Mohamed Fawzy

Though a great concept and model, the use and adoption of Free and Open Source Software in Africa is very negligible. This is not because Windows and other proprietary software are better, but because not much is being done by those of us in the FOSS world to bring it to Africa.

There is a vast untapped market available here where Linux in particular and Open Source Software in general have a lot of gains to make. But these gains will not come without efforts on the part of all FOSS proponents. It is in this light that we would like to present to you and seek your involvement in the OMG Africa! Linux Project.

Essentially, the Project has 3 main objectives

1. To increase the use and adoption of Linux in Africa: We hope to achieve this by educating people and small businesses about the massive advantages Linux has over other systems. To increase accessibility to Linux ISOs, we would seek volunteers who would be willing to mail FREE copies of pre-burned CDs containing Linux distros to those who have no internet connection to download.

2. Help curb the e-waste menace that is engulfing most parts of the continent: Given that Linux is free and runs on not so new hardware, the scourge of e-waste -which is mostly outdated computers that are dumped on us by advanced countries- can be reduced to the barest minimum by giving second lives to computers that would have ended as scrap because they are too old to run Windows. A look at this video titled from Anwerp to Ghana (my country) is ample evidence of the severity of the e-waste menace.

3. Find ways in which Linux in particular and Open Source Software in general can be used to enhance the quality of education here in Africa.

The goals and objectives of this humble but ambitious project cannot be realized without the active involvement of every single one of you wonderful FOSS proponents. If there is one thing that sets Linux apart from Windows, it is the strong community that surrounds it. Now we humbly implore the power of this community of which we all belong, to help bring Linux and Open Source Software to Africa and help improve lives.

You can contribute in a diverse number of ways to this project, two of which are volunteering to send out a FREE Linux CD and joining or starting discussions on how to achieve the set objectives of the project. If you ever wondered if there was any way Linux could be of use in any way other than on the PC, then you definitely have a role to play in the OMG Africa! Linux Project.

You can join the project Facebook page , follow on Twitter or subscribe to the official blog of the project to keep in touch with it at all times. We also are open to your ideas, feedback, suggestions, constructive criticisms and general advice and opinions on how we can improve the project. Once again, the noble goals of this project cannot be realized without your active involvement. Every single member we have counts towards achieving these goals. Why not join us right now and start a discussion? Can we reach a 100 members today?

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FOOS, Linux, OMG Africa, Project

Hey guys,

I want to produce the magic tool Package Converter which is a front-end GUI for “alien” which is is a program that converts between Red Hat rpm, Debian deb, Stampede slp, Slackware tgz, and Solaris pkg file formats. If you want to use a package from another linux distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it. It also supports LSB packages.To install Package Manger we will need to install some other stuff so lets start.

1-Before installing alien you must have perl installed,for RPM based distros like Fedora open a terminal and run those commands.
–first switch to root user:
$ su
Password:
–then install perl:
# yum install perl

2-Then; we will compile alien from source code, download it from here.
–right click the alien source code and extract it:

–extracted directory contents must look like that:

–open a terminal an cd to alien directory:
# cd path/to/alien/
–generate the make file:
# perl Makefile.PL
–then compile and install
# make
# make install

–for Ubuntu users,the main repository of Ubuntu contains “alien” deb package so running the following command will install alien and fix its all dependencies.
$ sudo apt-get install alien

3-we will install fakeroot package simply using yum/apt-get.
–for RPMians:
# yum install fakeroot
–for DEBians:
$ sudo apt-get install fakeroot

4-Now, we will install the package builder to build the package for my distro.
–for those of infinity voice of freedom:
# yum install rpm-build
–for human beings :
$ sudo apt-get install dpkg

5-Finally, download package converter.
–for RPM based repos: click here
–for DEB based repos: click here
–After download, double-click the package and enter password if prompted.

–Congratulations,now we have package manger installed you can run it from Applications>>System Tools>>Package Converter. it looks like this:

–click “Add!” button and browse to the package you want to convert then choose the output package type from “Package Type” drop-down list and this click “Convert!” button.

Now, you have your package converted successfully

Have fun

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alien, deb, fakeroot, Package conveter, rpm

Life Before Cloud Computing

Traditional business applications—like those from SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle—have always been too complicated and expensive. They need a data center with office space, power, cooling, bandwidth, networks, servers, and storage. A complicated software stack. And a team of experts to install, configure, and run them. They need development, testing, staging, production, and failover(means for ensuring high availability of some critical resource) environments.

When you multiply these headaches across dozens or hundreds of applications, it’s easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments aren’t getting the applications they need. Small businesses don’t stand a chance.

Life In The Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a better way to run your business. Instead of running your applications yourself, they run on a shared data center. When you use any application that runs in the cloud, you just log in, customize it, and start using it. That’s the power of cloud computing.

