Spellbook

A group of fellow Ubuntu and Open Source fanatics are putting together a set of teaching lessons to help move the education world to the Free and Open Source world of technology.

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Original post by Joey

Last week a journalist of an open source magazine in UK asked me several questions on the subject of Open Source in China, here I am sharing the answers:

1. Question: Can you tell me how you got involved in open source, and how healthy and vibrant you perceive the free software movement to be in China?

Answer: I was involved with free software when I joined UNDP China as an IT manager back to 5 years ago. There are several Linux servers in UNDP’s server room which are my responsibility to administer. I then bought several Linux books and taught myself some simple Linux commands. I end up like these linux servers very much for their outstanding performance and stability. That’s the start of my Linux experience. I was lucky that Beijing Linux User Group was just founded when I joined it and I become an early and key member of the team, which put me in the social scene of open source people in Beijing. I have kept learning new tricks from other geeks since then.

The free software movement in China is quite vibrant comparing to other developing countries in Asia (not Japan, South Korea or Taiwan). I’d say it’s also quite healthy in the sense that it encourages sharing, innovation, and self learning among young generations, but there are also some main drawbacks which may cause the development of free software unsustainable in long term:

1. Lack of commitment and support from big enterprises, which in many cases due to people’s lack of understanding about Open Source license.
2. Absent/lack of Free Software concept/knowledge on computer textbooks in current education system

These days I have read some new actions taken by Chinese government to improve the situation of the above mentioned problems, and I believe those changes are for good.

2. Question: We hear good news stories about Chinese organisations adopting open source from time to time. What is your view of government and enterprise migration to Linux in China? Is Linux still very niche, or do you believe it is really gaining a foothold in the country?

Answer: In my view these migrations were only good when it brought values to the Chinese organizations, with improved efficiency/security and reduced cost. As a fan of free software, I am aware of the philosophical and technical implications of FOSS to society in general, but when it comes to the business world, I believe the product value is almost the only key factor. Linux has gained a foothold in China only in some industry where it actually demonstrate a significant competitive advantage than other platforms, like in telecommunication sector. By the time more innovative solutions are developed based on Linux, I believe it will gain foothold in other business sectors too.

3. Question: A lot of people in the UK think of China as having a huge pool of computer scientists who could play an important role in the growth of open source if they learn on Linux-based systems rather than Windows. (I read that 100,000 programmers graduate in China each year.) Can you give me your perspective on that? Do you think it is possible that some of the Linux migrations in Chinese schools and universities will lead to a Linux-based IT industry in China in a few years?

Answer: Free software in the sense that it gives user the freedom to study it and improve it, made it a perfect educational OS for computer science student to understand how the wheels been invented in the first place. I am a strong advocate for computer science student should develop their skills on Linux along with other skills on other platforms, then it’s up to their own decision for which platform that they’d like to adapt when they become decisions makers for enterprise IT solutions. I believe some Linux migrations in Chinese schools and university will give students access to know/learn about Linux, and in long term will be favorable to a widely adaption of linux technology in IT industry. It’s favorable to students too for they would have built a more flexible/agile skill set which will lead to better job opportunities.

4. Question: With software piracy rates in China so high and proprietary software being almost free as in beer, do FOSS advocates like yourself have to work harder to persuade users to try Linux than advocates in other countries?

Answer: I don’t like to use the word persuade. It’s true that there is almost no economic incentive for users to opt Linux over Windows on their PCs in China, but let’s face the fact that this option has rarely been an economical decision. Even in developed countries, where people has to pay for proprietary software as enforced by copyright law, how many Linux users have chosen Linux merely because it’s free as in beer? Linux is a better product than Windows in many perspectives, and my role is to introduce people come to see Linux as they are, I am passionate about this job but there is no such a message in my speech that Linux is better than Windows in every perspective, and personally I think strong/aggressive selling is actually manipulating other people’s mind, I have tried to respect every individual’s own judgment to make the best decision for themselves.

I am posting this blog as part of the discussion initiated by Stephen Walli, who has got plenty of wise opinions on Open Source business in general:

http://stephesblog.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/06/open_source_bus.html

Original post by admin

I was fixing a dual-boot computer tonight and just couldn’t find these commands so here they are on my blog so I can find them again.

