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By Ike Suarez, Correspondent
Software programmers at the Advanced Science and
Technology Institute of the Department of Science and Technology are
now putting the finishing touches to the latest version of Bayanihan
Linux.
By the time of its release later this year, this
Open Source package shall have two editions, namely: one tailored
for use in government and private offices; another tailored for use
in schools by teachers and students. In addition, Wikipedia in an
offline form could form part of the package’s latter edition.
The Manila Times learned of this development
after ASTI personnel in the Quezon City office, directed us to
Emmanuel Balinte, a leading member of the Bayanihan Linux team,
following our inquiries.
Balinte said, “Bayanihan Linux version 5 is
slated to release by early 4th quarter, possibly on the first or
second week of October, with the possbility of an offline edition of
Wikipedia bundled with the upcoming academic edition.”
But he admitted a final decision still had to be
made on this matter. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia whose
contents on its Internet portal can be freely created and/or
modified by any users who register themselves to the website.
As with Open Source, Wiki content is a new and
alternative intellectual property paradigm emerging in the century
of Web 2.0. Already, Wikipedia has cast doubts on the survival of
traditional encyclopedias—yes, those big books that used to occupy
living room shelves.
ASTI first launched Bayanihan Linux in October
2001 for use primarily in government offices. It formed part of a
package of measures by the Philippine government to curb rampant
software piracy in the country.
As its name implies, Bayanihan Linux is a suite
of programs running on the Linux operating system. Included in the
bundle is Open Office, a package of word processor, spreadsheet,
database, and presentation tools. Open Office is similar to
commercial packages widely available in the market and many times
sold as pirated copies.
Because it is Open Source, Bayanihan Linux can
be freely copied and modified by anyone. This would be in contrast
to the case with proprietary software where doing so would be a
crime.
Bayanihan Linux can be freely downloaded online
at http://www. bayanihan.gov.ph, at the same time, a CD version can
be purchased from ASTI for P 120. Similar commercial packages that
are legitimate copies would cost a few thousands of pesos more.
Balinte said the edition for government and
private offices of Bayanihan Linux’s forthcoming edition would be
made simple once again. It would include only Open Office, an
Internet browser, instant messaging, and an e-mail client program.
“These are all that are needed for office use, “ Balinte said.
On the other hand, the academic edition would
also include games, graphics programs, and multimedia applications
added into succeeding versions of Bayanihan Linux. Also to be
included are compilers for use in developing new Open Source
programs.
Balinte said the issue with Wikipedia inclusion
was whether or not this would unduly increase storage requirements
in PCs where Bayanihan Linux Version 5 is to be installed.
Later versions of Bayanihan Linux, including
Version 4 released last February 2007 have bundled into them WINE,
an Open Source program enabling easy interface with Windows
applications.
Succeeding versions of Bayanihan Linux have been
upgraded to become as user friendly and fun to use as popular
commercial software running on Windows. Observers believe this has
been done to address perceptions worldwide that Open Source is only
for geeks who are very proficient in the use of computers and not
for ordinary computer users.
Bayanihan Linux Version 4 can run even on
obsolete Pentium 3 PCs. According to Balinte, the same will be the
case for Version 5.
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