Bharat Operating System Solutions
Encyclopedia
Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS) is a free and open source
computer operating system developed by the National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) of India. This software is also known by the acronym BOSS GNU/Linux or simply BOSS Linux. The latest version of this operating system, BOSS GNU/Linux Version 4.0, was released in February 2011.
This software package has been described as "India's own PC
operating system
" the most meaningful product to come out of the Indian software industry in decades — and a work that a government department had done..
The software has also been endorsed by the Government of India
for adoption and implementation on a national scale.
BOSS GNU/Linux is an "LSB certified" Linux distribution: the software has been certified by the Linux Foundation
for compliance with the Linux Standard Base
standard.
BOSS GNU/Linux is derived from Debian
. Debian uses the Linux kernel
(the core of an operating system), but most of the basic operating system tools in Debian come from the GNU Project
; hence the appendages GNU/Linux to Debian and BOSS.
The product is free software in the sense in which the term is used by the Free Software Foundation
, and it is distributed under the GNU General Public License
.
The latest desktop version of BOSS GNU/Linux is fully localised to eighteen Indian languages.
BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) derived from Debian for enhancing the use of Free/ Open source software throughout India. BOSSGNU/Linux - a key deliverable of NRCFOSS has upgraded from entry-level server to advanced server. It supports Intel and AMD x86/x86-64 architecture. BOSS GNU/Linux advanced server has unique features such as web server, proxy server, database server, mail server, network server, file and print server, SMS server, LDAP server. BOSS GNU/Linux advanced server comprises administration tools such as webmin which is a web-based interface, Gadmin, PHP myadmin, PHP LDAP admin, PG admin.
BOSS GNU/Linux Version 4.0 is coupled with GNOME and KDE Desktop Environment with wide Indian language support and packages, relevant for use in the government domain. Currently BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop is available in almost all the Indian Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Manipuri which will enable the mainly non-English literate users in the country to be exposed to ICT and to use the computer more effectively.
The accessibility of BOSS Linux will have a constructive impact on the digital divide in India as more people can now have access to software in their local language to use the Internet and other information and communications technology (ICT) facilities. Community Information centers (CICs) and internet cafes will also benefit from BOSS GNU/Linux as this software can be utilized to power these outlets and is affordable and easy to install, use and support.
The latest version Boss 4.0 was released recently in 26th of February 2011.
, among the twenty-two constitutionally recognized languages of India:
The languages that are not available are Nepali
, Sindhi
, Dogri
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
computer operating system developed by the National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) of India. This software is also known by the acronym BOSS GNU/Linux or simply BOSS Linux. The latest version of this operating system, BOSS GNU/Linux Version 4.0, was released in February 2011.
This software package has been described as "India's own PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
operating system
Operating 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...
" the most meaningful product to come out of the Indian software industry in decades — and a work that a government department had done..
The software has also been endorsed by the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
for adoption and implementation on a national scale.
BOSS GNU/Linux is an "LSB certified" Linux distribution: the software has been certified by the Linux Foundation
Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a non-profit technology consortium chartered to foster the growth of Linux.Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group , the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading...
for compliance with the Linux Standard Base
Linux Standard Base
The Linux Standard Base is a joint project by several Linux distributions under the organizational structure of the Linux Foundation to standardize the software system structure, including the filesystem hierarchy, used with Linux operating system...
standard.
BOSS GNU/Linux is derived from Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
. Debian uses the Linux kernel
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
(the core of an operating system), but most of the basic operating system tools in Debian come from the GNU Project
GNU Project
The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...
; hence the appendages GNU/Linux to Debian and BOSS.
The product is free software in the sense in which the term is used by the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
, and it is distributed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
The latest desktop version of BOSS GNU/Linux is fully localised to eighteen Indian languages.
Versions
BOSS GNU/Linux has had five major releases till February 2011.| Version | Code name | Kernel number | Desktop | Date of release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOSS GNU/LinuxEvaluation | Sethu | 2.6.14-2-smp | GNOME 2.8 GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... |
|
| BOSS GNU/Linux v1.0 | Tarang | 2.6.17-1-i386 | GNOME 2.14 GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... |
|
| BOSS GNU/Linux v2.0 | Anant | 2.6.21-1-486 | GNOME 2.18 GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... |
|
| BOSS GNU/Linux Server | 2.6.21 | Jan 2008 | ||
| BOSS GNU/Linux v3.0 | Tejas | 2.6.22-3-486 | GNOME 2.20 GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... and KDE 3.5 KDE KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems... |
Sep 2008 |
| BOSS GNU/Linux v4.0 | Savir | 2.6.32-5-686 | GNOME 2.30.2 GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... and KDE 4.4.5 KDE KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems... |
Feb 2011 |
BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) derived from Debian for enhancing the use of Free/ Open source software throughout India. BOSSGNU/Linux - a key deliverable of NRCFOSS has upgraded from entry-level server to advanced server. It supports Intel and AMD x86/x86-64 architecture. BOSS GNU/Linux advanced server has unique features such as web server, proxy server, database server, mail server, network server, file and print server, SMS server, LDAP server. BOSS GNU/Linux advanced server comprises administration tools such as webmin which is a web-based interface, Gadmin, PHP myadmin, PHP LDAP admin, PG admin.
BOSS GNU/Linux Version 4.0 is coupled with GNOME and KDE Desktop Environment with wide Indian language support and packages, relevant for use in the government domain. Currently BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop is available in almost all the Indian Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Manipuri which will enable the mainly non-English literate users in the country to be exposed to ICT and to use the computer more effectively.
The accessibility of BOSS Linux will have a constructive impact on the digital divide in India as more people can now have access to software in their local language to use the Internet and other information and communications technology (ICT) facilities. Community Information centers (CICs) and internet cafes will also benefit from BOSS GNU/Linux as this software can be utilized to power these outlets and is affordable and easy to install, use and support.
The latest version Boss 4.0 was released recently in 26th of February 2011.
Available Indian languages
BOSS GNU/Linux is available in the following eighteen languages of IndiaLanguages of India
The languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...
, among the twenty-two constitutionally recognized languages of India:
| Assamese Assamese language Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in... |
Bengali Bengali language Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script... |
Bodo Bodo language Bodo is a language that belongs to the branch of Barish section under Baric division of the Tibeto-Burman languages and spoken by the Bodo people of north-eastern India and Nepal... |
Gujarati Gujarati language Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages... |
Hindi Hindi Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi... |
| Kannada Kannada language Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world... |
Kashmiri Kashmiri language Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir... |
Konkani Konkani language KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north... |
Maithili Maithili language Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal... |
Malayalam Malayalam language Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people... |
| Manipuri | Marathi Marathi language Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most... |
Oriya Oriya language Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal... |
Punjabi Punjabi language Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language... |
Sanskrit Sanskrit Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand... |
| Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore... |
Telugu Telugu language Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu... |
Urdu Urdu Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an... |
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The languages that are not available are Nepali
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
, Sindhi
Sindhi language
Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...
, Dogri
Dogri language
Dogri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about five million people in Pakistan and India, chiefly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, but also in northern Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, other parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere. Dogri speakers are called Dogras, and the Dogri-speaking...