The irony is that AFTER I fixed the problem I found a great forum post.

Original post by Joey

This tutorial will outline how to connect your Linux machine (probably not distro-specific, but this was tested and created using Ubuntu 7.04) to dial-up networking via a Treo 700p Smart Phone. This method uses USB connection and requires a data plan with your service provider. I use Sprint as they have the cheapest unlimited data plan.

In speed tests over the last few days here I have achieved ~350+kbps up and down speeds. This actually beats some residential DSL speeds that I’ve seen. Not bad. Now for the good stuff…

There are two sections of this tutorial. The first is preparing the phone to share connection to the computer. The second is telling the computer how to connect to the phone. Neither are terribly complicated, just make sure you follow the steps carefully.

Step 1 : Configuring the Treo 700p

From what I understand Sprint changed something since the Treo 650 and now require you to pay extra to share a data connection to your computer. We, of course, don’t want to do that so we’ll use a small piece of third party software to help us share this connection. This application, which you’ll need to install to your Treo 700p is called USB Modem.

I should note that this is not free software and is for-pay software, neither are points that I’m thrilled about but when there aren’t any other tools for the job… (anyone want to reverse engineer some Palm code?)

There is a free trial of that application that will run for 14 days or 30 connections. I’d suggest using the trial to initially set this up and if you find that its something you use go ahead and pay the $24.95 for the full version.

In any event, you’ll want to download the USB Modem application and install the .prc file to your Treo 700p. This tutorial will not outline installing or syncing your PDA. This assumes you already have a method of doing that. Remember to install the application to your phone itself and not a memory card.

After installing the USB Modem application navigate to it on your phone, but do not yet ‘Enable Modem Mode’. We’ll do that in a minute.

Step 2 : Configuring the Linux machine

I should note before I dive into this section that the USB Modem archive also includes instructions for setting up Linux, OS X and Windows. If you have trouble you might want to double check those instructions for more details.

On Ubuntu 7.04 (yet untested on other distributions) you need to manually add a kernel module for the Smart Phone syncing to be properly recognized. You can do this manually (not persistent) by using the command:

sudo modprobe visor

If you would like to make this persistent, which is something I have done, you will want to append a line “visor” to the end of your /etc/modules file. This way the kernel will be watching for a Smart Phone / PDA connection. If you don’t make it persistent you’ll, of course, need to do it manually each time you plan on connecting.

In my situation, using Sprint and an EVDO network, my connection does not require any kind of username and password to connect to the data network. This simplifies the steps a bit, but if your provider needs such information it isn’t too much different. Please refer to the USB Modem instructions for where to add your username and password.

The first step (and simplest way I found to connect) is to copy the connection script from the USB Modem archive to your /etc/ppp/peers/ directory. I used this command (assuming you’ve unzipped the archive to your Desktop):

sudo cp ~/Desktop/drivers/linux/ppp-script-evdo-template /etc/ppp/peers/ppp-script-treo

After you have copied the EVDO template file to the location above you should be ready to make your connection. note: I had to close existing connections (eth0, wlan0, etc) for this to work. Can anyone else verify this?

At this point you’ll want to reach over to your Treo 700p and “Enable Modem Mode”. If you’d like to see that the machine is recognizing your phone you could take a look at /var/log/messages.

Now that the phone is set to “Modem Mode” run the following command on the Linux machine:

sudo pppd /dev/ttyACM0 call ppp-script-treo

This will post some output to the screen and tell you whether or not you’re connecting. If you are assigned a remote and local IP plus primary and secondary DNS you’re most likely connected. You should get your prompt back at this point. Try pinging a location to verify your connection.

ping -c3 google.com

If your ping works you’re set. Enjoy your ppp connection over your phone. Internet wherever you have phone service. w00t! If it didn’t work please leave a comment and we’ll see what we can do for you. (chances are differences in providers, EVDO vs EDGE, etc).

Original post by Ubuntu Tutorials

Ubuntu and its related projects released Tribe 1 today. Martin Pitt sent a nice long email to the Ubuntu developers announcement mailing list about the release. Feel free to read up on that for more detail.

Original post by Freddy Martinez