The National Conference on Debian, for budding developers and Free Software enthusiasts is going on in the College of Engineering, Pune.

Free Software Movement-Karnataka (FSMK) is being represented in the conference by my mentor Mr.Vikram Vincent and myself. Like FSMK, there has been active participation by other regional groups and Free Software groups in the conference apart from the good turn out by students. Also, CDAC has been participating in the conference propagating their version of the Debian derivative “BOSS” ( Bharat Operating System Solutions).

On the first day of the conference, there were numerous talks. The conference started off with talk by a CDAC official, followed by an Introduction to Debian, both general and technical queries were handled during this elaborate session.

The prominent issue of Internationalization and Localization was handled by Mr. Kartik Mistry and Mr.Vikram Vincent, emphasizing on the necessity for their i18n and l10n projects. A brief overview of the process of getting involved in these processes was introduced.

With the motive of instigating students to start contributing to the Debian Package development and maintenance,the next session concentrated on hands on sessions of reporting bugs systematically and getting packages upstream and downstream for development. This hands on session consumed the rest of the day, which I believe the students seem involved in after some initial glitches.

Off line discussions with students and other Free Software enthusiasts has been very educative and motivating.

Personally, I too have made up my mind to maintain certain packages…

If you are willing to please visit http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp