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PARDUS RISING FROM ITS ASHES
http://yenisafak.com.tr/Bilisim/?i=385613English summary translation of the article in the Turkish daily newspaper "Yeni Safak"
Reported by Melih Bayram Dede - Published 28 May 2012
-- Open source code Pardus operating system, which has gone through a short waiting period, is now being revived by the efforts of Pardus Users' Association's new version "Anka" --
Pardus had been developed by the Turkish state enterprise TUBITAK-BILGEM since 2003, but after the project manager Erkan Tekman's leave, its future had become unclear. Some claimed the project was discontinued, while after a working conference held on 23-24 March 2012 at TUBITAK Gebze campus, a roadmap was announced and it was emphasized that Pardus would continue. However, there was no sign of any further product development until very recently, when Pardus Users Association got involved and announced a new version "Pardus Anka" developed by the user communities' support.
NOW THE COMMUNITY HAS THE SAY
Mr. Nihad Karslı, who is an attorney and also the President of Pardus Users Association, says: "At the March conference, it was decided that further Pardus editions would be released by the user community. Until April-May, we waited for TUBITAK to make the official announcement. We elected our Community Delegate to the Consulting Board. However, TUBITAK delayed for reasons unknown to us. This delay caused rumors around the community that "Pardus is dead", "Project is over". So, we wanted to meet with TUBITAK people, and we thought we should have something ready in our hands, hence came out "Pardus 2012 Anka Test (Beta) Edition" (and, as I speak, our developers are working towards the final, stable version). We met with Pardus Project Manager Mr. Ahmet Kaplan and we had a larger meeting together with Mr. Mustafa Akgül and Mr. Abdullah Erol. I think it all went well.
June 2nd will be a historical turning point for Pardus
Mr. Karslı, continues: "Official progress on Pardus' development by the community has been delayed. June 2nd will be a historical turning point for Pardus. If the officials keep their promises they gave at the March conference, Pardus will become a free software project for real. The management will finally become transparent because decisions will be taken by the Consulting Board. This way, Pardus will become a permanent and also fast growing Linux distribution. Now we can get in touch with TUBITAK since the communication channels have been eased. Dialogue always fosters productivity. It is impossible to fall into serious dispute when the main concern of all the people involved is how to make Pardus better. Our priorities: First of all, the Kernel and KDE (GUI (graphical user interface), the desktop environment) have been updated to the most recent version. In this Anka edition, our developers are working so that any of the interfaces can be easily installed with their most up-to-date version. Another priority is to empower the "emerge" feature of PiSi (the "package manager" for Pardus) through graphics. This way, we will have addressed the complaints that PiSi is not sufficient and lacks enough packages.
Everybody should realize the value of this project
Mr. Karslı adds: "Pardus users should firstly and fully grasp the philosophy of free software. If we just simply calculate how great is the amount of local resources continuously transferred abroad due to closed source software, we can easily realize the value of the Pardus project. All the free software community has worked hard on Pardus. We should be informed about Pardus, spread the word, use it, and convince others to use it."
Our national operating system will be used in the intelligent boards
BILGEM Director Mr. Ahmet Kaplan states: "We all know the value of Pardus. We are going through a reorganization phase. The new Management Board will improve Pardus, it will be more democratic, more open and better documented."
WE ARE PLEASED WITH ANKA
Mr. Kaplan indicates: Anka is an initiative of the community. The initiative started as a response to the recent delays. We are actually pleased with Anka. However, its future will be determined by the Consulting Board. We will allocate a large amount of our resources to develop the ecosystem.
CORPORATE EDITION WILL BE RELEASED
Mr. Kaplan adds: "By the end of this year, we plan to release a long-term supported corporate edition. "Server", "intelligent" and "mobile" versions will be released in the coming years. Our first aim was to have Pardus in the intelligent classroom boards in the FATIH project. This version is ready. We are working on remote control and updating."
Why Ubuntu?
Mr. Kaplan says: "We plan to have various events to promote the Pardus brand and welcome contributions at all levels. For example, we will have Pardus clubs in universities. We will have competitions, contests. People will start asking themselves 'why am I using Ubuntu when there is Pardus out there already?'"
NOTE: The above is a SUMMARY of the newspaper article (because of copyright concerns). Full Turkish text is at:
http://yenisafak.com.tr/Bilisim/?i=385613
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