The inaugural MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009 was a real eye opener to the advances which Open Source software has made, especially on end-user desktop PCs in the past few years.

It was also pleasantly surprising to see that all Linux variants showcased – namely Ubuntu 9.04, OpenSuSe 11 and Fedora 10 all came in-built with drivers for increasingly popular cellular-USB modem dongles, while PC BSD – not a Linux but a variant of the Unix-like FreeBSD optimised for desktops – let us install the modem's Windows driver within its Wine translator. Only OpenSolaris – an Open Source version of Sun Microsystems' flavour of Unix called Solaris did not have the drivers for the Huawei E230 cellular modem we plugged in.

The four day event which began on Sunday 31 May at the Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur featured a Hackathon Day, an Open Source Software (OSS) install fest featuring a variety of popular OSS such as Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSe, FreeBSD, PC BSD and OpenSolaris, competitions for coders, seminars, panel discussions on OSS, the official launch of the Ubuntu-my LoCo Malaysia Ubuntu Linux local community, the official launch of OSDC.MY -- the the Malaysian Chapter of the Open Source Developer's Club and various showcases of OSS by different organisations and vendors.

MSC Malaysia OSCONF 2009 which attracted 650 international participants was organised by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) which facilitates the development and promotion of MSC Malaysia, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and supported by the Malaysia OSS community.

The conference's umbrella theme was Open to Change and it was aimed at business executives, developers and Open Source communities in Malaysia, and it complements the annual Malaysian Government Open Source Software Conference (MyGOSSON) organised by MAMPU which addresses primarily government agencies, institutions of higher higher learning, the research and development (R&D) and business communities.

But what's Open Source software?  

So OK! What's Open Source software you ask? Well all computers cannot do anything by themselves and all their seeming intelligence you see in the various programs you run, including the code in its BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) which performs all those initial startup sequences, the word processor you use to write letters, the browser you use to access the World Wide Web or your e-mail client are all written by human programmers to make your computer perform all those wonderous tasks.

The “source” in Open Source refers to the human intelligible instruction script written in programming languages such as Basic, C, C++, COBOL, Pascal, Fortran, Assembler or whatever to make computers do things.

However, before the computer can carry out these instructions, they have to be converted or “compiled” into a form understood by the computer which works in ones and zeroes and almost all proprietary software, shareware or freeware which we buy or download for free are in the compiled form, while their source form usually is a closely guarded trade secret often protected by copyrights or patents.

However, just as computers cannot execute the source form, even the most skilled human programmer finds it very difficult to read a program and even more difficult to understand what it's mean't to do by reading its complied form, which makes it almost impossible to correct errors in programs or to modify and enhance them. Moreover, doing that is quite often against the terms of its license.

How it all began

In the early days of computing – namely in the 60s and early 1970s, computer suppliers gave away the source code with their software, which allowed programmers to modify and improve it which tied in with the software developer or hacker culture of sharing their work and resources with each other.

However later in the 1970s and early 80s, computer companies stopped providing the source code and began to copyright their software, requiring programmers to first seek their permission to make any modifications.

Back in the 1970s, Richard Matthew Stallman a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Lab encountered a problem of jamming with a prototype system laser printer and wanted to modify the printing software to alert users that it was jammed so they could go over and fix it but he could not find the source code however hard he tried and it's said that even the developer of that code who'd left his job with the company refused to give him the source code, presumably because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the company before he left.

Upset, this led Stallman to begin to develop a Unix-like operating system called GNU which was free of such restrictions and in 1983 he announced the GNU Project www.gnu.org and by 1990, most components of GNU were ready except for the kernel – or the core of the operating system.

Thankfully, Finnish programmer Linux Torvalds developed a Unix-like kernel called Linux in 1991 and made it free software a year later and Linux was integrated with GNU to make the complete GNU/Linux operating system which is the basis of the Linux distributions such as Slackware, Debian Red Hat and so on.

To ensure that the free software, its modifications, enhancements and  derivatives remain forever free and the source code forever available, Stallman wrote the GNU General Public License (GPL) which gives users the freedom to use, copy, modify and distribute copies of the original or modified versions free of charge or for a fee provided they do so under the same terms of the GNU GPL and make available the source code of all modifications and enhancements to the software.

There now are an estimated close to 30 free software licenses, some such as the Apache Version 2.0 and the FreeBSD licences which are compatible with the GPL, while there are others which are not.

Malaysia's Open Source initiative

“If we are limited by being users of software and are consumers of somebody else's product, Malaysia has little chance of being a world leader in developing software, said former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad while launching the Malaysian Public Sector Open Source Software (OSS) Initiative in 2004.

