Sunwah - PearL Linux
Encyclopedia
Sunwah – PearL Linux is a joint venture of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
and the Sunwah Group (previously spelled as Sun Wah Group). Sunwah – PearL Linux established the (SWP) Sunwah – PearL Linux Training & Development Centre on the university campus on January 2001. Over the years, SWP keeps trying its best to promote open source
software
(OSS) technology on one hand, and to strive to find a way to finance itself in achieving its goals.
s or programming language
s. In 2005, SWP started to become more of a focus in information security.
Besides short training programs, SWP started to work on Higher Education (HE) programs. Based on the technology infrastructure, SWP cooperates with some United Kingdom
universities to offer programs in Hong Kong. Namely, they are the University of Glamorgan
and the University of Sunderland
. SWP and The University of Glamorgan cooperate to offer postgraduate education in computer forensics
, forensic accounting
and information security. SWP and The University of Sunderland cooperate to offer BA (Hons) Top-up Graphic Design program in Hong Kong.
In the summer of 2009, SWP became an accredited centre of Edexcel
and NCC Education
. The accreditation lets SWP offer Foundation Studies and Higher National Diploma (HND) courses.
1. In 2003, SARS attacked its region. All training activity stopped. Positioned as a skill transfer centre, the major revenue source is delivering skill transfer training classes. This put SWP in a difficult financial crisis.
2. Linux and OSS business has proven challenging. The revenue model was not based on grants of any sort, while pure Linux and OSS business might not generate enough revenue to keep SWP going. SWP had to rethink a way to survive, or its own generated funding would be ended by mid-2004.
s including Linux
and BSD
Unix
, and on programming
including PHP
, Java
, MySQL
database, Ajax
, XML
, JavaScript
, Extreme programming
and many others.
, Jeremy Allison
, Andrew Tridgell
, Jon Hall, and others were also guest speakers at its seminars.
SWP also took the initiative to organize the first Software Freedom Day
in Hong Kong in 2007.
, The Hong Kong Linux User Group, The Opensource Application Knowledge Association, The Linux Professional Institute
Certification Program, The Hong Kong Samba Association, Software Freedom Day, etc.
Dr. Lui Sun Wing
Professor Johnathan Choi
Mr. Andrew Young
Mr. Alwin Wong
Professor Keith Chan
Mr. Alex Banh
Mr. Daniel Lee
Mr. Albert Chung
Operational team:
Many members of the operational team come from the local OSS community. A few of them are active and often contribute columns, articles and publication at local IT or OSS related magazines. General enquiry can be made to enquiry.cs@swpearl.com
, which is a Linux desktop distribution specifically addresses the Chinese
localization need, i.e. the handling and translation between the Unicode
, Big5
, and various versions of GB
character encodings. Therefore once SWP was proud of the human resource and technical capability they had; and once they had a great vision being one of the major stream assisting Linux and OSS development in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Besides, few members of the group were, indeed, pretty active and represent China at the international events, namely North-East Asia OSS Promotion Forum and Asian Open Source Software Symposium.
The Sunwah Linux (rays Linux Distribution) won the Best Linux Desktop Application at the 2006 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, Boston.
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University specialises in professional education in Hong Kong. The University’s teaching units are grouped under six faculties and two schools; the Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles, Faculty of Business, Faculty of Construction and Environment, Faculty of...
and the Sunwah Group (previously spelled as Sun Wah Group). Sunwah – PearL Linux established the (SWP) Sunwah – PearL Linux Training & Development Centre on the university campus on January 2001. Over the years, SWP keeps trying its best to promote open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
(OSS) technology on one hand, and to strive to find a way to finance itself in achieving its goals.
Evolution
Since its incorporation, SWP has positioned itself as the open source technology transfer centre of its region. It developed many skill transfer programs based on open source. In the early years, SWP's own developed programs are module by module based on specific applications for operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s or programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s. In 2005, SWP started to become more of a focus in information security.
Besides short training programs, SWP started to work on Higher Education (HE) programs. Based on the technology infrastructure, SWP cooperates with some United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
universities to offer programs in Hong Kong. Namely, they are the University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...
and the University of Sunderland
University of Sunderland
The University of Sunderland is located in Sunderland, north east England. The university has more than 17,500 students, including 7,000-plus international students from some 70 countries....
. SWP and The University of Glamorgan cooperate to offer postgraduate education in computer forensics
Computer forensics
Computer forensics is a branch of digital forensic science pertaining to legal evidence found in computers and digital storage media...
, forensic accounting
Forensic accounting
Forensic accounting is the specialty practice area of accountancy that describes engagements that result from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation. "Forensic" means "suitable for use in a court of law", and it is to that standard and potential outcome that forensic accountants generally...
and information security. SWP and The University of Sunderland cooperate to offer BA (Hons) Top-up Graphic Design program in Hong Kong.