Businesses are running all kinds of applications in the cloud these days, like CRM(Customer Relationship Management), HR(Human Resources), accounting, and custom-built applications. Cloud-based applications can be up and running in a few days, which is unheard of with traditional business software. They cost less, because you don’t need to need to pay for all the people, products, and facilities to run them. And, it turns out they’re more scalable, more secure, and more reliable than most applications. Plus, upgrades are taken care of for you, so your applications get security and performance enhancements and new features—automatically.

The way you pay for cloud-based applications is also different. Forget about buying servers and software. When your apps run in the cloud, you don’t buy anything. It’s all rolled up into a predictable monthly subscription, so you only pay for what you actually use.

Cloud applications don’t eat up your valuable IT resources, so your CFO(Chief Financial Officer) will love it. This lets you focus on deploying more applications, new projects, and innovation.

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application, Cloud computing, datacenter, hybird, IaaS, Paas, SaaS, servers, virtualization

My story with Linux goes back three years ago when I was in “Mansoura” University and I met that colleague “Hassan Ibraheem“, the link between us at that time was the faculty and the way to home.One day Hassan was burning some CDs for me and he show me a live CD (the first time to me ), while booting I see something strange, new and maybe horrible for the first impression and my question was expected to Hassan..”What is this?!!!”, and the answer was completely ambiguous for me..”It is Linux.”; after along discussion I understood that there are other operating systems in the world not just “M$ Windows” and one of them is “Linux” which is the most popular, community based and FREE ( the term meaning was just “free of charge”).

After a year, now we are in “Ain-shams” University, those two CDs Hassan gave to me “Knoppix” and “Ubuntu” still with me but with no use. Hassan told me more about “Linux” and why he use it as his main operating system.Yes, it is something different and amazing!!!!. I was interested to try and beat the traditions THEY made it rules in our life.So I decided to install “Linux”, surely the mission completely done by Hassan as I still novice with this process.It was “Ubuntu” again the first Linux distribution to use, At glance it is different GUI with completely different applications and after a short learning curve I became familiar with this friendly distribution and I’m impressed beyond my ability to express myself,Now I feel FREE!! and  the term became obvious to me while reading the four freedoms for software users announced by FSF (Free Software Foundation). Here is listing of them :

1. The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
2. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour.
4. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

As Linux is open-source software it is free software and Linux users are free persons who feel free to use, copy, distribute, study, change and improve their Linux. So it was the milestone in my thinking way where I rethought in things others made it primitives and I’ve just discovered I’ve been tricked into believing I need to defrag my disk, restart my machine after each update or installation, reinstall the all system for unknown crash, pay for multiple anti-virus subscriptions for years(never, so I used illegal methods) ,use key-generators or illegal patches, upgrade all software staff according to upgrading one, I haven’t to know much just using it regarding what happens behind the scene and so on.

The plane has been changed and I decided to increase my Linux skills so I registered for RHCE(Red Hat Certified Engineer) course at Linux-plus and completed the three tracks in 2008 summer holiday.Upon this point I became a Linux “geek”, things can be done easily, efficiently and I felt that I have my own world.Certainly, I migrated from Ubuntu to Fedora the open project that community based supported and sponsored by RedHat.Now,I am preparing for the RHCE exam and self studying programming under Linux mainly Python.

Unfortunately, I am still tied to Uncle Bill because my faculty is using Microsoft proprietary software but soon i will be released from those bonds,soon I will be “FREE”.

Conclusion: why I use Linux ?

1. I can have my OS and software for free instead of copying others illegally.
2. I don’t wait for bugs to be solved just report and trace it down or I may fix it myself and share with community.
3. I have free and unlimited community support.
4. I have my system stable and work efficiently as first day I installed.
5. I forget about security and safety.
6. I forget about viruses and back doors.
7. I forget about data fragmentation.
8. I have thousands of software with few clicks.
9. I easily update all system with single click.
10. I don’t have to restart my system after each installation or update.
11. I haven’t a better alternative especially in systems administration and engineering.
12. I am FREE with Linux.

Finally,I wish to thank all of those people that have worked so hard for so long (most for free) to make Linux what it is today, my hat off to you heroes.And a special thanks for “Hassan Ibraheem” the reason of my freedom.

[FIRST,THEY IGNORE YOU; THEN,THEY LAUGH AT YOU; THEN,THEY FIGHT YOU; THEN,YOU WIN]

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fedora, freedoms, Linux, RHCE, story, truth happens, ubuntu, why linux

Hello friends,family, colleagues and everybody….

This is my first post in my first blog..it is just a hello message for you all, I hope it will be something useful and interesting for you and me

thanks …

السلام عليكم

دى اول حاجة اكتبها فى اول بلوج ليا مش أكتر من انى بقول اهلا بيكم كلكم اصدقائى و عائلتى و و زملائى و كل الناس وبتمنى يكون البلوج ده مفيد و ظريف ليكم وليا ان شاء الله

شكرا

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