BOSS, Bharat Operating System Solutions- the Operating System Developed by C-DAC in collaboration with NRCFOSS, Department of Information Technology, Government Of India. It is a GNU/linux based OS derived from Debian for promoting the use of Free/OpenSource Software through India. The other key features of BOSS are :- It supports both Intel and AMD x86/x86-64 architecture.
- It can be used by home user and as Advanced Server as well.
- It can be configured to function as a Web Server, Proxy Server, Database Server, Mail Server, Network Server, LDAP server etc.
- It comes coupled with both GNOME and KDE Desktop Enviornments.
- It supports almost all Indian languages including Assamese, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Maithili, Manipuri etc.
- This language support promotes non-English users to be computer literate.
- It comes with pre-installed basic Softwares (known as packages) commonly used in Offices and for Internet purposes.
- The Advanced Sever version is well comprised with administration tools such as PHP, myAdmin, PHP LDAP Admin etc.
Have a glance of the BOSS,
The integration of Indian Languages may promote BOSS to be used in Indian Govt. Offices and attracts you to use it at the prima facie. The NRCFOSS provides nation wide support, you can check here which one is closer to you. Though, the website of Boss itself could resist you to move forward with it as its very slow. I suggest you to have some patience while downloading the OS image and browsing the support/documentation pages, devote your weekend for this adventure.
Being on the OpenSource platform, you can also contribute to make it more enticing. There are forums, IRC Channels and Online Chat too to help you in any situation while being on BOSS. If you are not comfortable with downloading it, just call 1800 4250 455 to request for a CD/DVD and any kind of help.
Though today, Open Source is fascinating the whole world and is not afresh, its a very good move to promote it in India. But CDAC & MCIT (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology) has a very long way to cover up and they must publicize it so as more and more people get aware about it. I am ending up here with a task for you apart from trying the BOSS: Catch the Advertisement of BOSS on TV channels which is rarely aired.