This initiative has led to government departments and institutes of higher learning, through MAMPU, adopting Open Source Software in their operations.

“I was told by some people a long time ago that when we use the Internet, whatever you do or write would be recorded in some far away place. There is no secrecy. Since the Government was using the Internet a lot, it was frightening to think that some foreign persons would know all our so-called confidential records and correspondence,” said Tun Dr. Mahathir at the lauch of OSDC.MY

“Being naïve I suggested that we develop our own operating system. I think a lot of savvy Government staff tried hard but got nowhere. There apparently is no bypassing the Internet.

“Then some started talking about Linux, about open source. This opened up a lot of mind-boggling use of the computer. Seems that everyone can evelop software etc. etc. At that stage I gave up.

“Now you are telling me about the Global Open Source development Club. I do not think I am qualified to be a member. Still I appreciate the expertise and the knowledge that comes with it,” Mahathir added.

The objectives of OSDC.MY are:-

To be an association of developers of OSS or anyone, including those who can contribute, users who can provide feedback for improvement and those who can document OSS.

To create something for Malaysia which is unique.

To inspire people (to adopt and embrace OSS).

Among members, to provide an online infrastructure to enable product development, services, revenue sharing and innovation in taking products to market.

After its first annual general meeting, OSDC.MY will announce other assistance in terms of the propagation of OSS through exhibitions and talks.

From next year onwards, OSDC.MY will organise MSC Malaysia OSCONF 2009, while MDeC will take a step back and be a sponsor of the event.

In his opening address at MSC Malaysia OSCONF 2009, MDeC chief executive officer, Dato' Badlisham Ghazali said, “The adoption of Open Source will see a shift in focus of value creation from software as a product towards a service-based software, where the wealth is to bemade from delivering innovative services based on Open Source technologies, rather from selling technology itself.”

Open Source projects can offer businesses with access to subscription-based applications such as business intelligence, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, content management, customer relationship management and e-commerce through a myriad of technology tools and solutions, with affordable and modular solutions which will work for them.

This also provides opportunities for local technology entrepreneurs in these difficult economic times and MSC Malaysia can consider support for the development of Open Source.

“Today, our MSC Malaysia statistics show that there are about 420 companies making good revenue from Open Source, collectively earning close to RM400 million from professional services and customised software development,” said Badlisham.

In the longer term, MSC Malaysia aims to have 25 globally competent Open Source companies, to have 5,000 persons talented in Open Source two years down the road an d to see revenue from Open Source-related software priducts and services increase to RM800 million within two years.

While MAMPU has raised awareness of Open Source among the community and has provided a platform to download the Open Source Software, MDeC will complement it by helping to drive its business use.

Ubuntu-my LoCo and Ubuntu 9.04 launched

The Ubuntu-my LoCo (local community) was launched at the MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference (OSCONF) 2009 at the Berjaya Times Square Hotel & Convention Centre on 31 May.

The local Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience.

“Our purpose is to raise awareness among the general public that there are alternative PC operating systems besides Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS,” said the community's leader Firdaus Aziz.

“We'll mostly inform and influence our friends,colleagues, lecturers who will in turn inform their students, while entrepreneurs such as my company will also recommend Ubuntu to our customers,” added Firdaus, who's also head engineer with Adon Solutions, a 100% Ubuntu provider.

The community currently has 100 members who've registered on its website at http://ubuntu.com.my, though about one third of them are active.

An Open Source, Unix-like PC operating system, Linux is available for download free of charge or on CD or DVD, sometimes for free and at other times at a nominal cost which covers the cost of materials but otherwise can be freely installed on as many PCs as one likes, freely copied, freely modified and freely re-distributed with no restrictions nor risk of the end users being raided and prosecuted.

However, on why some of the more recent Linux distributions, such as more recent, desktop-friendly versions of Ubuntu have not caught on in a big way with consumers, Firdaus said, “It's been a chicken and egg situation as far as drivers go, since without a large enough user base, peripheral manufacturers won't provide a driver for it, which in turn results in there being few users and that's what our community aims to change.”

Ubuntu 9.04

At the same time, Prakash Advani of Canonical Ltd launched its latest desktop release, Ubuntu 9.04 which has been available for download since April.

“Ubunto 9.04 has many new user-friendly features, including the latest Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and OpenOffice.org  3,while 9.04 server version is the first operating system to  support private cloud computing,” said Prakash.

Ubuntu 9.04 and several other recent Linux distributions such as Fedora 10, Sabayon 4.1, OpenSUSE 11 and others also come with the drivers for increasingly popular HSPA-USB modems. This capability was first fully available with the earlier Ubuntu version 8.04.

