Tech n Fun

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.

If you like this post then use the following bookmarks to make this post reach 
out to more people like you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The concept of Open source Software and GNU started back in 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. He wanted to continue the sharing of software as was in earlier days of computing and in 1970s. But by the 1980s almost all software was proprietary , which means that it had owners who forbid and prevent cooperation by users. This made the foundation of GNU Project in 1984.

GNU Project is basically only the name of the project for the movement of free software and its usage and Mr. Stallman chose this name due to three reasons :

• It was a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix", and
• It was a real world, and
• It was fun to say/sing GNU (actually he likes to sing the song/poem Gnoo and then derived Gnu).

The idea or motivation behind the GNU project was to provide the people freedom of computing, let people use computer. The term "free" here does not mean with price, it pertains to "freedom". Freedom to

1. Copy the program and give it away to your friends and co-workers.
2. Change the program as you wish by having the full access to source code.
3. Distribute an improved version and thus help build the community.

This Freedom led the GNU project to Open Source Software. The Open Source Software (OSS), sometimes loosely speaking as Open Source (the methodology behind OSS) refers to software in which the source code is freely available to all.

Officially or strictly OSS is defined by two bodies, one by the GNU Project and free software foundation and the other one by the Open Source Initiative.The main points of the OSS definition by the OSI are:

• The software and the source code must be freely distributable.
• All must be able to modify the source code and create derived works.
• To maintain the integrity of the original author's work, the license may require that changes to the code be provided in patch form and must include the earlier authors name.
• The license must be nondiscriminatory with respect to persons, groups, or fields of endeavor; it must be free of restrictions that can limit the license.

[The full Open Source Definition by the OSI can be viewed here.]

The definition of OSS or rather "free software" (term used by the GNU Project) is a four point theory which emphasizes on the "freedom", to understand the concept you should think of "free" as in "free speech". Moreover the freedom of these:

• The software must be freely executable for any purpose.
• The source code must be available so that others can study how it works.
• The software must be freely redistributable.
• All are free to modify the software.

[The official doc can be viewed here.]

The free software foundation, a group created to fund the GNU Project, started with a free Operating System because the base of a computer is an Operating system. The Operating System was targeted to be Unix based (compatible), being the advantage of portability.

By the 1990, all major components was either found or written except one- the Kernel. Then Linux, a Unix like kernel, was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and made free software in 1992. Combining Linux with almost completed GNU system gave birth to(resulted in) a complete operating system: the GNU/Linux system. Apart from the core, the Kernel the system's basic components include the GNU Compiler Collection(GCC), the GNU binary Utilities (binutils), the bash shell, the GNU C Library (glibc), and GNU Core Utilities (coreutils).

As of now, there is a huge market of GNU/Linux and used not only by professionals but also by home or normal users as during the progress of OSS and GNU/Linux a wide range of free applications are available and continuing to be develop including the Graphical Desktop (GNOME). You can check yourself the huge Free Software Directory (or here). And yes, you will be no more pirate using these free software.

The world is Open !!!

[P.S : Leaving a comment or a simple thanks will always motivate one to work on Free/freedom, freedom of knowledge.]

 

[Source of this post can be found here and here.]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like this post then use the following bookmarks to make this post reach 
out to more people like you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cofused with the title...?? Actually i am talking about Linux, the OS which is hot favourite for not only techies but normal users too. Why is it so...?? Hmm......read on, you'll definitely get your answers.

I'll not write here anything techie about Linux, just what a normal user can get better than Windows OS. Linux, is the open source operating system which means that the software including the OS itself and the source code of it is freely available and one can modify it according to his needs and can also release it under the same License, called GPL (General Public License). You can google it to know more about it.

Now what matters more, how Linux is giving more advantage to a user than Windows. Here i am not making a comparison with Windows, but trying to scoop up the Linux advantages.

1. Cost : The most important thing is the "Price". What we pay to get the OS and the softwares we use. Ya ya, i know most of the people reading it says i get it Free, thnx to Piracy. But you are not need to be pirate a more. Because, Linux is completely free and the softwares too. And i must tell you that the Linux softwares are giving neck-to-neck competition to the Windows software, even though its FREE.

2. Ease of Use : There is a Myth that Linux is very complicated and not very handy to use. I am not completely denying that, but have u ever think that you learnt windows after devoting how much time to it ? I can bet you can learn it by giving just 10th part of it. The installation is very easy and takes very less time, infact some distros install on your system in 20-25 minutes.

3. Performance : Linux is mostly used as Server, although i m talking about desktop versions, why.... because it gives very high performance and can run 100s of days without a single reboot, it doesnt hang due to memory leaks like in windows and no need to reboot after any installation. There can be any no of users working simultaneously. It is a super multitasking system which dont slow down your pc with job queues and thus can work on any hardware configuration.

4. Compatability : You can run Linux on any system, with the least hardware configuration and it supports virtualisation too. You can create virtual hardwares to power up your needs. Great utility. It can run all common software packages and compatible with almost all hardwares.

5. Customisation : Linux is fully customizable. You can customize everything, how your desktop looks, your embeddeed system, can add docks, desklets because all configuration is saved in a simple plain text file and it doesnt hide up from you like windows. It has a large no of utilities for the power internet users.

6. Support : Its free, doesnt mean that if you get in some trouble, no way to get out of it. There is a huge community for all kinds of distros, guyz working and solving your problem and making open source a hit. You can google it up, and i am sure your problem have already been solved our earlier by someone. So no need of worry, anything will be sorted out by the developers and their team and a large no of users already using Linux.

7. Choice : Its you who is gonna to use it. So you can choose any one distro from a large no of distros available in Linux. Distros or flavors are the Linux based OS, like Ubuntu, Fedora, DSL, Mandriva etc etc which are desktop OS's and one can choose a Server edition too. I cant name them all, you can choose by your own specification. You can also choose between a huge no of applications available for you.

8. Security : Last but not the least, its security which puts up Linux on the top. It is highly secured OS, thats why used for the Servers and there is no need for any kind of anti-virus or Internet security suite because its Virus free. The architecture of Linux is so, that it makes Linux highly secured and sanitized from viruses. You can choose who will be going to access your files, every damn file can be configured for the need.

I have tried my best to put up the best in short, if you are now gonna to try Linux, I'd suggest you to go with Ubuntu, because its the most popular and easiest of Linux OS and feel free to ask me anything about it.
So its time for us to get something open in our computers too...... :)
Enjoy :)

If you like this post then use the following bookmarks to make this post reach 
out to more people like you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------