Based on Ubuntu. Interface and functionality like Windows, users will not feel much difference. BRICS countries committed to their own Linux distributions. South Africa has been the exception.
Based on Ubuntu. Interface and functionality like Windows, users will not feel much difference. BRICS countries committed to their own Linux distributions. South Africa has been the exception.
TL:DR; BOSS Linux’s failure makes me less hopeful about this being a success.
Unfortunately, this may not be a success if it follows the path of its predecessor. As an Indian, I’ve seen how BOSS Linux developed by CDAC turned out to be. This was supposed to replace Microsoft products starting with Linux, and then LibreOffice. This distro was a Ubuntu fork, and was always dated when I used it around the mid-2010s.
Ironically, for a dated system, it was never stable. And honestly, I never saw any benefit to using it - because it is a confused distro. It claimed to solve diverse problems, but it didn’t.
Can it compete with home workstation distros? No. With enterprise distros? No. How about bleeding-edge distros? No. How about educational distros? No. How about cybersecurity? Yet again, a big no. Why? Because it does everything so poorly.
Worst of all, CDAC doesn’t even share the source code, which is a complete violation of GPL-like license for Linux, GNOME project and other apps and services involved.
The Indian education system itself encourages Microsoft products, so this isn’t really a win. Windows and Office are taught to students from the first till the eight grade. They hardly play around console-like interface. I live in the most populous country and yet when most tech-literate people find me using Linux, they call me a “hacker”. Others simply refuse to get out of their Windows comfort zone.
This needs to be fixed at a grassroot level. Educate citizens about technology, about open-source, and make them feel comfortable around the same.
BOSS was based on Debian, not Ubuntu. It was developed for the specific use case of being a standard client OS for Govt service computers, and never intended as a general-purpose distro for the public. Your expectations are wrong.
Also, there is no monolithic “Indian education system” whatsoever. In any case schools teaching Windows and MS Office to kids makes a LOT more sense since it’s something they have way higher chances of needing proficiency in for their future academic/professional lives. It’s not practical in any way to teach Linux instead.
We don’t have Linux in professional work because we don’t know Linux and We don’t know Linux because we don’t have Linux in professional work See it’s a chicken egg problem. Students should be encouraged to use Linux at school and on their PC.
Have you asked CDAC for the sources? They are very friendly people, the phone nrs are on CDAC and BOSS websites. They are knowledgeable and know about Open Source licenses. They will share if you ask, otherwise: file an RTI.
Our college had Ubuntu on every computer and I loved it!
Lucky u!!
It is so unfortunate to be ridiculed for being a Linux user in a country with a staggering %14 market share.