[linuxinindia] FEATURE: You've got mail: ... qmail work...
- From: Frederick Noronha <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: linuxinindia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:37:13 +0530 (IST)
YOU'VE GOT MAIL: TREVOR WARREN FINDS RESPONSE ON QMAIL WORK 'ASTOUNDING'
He calls himself a 'self-confessed GNU/Linux freak, and, at 23, Trevor
Warren of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is project manager for products R&D at
the Zenith Computers Limited technology department.
Zenith is incidentally one of India's PC hardware majors; but young Warren
is making a name for himself also in another sphere -- a GNU/Linux project
he started and has clicked like nobody anticipated. It's called
'Qmail The Easy Way'.
He never misses a chance to evangelise on Free Software at colleges across
India. Says he: "I love spending time online and getting immersed on the
tonnes of info related to Linux, system and network security, and embedded
systems."
In an interview with GNU/Linux-in-India watcher and journalist Frederick
Noronha <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Warren <trevorwarren@xxxxxxxxx> warns, with
a few e-mail smileys thrown in as abundant precaution: "Out here at Zenith
we are coming up with tons of embedded stuff on the Linux front. So,
LUGgers, watch out. Probably you'll see the next Zaurus PDA from our
stables."
Some of his fellow-Indian counterparts who's work he lists in the GNU/Linux
field are Guntupalli Karunakar's <karunakar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> IndLinux Project
(for the Indianisation of free software), the simputer.org experiment at
building an open-hardware based computing device for the millions, and
Philip S Tellis' <philip.tellis@xxxxxxxxx> work on "some IM... don't get the
name as of now".)
Check out his work at http://www.qmailtheeasyway.com. Excerpts
from the interview:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To start at the beginning, how would you describe qmailtheeasyway.com?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Till late last year i worked for a great Gnu/Linux solutions company called
FreeOS Technologies. Out there, whenever there was a need to get my mail
server installations done, we would have to go running to
www.lifewithqmail.com, read the docs and get the job done.
Life was so difficult -- writing/copying scripts and having to get things
right every-time. I decided it was time to do something about the problem
that was bugging me. That was how Qmail The Easy Way was born.
In fact, I never ever expected so much adoption to the project.
The project is basically an adoption of www.lifewithqmail.com document with
various install options being given to the end-user of the package.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What inspired you to set it up?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It was basically the need to have a neat qmail install done that would help
me -- and the whole world -- grab qmail and have it installed with a jiffy.
Qmail is the world's most sturdiest mail server and is known by everyone to
power sites of the likes of hotmail.com and yahoo.com. But the inherent
complexity in installing and getting qmail up and running is what turns
amateurs away.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What has the response been to your venture, then?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Astounding. Initially when I did Qmail The Easy Way, i just did a CLI
(Command Line Interface) install. Then, later on, it graduated to a GUI
install with support for four different mail server installations.
It took me nearly one whole month to get the first release out. But, later
on, things kept going smoothly -- with support from the community and
debugging.
I started out with a site at tripod.com (which offers free webspace), but
then tripod threw me out for allowing downloads only from Freshmeat.net.
Users have been so good that I have three mirrors around the world now. Even
"qmailtheeasyway.com" plus the 250MB space has been donated by supporters.
Apart from the work to get the package done, everything from domain name to
the mirrors have been the gift of supporters of the project.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who are your mail collaborators?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
People from all over the world -- from US to Timbaktu -- Chinese, Taiwanese,
etc. One thing that this project has taught me is, Free Software can really
make a difference and that software done for use-value is a million times
more (valuable) than software done for sale-value.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Does your experience offer hints that India has something much more to offer
the GNU/Linux world?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
My project is just a small tip of the iceberg of what Indians are
collaborating to the Free Software movement. Whenever i think about my
project, i think about it as my contribution to the community that has given
me and made me what i am today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How much time do you spend over this per week/month?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Initially before i joined the R&D department at Zenith Computers, i used to
spend
10 hours a day on learning tcl/tk, debugging these issues and getting elated
at seeing the counter on the home-page go nuts.
From the past few months things have relaxed a bit. Infact i am keenly
thinking on the lines of doing a few successors to the **** The Easy Way. In
terms of IDS the Easy Way, Firewall The Easy Way, System/Network Monitoring
the Easy Way, etc........
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you see as your reward coming out of this venture?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The mail that i get everyday thanking me for making life a little bit more
simpler for someone else. I would always want keep going on, trying to give
back to the community that has given me so much.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In what way, do you believe, Indians could contribute to GNU/Linux?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The opportunities are tremendous. In fact i am pushing the Bombay Linux
Users group towards setting up a Project Resource Center. I want this
Project Resource Center to be a centralised repository for students to come
and pick up a project of their choice.
We will be setting up a Group-ware system that will enable the respective
students to choose a project and be guided by any of the senior LUG (Linux
User Group) members online. This is a method being jointly worked out by Dr.
Nagarjun (nagarjun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, a scientist keen about promoting
GNU/Linux in education, working out of Mumbai or Bombay as the city is
called), the Linux User Group of Bombay and me.
From the way i look at it, there are tonnes of stuff that need to be done in
the Free Software Movement. What's lacking is the expertise to fill those
gaps in.
Infact a simple example would b too look at China/Japan. Out there even the
local shop keepers have their computers booting Linux in their local
languages. We (in India) who call ourselves the upcoming IT super power r
still lagging far behind.
Not that I want to undermine the efforts of the Indian Linux Project (I know
the dudes who are slogging it out....), but just want to state that in terms
of our contribution to the products arena internationally in both Free
Software/closed source world there leaves more to be desired.
Individually, we are a scattered lot, but together we can make a hell of a
difference. Indians can contribute in terms of trying to fill in the gaps in
the contributions towards development on various projects available on
Freshmeat.net nd Sourceforge.net.
There is also the Gnu Hurd kernel which needs a lot of help. In terms of
evangelisation more than ever we need people to take up be torch bearers of
Free Software nd do their little to make this world a better place to live
in. (ENDS)
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