| India gains multilingual new BOSS |
Sep. 08, 2008
 The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has upgraded its India-focused GNU Linux distribution. Version 3.0 of Bharat Operating Systems Solutions (BOSS) Linux adds GNOME and KDE desktop environments, Bluetooth support, and support for 18 Indian languages, says C-DAC.
(Click for larger view of Boss 3.0's 3D view)
BOSS was developed by India's National Resource Center for Free/Open Source Software (NRCFOSS), a group supported by Anna University, Chennai, and C-DAC, which is a scientific society of India's Department of Information Technology. BOSS is initially targeting India's government users, says C-DAC, which also announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India's National Informatics Center (NIC) to implement the distro "on select eGovernance projects." C-DAC in turn will "support telephonic, email, and portal delivery mechanisms for the eGovernance program of NIC," says the society.
Default Boss 3.0 desktop
(Click to enlarge)
One central goal of BOSS is to provide an open source Linux "alternative to using illegal unlicensed proprietary software," says C-DAC. The ultimate objective is to spread beyond government implementations to "enable the non-English literate people of India to be exposed to the benefits of FOSS and GNU/Linux," says the group. C-DAC wants to equip computers in India-sponsored Community Information Centers and Internet cafes with BOSS so users across India can access the Internet in their native languages.
The distro now offers full desktop support for 18 languages used in India including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, and English, and is designed to be "easily localized to meet local needs and language," says C-DAC. It also offers various features designed primarily for government use.
New features for BOSS 3.0 are said to include:- Linux 2.6.22 kernel
- GNOME and KDE desktops
- Support for 18 Indian languages
- Bluetooth support
- Liferea RSS feed reader and PDF viewer
- Faster system startup and login
- Improved support for video playback
- Simplified menus
- Alternative 3D desktop view (see image at top)
- TV tuner support
BOSS 3.0's software bundle includes:- BharatheeyaaOO (a localized version of OpenOffice.org 2.0.1)
- Firefox 3.0
- Gaim
- Xchat
- GIMP image editor
- Bulk document converter migration tool
- Keyjnote presentation tool
- Alacarte menu editor
- Evolution mail client
- Bonfire CD/DVD burning tool
Stated S. Ramakrishnan, Director General, C-DAC, "Our constant endeavor is to increase the adoption of computing among a wide cross section of Indian users, especially those in government first time users and Indian language centric users. NRCFOSS has achieved another milestone by launching the advanced version of BOSS."
Availability
BOSS Linux 3.0 is freely available now, says C-DAC. More information and downloads may be found at the official BOSS site here, or this Softpedia page. Additional information may also be found at NRCFOSS BOSS page, and possibly at C-DAC.
-- Eric Brown
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