This writer in particular has easily connected to the Internet using the Huawei E230 HSPA-USB modem provided by DiGi from a PC running Ubuntu 9.04.

Another variant, Ubuntu Netbook Remix is optimised to run on these popular lower powered notebook PCs such as the Asus Eee and is optimised for their smaller screen size and is built from the ground up to match their chipsets.

For example, applications running on Netbook Remix fill the whole screen, unlike with the regular desktop version where it occupies the space between Ubuntu's toolbars at the top and bottom of its main screen.

Based in the UK and owned by South African entrepreneur, Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical Ltd owns the Ubuntu brandname and is its commercial sponsor, though Ubuntu belongs to the Ubuntu community, while Canonical provides corporate and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) services related to Ubuntu, which means “humanity to others” in African, and Canonical is committed to forever keep it free software.

Even the blind can install Ubuntu by themselves

Ubuntu is the easiest of Linux distributions which a visibly impaired person can install by themselves without the aid of a sighted person, according to Krishnakant Mane, a blind free and open source software (FOSS) advocate and consultant from India.

He started using Ubuntu since version 7.04 and he gave the specifications and technical solutions to the ORCA development team. He also advises the Government of India on how to shift to FOSS.

“I've tried all Linux distributions and found Ubuntu the easiest,” Krishnakant told SURF! On the sidelines of the MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009 (OSCONF 2009). “During live install, Ubuntu has an option to provide voice guidance and confirmation of selections and no proprietary has this voice assistance, which can only be installed after the OS is installed.”

“This same voice assistance called ORCA also works with applications such as OpenOffice word processor, spreadsheet, the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client and chat messengers such as Pidgin, though so far, it's only available with the popular GNOME graphical user interface (GUI) provided with Linux, while it's in the process of being ported right now to KDE, the other  popular GUI used with Linux,” Krishnakant added.

Orca is a free, open source scriptable screen reader. Using various combinations of speech, braille, and magnification, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI (e.g., the GNOME desktop). The development of Orca has been led by the Accessibility Program Office of Sun Microsystems, Inc. with contributions from many community members.

Krishnakant actively contributes to the accessibility module of Mozila Firefox with the ORCA screen reader, giving architectural ideas and helping with other logistics.

He programs in Python, C and Java and like with a sighted person where the text which appears on the screen provides confirmation of keyboard input, likewise the ORCA screen reader provides voice feedback for blind persons, while he has no problems handling a keyboard.

“While ORCA is a default feature of GNOME and all Linux distributions have the option of a GNOME GUI, Ubuntu integrated all the correct drivers and all the required dependencies for ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture), so it has no problems reading out the words on any application's screen,” said Krishnakant.

“For example when writing Python program script, it even tells the number of tabs required for the indents in program script,” he added.

Krishnakant currently leads the development of GNUKhata, an open source accounting and inventory management system which acts as a middleware connecting thin client front ends with the PostgressSQL database at the back end. A new release of GNUKhata will be launched on 21 June.

He also implemented a project in Kerela wherethe government set up a lab to educate blind people in FOSS.

Krishnakant also successfully led the True Vision Project with the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) to train blind persons in the use of free software so that they can become independent in education and employment.

Remote management of clinical systems with QUATTOR

The Primary Care Doctors' Organisation Malaysia (PCDOM) has long promoted its Linux-based open source PCDOM PrimaCare electronic medical records and clinical management system for general practitioners.

The system was developed with funds from the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI).

The standard PCDOM PrimaCare system uses a completely open source stack – ie a Linux operating system, Apache web server, PHP5 scripting language, PostgreSQL relational database management system and so on and is accessible cloud computing style though a Java-enabled web browser on PCs running any operating system, thus saving users on expensive licensing costs and vendor lock-in.

Right now, PCDOM IT consultant, Pietro Paolo Martucci is helping to implement QUATTOR which will enable the organisation to remotely install and maintain the Linux clusters on which PCDOM PrimaCare runs.

Martucci formerly was an open source and Linux cluster systems administrator at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).

“QUATTOR is a community developed system largely used in Europe to install and maintain clusters related to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN,” said Luis Fernando Munoz who works on computer security at CERN and also a QUATTOR developer.

“Besides CERN, QUATTOR is also used to install and maintain very small clusters of 40 servers right up to big clusters of 6,000 servers and the servers can be distributed across different location but all can be controlled and maintained centrally by a few system administrators at 20 sites in Dublin,” Munoz added.

The exhibitors

Among some of the exhibitors we spoke to, San Jose, California-based iXSystems showcased PC-BSD 7.1 Galileo Edition. The company provides enterprise servers running Open Source software and is  corporate sponsor for PC-BSD, the community which has a website at www.pcbsd.org.

