DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

BOSS : MadeInIndia LINUX.

24 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/boss-madeinindia-linux.49584/

anandk
anandk Original post #1
Feb 15, 2007 at 7:52 PM
BOSS(Bharat Operating System Solutions) is a GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC, Chennai for enhancing the use of Free/Open Source Software in the country.

Made specifically for the Indian environment , it consists of a pleasing Desktop environment coupled with Indian language support and other packages that are most relevant for use in the government domain. Subsequent versions will support the educational domain as well.

Features

Screeshots

*i144.photobucket.com/albums/r168/happyandy/SigBar.gif
Pathik
Pathik #2
Feb 15, 2007 at 8:23 PM
yup i had read abt it in papers some time back...
news is that all govt offices r going to discard all other oses win/mac/linux and adopt this one...
Tech Geek
Feb 15, 2007 at 9:13 PM
Nice one
The desktop looks good and has some good features
~Phenom~
Feb 15, 2007 at 11:03 PM
looks nice.
Pathik
Pathik #5
Feb 15, 2007 at 11:18 PM
well i dont think it can stand upto suse,fedora,mandrake or ubuntu
kumarmohit
Feb 15, 2007 at 11:19 PM
I suggest that Digit include this distro in a DVD as a bootable disc:)
Tech.Masti
Feb 16, 2007 at 1:19 AM
@anandk.....
thanks 4 the news .... i read the news some time back that they are trying their best to make a good indian linux .....
freebird
Feb 16, 2007 at 1:47 AM
though old news,boss is based on debian.also was a distro called it@school based on debian is used in kerla state schools.
drsethi
drsethi #9
Feb 16, 2007 at 1:50 AM
Good, deserves a trial.
gxsaurav
gxsaurav #10
Feb 16, 2007 at 2:20 AM
this does deserves an applause. We develope softwares for the whole world, then why not our own country.....do we lack knowledge? There should more encouragement towards project like that

Speaking of this.....i have seen one thing in GNOME the UI can be made really slim & minimalstic, just doing some particular things it is meant to do, like in offices.....wish Boss does that...

oh well, i m trying to be a contributer to BOSS, in UI desigining though :D, wonder if they accept non-coders
M
mehulved #11
Feb 16, 2007 at 2:31 AM
gx_saurav said:
oh well, i m trying to be a contributer to BOSS, in UI desigining though :D, wonder if they accept non-coders
I don't know about BOSS but there are many FOSS projects who will be ready, but if you release your work under GPL or any compatible license.
gxsaurav
gxsaurav #12
Feb 16, 2007 at 2:43 AM
tech_your_future said:
I don't know about BOSS but there are many FOSS projects who will be ready, but if you release your work under GPL or any compatible license.
hey i m not like some other fellow members who whine on copying icons :D, if i do that, i m gonna design the UI, means the icons, control bitmaps or png, hover buttons etc, they are free, even GPL is not required. But ya, i would like to get credit if someone else copies it & uses in there own OS or work

but, like I said, just the UI part....coding nahi aati

By the way, is it me or does it looks extremely like ubuntu, wonder if we can simply install ubuntu's apps in it
M
mehulved #14
Feb 16, 2007 at 2:48 AM
gx_saurav said:
hey i m not like some other fellow members who whine on copying icons :D, if i do that, i m gonna design the UI, means the icons, control bitmaps or png, hover buttons etc, they are free, even GPL is not required. But ya, i would like to get credit if someone else copies it & uses in there own OS or work

but, like I said, just the UI part....coding nahi aati

By the way, is it me or does it looks extremely like ubuntu, wonder if we can simply install ubuntu's apps in it
GPL will give you what you want. And yeah no coding required. You can surely offer them some artwork under GPL, if not BOSS then maybe Debian or someone else might agree surely. And your name will be shown in list of contributers to artwork.
gxsaurav
gxsaurav #15
Feb 16, 2007 at 6:29 PM
tech_your_future said:
GPL will give you what you want. And yeah no coding required. You can surely offer them some artwork under GPL, if not BOSS then maybe Debian or someone else might agree surely. And your name will be shown in list of contributers to artwork.

cool, will try then...

I hope the Vista "look" is not patented by MS, i got a plethora of icons based on the Vista "look", though the icons don't look anything like vista
47shailesh
Feb 16, 2007 at 6:33 PM
DUde r they really into open Source

if yes then y they open there Shops locally and develop.. If they have there revolutionary idea than y they don't join exixting Giants like red hat or SUSE....
M
mehulved #17
Feb 16, 2007 at 9:38 PM
47shailesh said:
DUde r they really into open Source

if yes then y they open there Shops locally and develop.. If they have there revolutionary idea than y they don't join exixting Giants like red hat or SUSE....
Why didn't canonical people not join Red Hat or Novell and create Ubuntu? Why do so many developers languish at debian and make it one of the best distro around, they should join Red Hat/Novell too na, or are you saying Debian people don't believe in open source?
gxsaurav
gxsaurav #18
Feb 16, 2007 at 9:54 PM
Since linux is quite felxible & modular, i see a potential in making slim linux. u know....taking an idea from slax for application installation & features.

Like if it's open office, it should have modules ok, now if u don't want the powerpoint app of open office, don't install that module, just install the word module, it's also simple to manage

same goes with the GUI, BOSS is supposed to be used in indian goverment offices...why not make a to the point slim UI, like insted of so many things in dedault GNOME start menu simply use 2 or 3 menus giving the most important & only those things which are usefull for the office.

Not only then the OS will run fast, but also easy to manage

Joining forces with other linux vendors is good infact, won't that help in interopratibility, like similar app install process & same kind of packages (.rpm or .deb everywhere)
47shailesh
Feb 16, 2007 at 10:14 PM
tech_your_future said:
Why didn't canonical people not join Red Hat or Novell and create Ubuntu? Why do so many developers languish at debian and make it one of the best distro around, they should join Red Hat/Novell too na, or are you saying Debian people don't believe in open source?
Just a query of mine did these developers languishing at debian, start there project from scratch or the use some prebuild ones and research on them..

Also when they are done with there product how comparison with the existing ones are done...
M
mehulved #20
Feb 16, 2007 at 10:26 PM
47shailesh said:
Just a query of mine did these developers languishing at debian, start there project from scratch or the use some prebuild ones and research on them..

Also when they are done with there product how comparison with the existing ones are done...
I am not a debian developer so don't know much about the process.
Of what I know, the developers at debian take the source packages and package them to deb's, they also arrange and modify it to make the whole distro gel well together. Many times they come up against bugs, which they fix up or come up with extra features and such and submit patches upstream.
There are other tasks too like artwork, which I mentioned in the thread, then there are a few people who work on newletter and such things which are pretty much important as debian's processes are public only security section is private AFAIK.
There are also those who maintain the testing and unstable versions besides stable. They also have Debian running on so many different hardware, that needs to be looked after too.
Some of the info maybe incorrect too. Have a look at wikipedia for some info *en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian . Besides, there's a book 'The Debian System'. It has some nice info. I am yet to finish it but it's been something really interesting so far.
47shailesh
Feb 16, 2007 at 10:55 PM
Thankx @tech_your_future for nice info.. till now i have not gone through the link but surely will in my spare time...
n2casey
n2casey #22
Feb 16, 2007 at 11:13 PM
It's great, really great. Looking very nice. Surely it deserves a trial.
praka123
praka123 #23
Feb 17, 2007 at 1:26 AM
debian based?:>sure it will rock!
subratabera
Feb 17, 2007 at 1:49 AM
I will try it too...;)