ ராமதாஸ்

Stepwise instructions - to view Unicode Tamil text

1. You need to have Unicode Tamil fonts installed on your computer and 
the Operating System capable of rendering Tamil Scripts. Windows XP 
comes with a Unicode Tamil Font (Latha) and you need not 
download/install a unicode font.
2. In the Control Panel, in Regional/Languages Options you will need to 
ensure that Indic/Asian Language option is checked.
3. Use a browser that is capable of handling UTF-8 based pages (Netscape 
6, Internet Explorer 5) with the Unicode Tamil font chosen as the 
default font for the UTF-8 char-set/encoding view. Unicode Tamil Fonts 
may be downloaded from here. <http://www.tamilnation.org/fonts/latha.ttf>
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