In the summer of 2009, SWP became an accredited centre of Edexcel
Edexcel
Edexcel, a UK company, is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards, and is wholly owned by the private-sector Pearson PLC, a UK-based media and publishing conglomerate. Its name is a portmanteau word derived from the words "educational" and "excellence"...
and NCC Education
NCC Education
NCC Education Ltd. is a global provider and awarding body of British education. The company provides students with the opportunity to gain internationally recognised British qualifications by studying locally at one of its global network of Accredited Partner Centres, either through the classroom...
. The accreditation lets SWP offer Foundation Studies and Higher National Diploma (HND) courses.
Difficult times
SWP has had difficult times.1. In 2003, SARS attacked its region. All training activity stopped. Positioned as a skill transfer centre, the major revenue source is delivering skill transfer training classes. This put SWP in a difficult financial crisis.
2. Linux and OSS business has proven challenging. The revenue model was not based on grants of any sort, while pure Linux and OSS business might not generate enough revenue to keep SWP going. SWP had to rethink a way to survive, or its own generated funding would be ended by mid-2004.
Skill transfer training courses
Since its establishment in January 2001, SWP has been working with open source community on developing skill transfer training. SWP has developed courses on operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s including Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and BSD
Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
, and on programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
including PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
database, Ajax
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
, XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
, Extreme programming
Extreme Programming
Extreme programming is a software development methodology which is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements...
and many others.
OSS events
SWP has had the honor to conduct many technical seminars on open source technology. Some open source leaders like Zeev SuraskiZeev Suraski
Zeev Suraski is an Israeli programmer, PHP developer and co-founder of Zend Technologies. A graduate of the Technion in Haifa, Israel, Suraski and fellow student Andi Gutmans created PHP 3 in 1997. In 1999 they wrote the Zend Engine, the core of PHP 4, and founded Zend Technologies, which has...
, Jeremy Allison
Jeremy Allison
Jeremy Allison is a computer programmer known for his contributions to the free software community, notably to Samba, a re-implementation of SMB/CIFS networking protocol, released under the GNU General Public License....
, Andrew Tridgell
Andrew Tridgell
Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell is an Australian computer programmer best known as the author of and contributor to the Samba file server, and co-inventor of the rsync algorithm....
, Jon Hall, and others were also guest speakers at its seminars.
SWP also took the initiative to organize the first Software Freedom Day
Software Freedom Day
Software Freedom Day is an annual worldwide celebration of Free Software. SFD is a public education effort with the aim of increasing awareness of Free Software and its virtues, and encouraging its use....
in Hong Kong in 2007.
Community links
During the years, SWP has been contributing into some international and local open communities. Some of them include the International Information and Communication Technology Council Certification ProgramInternational Information and Communication Technology Council Certification Program
The International ICT Council has been building up ICT certifications in the form of the International Information and Communication Technology Council Certification Program. The program has been adopting an open process, in which volunteers of communities can participate...
, The Hong Kong Linux User Group, The Opensource Application Knowledge Association, The Linux Professional Institute
Linux Professional Institute
The Linux Professional Institute Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides vendor-independent professional certification for Linux system administrators and programmers....
Certification Program, The Hong Kong Samba Association, Software Freedom Day, etc.
The team
Board of Directors:Dr. Lui Sun Wing
Professor Johnathan Choi
Mr. Andrew Young
Mr. Alwin Wong
Professor Keith Chan
Mr. Alex Banh
Mr. Daniel Lee
Mr. Albert Chung
Operational team:
Many members of the operational team come from the local OSS community. A few of them are active and often contribute columns, articles and publication at local IT or OSS related magazines. General enquiry can be made to enquiry.cs@swpearl.com
Some history
There was a time when there were 3 Hong Kong based Debian developers and a few locally active community members being employed at the Sunwah Group. The Group has developed a special Linux distribution called Sunwah Linux (rays Linux Distribution)Sunwah Linux (rays Linux Distribution)
Sunwah Linux is a Chinese Linux desktop distribution specifically addressing the Chinese localization need in handling and translation between Unicode, Big5, and various versions of Guobiao character encoding...
, which is a Linux desktop distribution specifically addresses the Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
localization need, i.e. the handling and translation between the Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, Big5
Big5
Big-5 or Big5 is a character encoding method used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau for Traditional Chinese characters.Mainland China, which uses Simplified Chinese Characters, uses the GB instead.- Organization :...
, and various versions of GB
GB 2312
GB2312 is the registered internet name for a key official character set of the People's Republic of China, used for simplified Chinese characters...
character encodings. Therefore once SWP was proud of the human resource and technical capability they had; and once they had a great vision being one of the major stream assisting Linux and OSS development in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Besides, few members of the group were, indeed, pretty active and represent China at the international events, namely North-East Asia OSS Promotion Forum and Asian Open Source Software Symposium.
The Sunwah Linux (rays Linux Distribution) won the Best Linux Desktop Application at the 2006 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, Boston.