[HN Gopher] The State of FOSS in India
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The State of FOSS in India
Author : Garbage
Score : 105 points
Date : 2021-01-12 14:06 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (state-of-foss.in)
(TXT) w3m dump (state-of-foss.in)
| azifali wrote:
| We're building a KubeArmor - a container-aware runtime security
| enforcement system n using LSMs - between India, Korea and the US
|
| https://github.com/accuknox/kubearmor
| eznzt wrote:
| The design of the website makes it very confusing to read and
| understand.
| john2010 wrote:
| The sad state is that even the most employees of Tech companies
| from India - >SWITCH (all different companies acronyms) just are
| not aware of OSS. Even now from UK, when I spoke to my sister (an
| amazing java programmer in TCS - graduated out of a top uni in
| Bangalore) about Signal(app) she was surprised, remarking what is
| the problem with WhatsApp? who cares about OSS? Like the gaming
| T-shirts in DO hacktoberfest
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24658052
|
| they are constantly looking to see if I can make a buck.
| Contributing free is something that will need generosity - only
| after they get rid of some amount of poverty and improve their
| economic levels.
|
| There was some hope when XDA and Android ROM tended to explode in
| India, but it is a bit lost. Most ROM-groups locked up asking for
| PayTM money (equiv. of paypal) for even seeing your github repo.
| (Think it was a bad thing github gave free private repos - after
| MS acquisition).
|
| (PS: I am from India)
| smlckz wrote:
| >> Inception of FOSS [1886-1978]
|
| What happened in 1886?
| ignoramous wrote:
| You can in fact click on those boxes. When I did, it pointed to
| the 1886 Berne Convention as the first _FOSS_ movement (?):
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| What does this help to Foss in India?
| chmod775 wrote:
| The Berne Convention is about as opposed to a FOSS movement
| as you could get. The Berne Convention is what _necessitated_
| one in the first place.
| ignoramous wrote:
| Isn't the Berne Convention about _copyright_? FOSS isn 't
| necessarily at odds with it?
|
| The 1886 Berne Convention did introduce the concept of
| _public domain_ and _fair use_ , however; and that, in
| spirit, counts towards inspiring FOSS, I guess?
| chmod775 wrote:
| > The 1886 Berne Convention did introduce the concept of
| public domain and fair use
|
| It did not. I have no clue what gave you this idea.
|
| It's like saying that slavery introduced the concept of
| free men.
|
| The Berne Convention did not consider concepts such as
| 'fair use' at all, in fact some argue 'fair use'
| _violates_ the Berne Convention.
|
| Further, public domain is a term for works whose
| protections under the Berne Convention _expired_.
| [deleted]
| 8ytecoder wrote:
| Click on the link.
| jbgreer wrote:
| Pleased to see the report reference my late acquaintance, Atul
| Chitnis, and his work in fostering Free Software in India. I
| connected with Atul during a business trip to Bangalore in the
| mid-90s. He ended up arranging a dinner at a nearby pub with a
| contingent of the a Linux User Group. We ended up shutting the
| place down, talking late into the night. Periodically I reached
| out to catch up with him and share his enthusiasm.
| shankysingh wrote:
| I started my career with Geodesic, handheld division, which
| @atul was overlooking as VP , IIRC .
|
| Was really a great experience interacting with him and other
| stalwarts of FOSS at thats time. I owe my first job to him and
| Pradeepto :)
| ignoramous wrote:
| Hasura [0], Postman [1], and ERPNext [2] are leading the FOSS
| charge from India. In ERPNext's case, they remained bootstrapped
| for 10 years (seed investment from rainmatter.in in Nov 2020)
| despite having to compete with SAP.
|
| See also: https://github.com/collections/made-in-india
|
| [0] https://github.com/hasura/graphql-engine
|
| [1] https://github.com/postmanlabs/newman
|
| [2] https://github.com/frappe/erpnext
| systemvoltage wrote:
| I didn't have a good experience with ERPNext. It is neutered
| and using it is painful to use unless you pay for professional
| help. They bundle everything in a virtual machine file (!!) and
| not standard Docker containers. The whole thing is horribly put
| together. I spent half a day trying to get it up and running
| and it was a nightmare.
|
| ERPs and MRPs are in a weird uncanny valley. 99% of the
| audience that need to use it are not programmers. Open sourcing
| is nice but largely only helpful to people that are going to
| forkit and improve it, not end users. Also, ERP is the brains
| of your business. If it goes down and has problems, your
| business comes to a halt. It needs to be rock solid and most
| businesses don't want to deal with this type of thing - happy
| to pay $300/month for small business ERP from Oracle, SAP,
| Microsoft or other platforms. I am complaining but its better
| than nothing, the fact that theyve put their code out for free
| is commendable.