PC-BSD is a complete desktop operating system, which has been designed for home PC users.

It's a fully functional desktop operating system, running FreeBSD 6-Stable under the hood with the stability, security and performance of UNIX.

PC-BSD is based on the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) UNIX operating system with a comfortable user experience and moreover, it's very much less prone the kinds of viruses or spyware which affect the most widely used PC operating system today.

It automatically detects and installs the drivers for hardware such as video, sound, network and other devices at the first system startup. Software can be easily and painlessly installed with just a double-click on the installer file.

Unlike most Linux distributions which use the GNOME graphical user interface by default, PC-BSD uses the KDE 3.5 GUI which makes it more like Microsoft Windows. Software installation has also been designed to be as painless as possible, simply double-click and software will be installed.

Its online Update Manager - downloads and installs updates for the operating system, without touching users' already installed programs. Graphical tools enable intuitive system administration and support,while users can also turn to its friendly and helpful support community or they can alternatively obtain professional e-mail and phone support from iXsystems available.

“Not many people know about BSD. For example an Open Source version called FreeBSD is used on backend servers such as those run by search engine and online portal company Yahoo!” said Ahmad Arafat Abdullah a network and systems consultant and a PC-BSD ambassador.

BSD has its own kernel and unlike Linux which is licensed under the GNU-GPL, BSD has it sown BSD license which is less restrictive than GPL in that it makes providing the source code and option, rather than mandatory

“The PC-BSD user group aims to bring together developers and users to improve the software and make more drivers available,” Arafat added.

Meanwhile, the Darwin operating system which is one of the core components of the Apple Mac OS and iPhone OS comprises code developed by Apple plus code derived from NextStep, FreeBSD and other Open Source projects. 

OSS courses online

The Asia e University (AeU) – www.aeu.org.my – introduced its two signature programmes, the Asia Executive Masters in Open Source Computing and Asian Executive Masters in Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning last February and now has 10 students for its current semester and at time of writing was in the process of enrolling students for its July semester.

“Our courses are aimed at working adults, rather than school leavers and hence are highly practical in orientation,” said  Nurhizam Safie bin Mohd Satar, PhD, dean of AeU's School of information & Communications Technology.

Founded in 2000, the regional online university is the initiative by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and now it operates across 31 Asian countries, which allows it to tap the knowledge and experience of experts across these countries and unlike most universities, about 90% of its subject matter experts come from relevant industries, while the rest are from academia.

Its Executive Masters programmes cost RM19,500 for one year – or a module a month with the option of 10 hours of face-to-face learning during weekends. Otherwise the courses are all conducted online through its leraning management system.

Seeming polar opposites meet

Microsoft tends to be regarded by many Open Source advocates as their nemesis and polar opposite, with its diagonally opposite emphasis on proprietary software but Microsoft had a booth in its “enemies'” camp.

Well, in fact Microsoft does collaborate with the OSS camp. For example its Silverlight web browser plugin for rich Internet applications runs on Mac OS and Linux machines with the help of Moonlight which it co-developed with Novell, while virtualisation lets Linux or Mac OS run in a Windows platform using the Microsoft Hyper V virtual machine which is similar to Vmware and which is available by default with Windows Server 2008

The Open Source PHP scripting language similar to Microsoft ASP runs on a Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) web server which is equivalent to the Open Source Apache.

Feeling the PULSE

Big'ant showcased the PULSE Smartpen launched in mid-2008 and introduce to Malaysia around last October or November. “We market PULSE across ASEAN, Oceania and the Middle-East and Australia currently is our biggest market,” said its regional managing director Dabid Tan Jee Boon.

PULSE has two microphones, a speaker and an organic LED (OLED) display  and when one writes, one can start an audio recording which it links to each point of the handwriting.

In comes with a piece of software which prints out lines, a pattern of dots and icons resembling audio recorder, start, stop, playback, rewind, fast forward, speed up and volume control buttons on a blank sheets of paper used for writing and when one writes, it relates each point in the script with the relevant part of the audio so users simply need to point it at he a part of the script to replay that part of the audio recording at that point in time or to any of the button icons for it to perform that fuction.

When docked with a PC it can synchronise with it and reproduce the netire set of notes on the PC and a third-party software called myScript to convert the handwriting to text.

PULSE works with Windows and MAC OS platforms and costs RM599 with 1GB of memory, wile the 2GB model costs RM799.

Simplifying data

Local company Byte Craft specialisations in solutions which enable better utility and integration of diverse digital data to the Web by universally searching through millions of different types of data and then visualises the most important information.

To be continued