| rushabh wrote:
| There are standard docker images available [0]. Not sure why
| you would you virtual images when there is an easy install
| script and a docker.
|
| While I agree it's a complex beast (it's an ERP system),
| there is a large community [1] and active forum.
|
| Also if you are happy paying $300/month for a proprietary
| product, why would you expect the same for $0 from an open
| source product?
|
| [0] https://github.com/frappe/frappe_docker
|
| [1] https://discuss.erpnext.com
| 0df8dkdf wrote:
| * They bundle everything in a virtual machine file (!!) and
| not standard Docker containers*
|
| Glad someone is mentioning this. Did not have a good
| experience with ERPNext. Why is it written on an obscure
| framework: Frappe, named after the programmer. If I'm using
| Python web framework, flask or Django.
| rushabh wrote:
| Author here. This is wrong information. Not sure where you
| are getting this from.
|
| Also as I mentioned above, docker installs are actively
| supported.
|
| https://github.com/frappe/frappe_docker
| iamgopal wrote:
| ERPNext is just using FOSS as a reason for being mediocre. They
| tick all the feature list that proper ERP may required, none
| are tested, lots of bugs, most are solved to introduce more
| bugs. Usability achieved once you know the bugs and start to
| live with it.
| rushabh wrote:
| Open source does not come with any warranty. You are welcome
| to spend your time and fix what you feel is broken, or pay
| someone for it.
|
| ERPNext has a large and active community with thousands of
| active installs, and bugs are constantly being fixed and
| enhancements being pushed.
|
| Unfortunately an ERP system needs time and effort to
| configure correctly, and what you consider bugs, might just
| be things that you need your accountant to tell you about.
| pdevr wrote:
| A huge vote for Postman. Used it a few years back. Was an
| awesome tool. Hope it still is.
| cambalache wrote:
| Thanks for letting me know about EPRnext (I suppose they are
| well known, but hey my bandwidth is pretty limited). I really
| like the idea (although I dont like the DB choice or the
| framework), I will still poke around
| pkd wrote:
| Also Julia I think?
| [deleted]
| tumblewit wrote:
| I appreciate that Android is widely adopted in India, a free and
| open source operating system but the amount of data being
| collected is simply too much thanks to oems installing their own
| software on top of it. That and the fact that due to data being
| very cheap most users will install all kinds of software that
| again collects data. Privacy laws in India are non-existent. FOSS
| doesn't solve that unless FOSS from private companies is also
| audited and the data being collected is clearly explained to the
| consumers and they are made aware of it.
| ignoramous wrote:
| > _Privacy laws in India are non-existent. FOSS doesn 't solve
| that unless FOSS from private companies is also audited and the
| data being collected is clearly explained to the consumers and
| they are made aware of it._
|
| Participate / Contribute: https://internetfreedom.in/
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| > I appreciate that Android is widely adopted in India, a free
| and open source operating system but the amount of data being
| collected is simply too much thanks to oems installing their
| own software on top of it.
|
| This is because most people in India are buying androids
| because they are inexpensive, not because they are open source.
|
| Most of the people in India I have talked too, actually aspire
| for an Apple iPhone but can't get one because it is too
| expensive.
| Ayesh wrote:
| Because it is cheaper, and Xiaomi, Oppo, and a few other
| manufacturers dominate the market there. Xiaomi in particular
| has a massive market, to a point that they release some India-
| specofoc models too.
|
| I also read that in India, iPhones have a bigger markup to a
| point that it is cheaper to fly to Dubai, buy an iPhone, and
| fly back. I don't think Xiaomi market had any noticeable impact
| even with India and China at their throats.
| smlckz wrote:
| > ''Think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer''
|
| < _' 'Muft nehi, Mukt''_
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| Firangi nahi samje ge. Shudh agrezi ka upiyog karein
| saagarjha wrote:
| That's why there's an English version that provides the
| spirit of the quote?
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| and there comes the downvotes. don't people understand
| implicit /s
| isatty wrote:
| Translation?
| bilal4hmed wrote:
| not free, freedom
| yati wrote:
| muph't (muft) means free of cost, mukt (mukt) is free as in
| freedom.
|
| muph't nhiiN / mukt (muft nehi, mukt) reads like "not free
| (of charge), but free as in freedom."
| smlckz wrote:
| _muft_ = gratis, ''free as in beer'', _mukt_ = open, ''free
| as in freedom''
| suramya_tomar wrote:
| Translation: Not free (has a cost), free (as in not bound/free
| speech)
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(page generated 2021-01-12 23:01 UTC)