I know we are supposed cheer this as victory for Open Source. But anything a government of India (Current or former) does with Technology, I would take it with a grain of salt.
Here are recent Indian Government (or Indian States) Projects:
1. Cheap 35$ laptop. We all know how that turned out.
Yes it has only 1000 downloads after multi million dollar budget and not even localized to local language. This is by a state CM's personal pet project who claims to be pro Technology.
When Governments like this announce any initiative, look beyond headlines, Someone is making merry of tax payers money.
I understand why you are cynical, but I've been part of the BOSS linux team couple of years ago and I would say it was money well spent.
To cite just one example - BOSS Linux was installed along side Windows (dual boot) in the free laptops given to students by the Tamil Nadu govt. This alone helped introduce thousands of students to linux.
In general, this is just intent. I am not sure how the government plans to implement this. Government in India is huge and complex and most of the arms run independently, which is great for IT services vendors like IBM, TCS and others since they make money by selling the same stuff over and over again.
People who I know and are working in various organizations with the government are pretty frustrated with the pace and lack of intent on the ground.
Most Indian FOSS projects like BOSS Linux are pretty lame and they don't have any real community behind them. I think they took down the forum on the BOSS linux website, because there were no questions asked. Some of the other "successful" services like Spoken Tutorials (http://spoken-tutorial.org/) are pretty bad too (though I see websites have improved).
As a tax paying Indian citizen, I really hope all this changes.
Most old guard politicians are not prepared to say "there is already a great community project out there - be it Debian / Ubuntu / Fedora / etc - we should probe which ones are interested in working with us rather than just taking their code and trying to go it solo.
Their answer is always take the product in the market and throw a few million dollars at it to make it do what we want. And then ignore the fact its software, and needs constant maintenance and vigilance and they could get that all for free if they were participatory rather than off on their own.
While this is excellent news, couldn't find answers to a few important questions:
1. Where is the source for Boss Linux. It's based on Debian, but couldn't find the link to view the source. It's all nice to talk about embracing open source, but shouldn't CDAC also publish the source for Boss Linux?
2. What is the update mechanism? How frequently will this distro be updated?
1 - I'll edit this with the repo link - it is indeed public but my google fu/memory fails me now
2 - Regular updates follow debian stable, new releases are once every 1-2 years.
The bigger question is Should the State be making an Operating System? Choosing Linux is entirely different question and can be made successful with abundance of spending on retraining.
The article says India is following in the steps of Germany and UK.
I'm not aware of a policy in Germany that pushes government organistaions into using open source software. There are city administrations, like Munich, which switched over to Linux on their own account. Though that is nowhere near a national policy.
What is the author referring to?
considering that so many of the systems are older spec, BOSSLinux should now take off from CrunchBang instead of from Debian.
This way, they do not have to re-invent the wheel, but focus resources in the localization efforts for the OS, as well as the applications supported in the OS.
There would have been a meaningful contribution upstream.
[+] [-] kumarm|10 years ago|reply
Here are recent Indian Government (or Indian States) Projects:
1. Cheap 35$ laptop. We all know how that turned out.
2. Here a App developed by a State Government with Multi Million Dollars budget recently: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apgov.apsp...
Yes it has only 1000 downloads after multi million dollar budget and not even localized to local language. This is by a state CM's personal pet project who claims to be pro Technology.
When Governments like this announce any initiative, look beyond headlines, Someone is making merry of tax payers money.
[+] [-] jezclaremurugan|10 years ago|reply
To cite just one example - BOSS Linux was installed along side Windows (dual boot) in the free laptops given to students by the Tamil Nadu govt. This alone helped introduce thousands of students to linux.
[+] [-] rushabh|10 years ago|reply
In general, this is just intent. I am not sure how the government plans to implement this. Government in India is huge and complex and most of the arms run independently, which is great for IT services vendors like IBM, TCS and others since they make money by selling the same stuff over and over again.
People who I know and are working in various organizations with the government are pretty frustrated with the pace and lack of intent on the ground.
Most Indian FOSS projects like BOSS Linux are pretty lame and they don't have any real community behind them. I think they took down the forum on the BOSS linux website, because there were no questions asked. Some of the other "successful" services like Spoken Tutorials (http://spoken-tutorial.org/) are pretty bad too (though I see websites have improved).
As a tax paying Indian citizen, I really hope all this changes.
[+] [-] zanny|10 years ago|reply
Their answer is always take the product in the market and throw a few million dollars at it to make it do what we want. And then ignore the fact its software, and needs constant maintenance and vigilance and they could get that all for free if they were participatory rather than off on their own.
[+] [-] dang|10 years ago|reply
Thank you. URL changed to that from http://tuxdiary.com/2015/11/02/indian-govt-adopts-open-sourc....
[+] [-] trequartista|10 years ago|reply
1. Where is the source for Boss Linux. It's based on Debian, but couldn't find the link to view the source. It's all nice to talk about embracing open source, but shouldn't CDAC also publish the source for Boss Linux?
2. What is the update mechanism? How frequently will this distro be updated?
[+] [-] jezclaremurugan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sremani|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swayvil|10 years ago|reply
They just jump on that desktop and go.
[+] [-] jezclaremurugan|10 years ago|reply
Let me address the most common sentiment.. Why BOSS when we already have Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat etc.?
Support - gov bodies moving to linux need guaranteed support at optimal cost.
Localization - if you are working with Indian languages primarily, BOSS linux provides a better experience out of the box.
Some customization - some depts. request and get further customized versions.
[+] [-] shared4you|10 years ago|reply
Some gripes about BOSS:
(1) On the BOSS Download page, the download button downloads i386. Why isn't the 64-bit ISO listed there ?
(2) Why are there no torrents for ISOs ? Don't they know how bad Internet connection in India is ?
As far localization, my experience had been that BOSS is no better than Debian.
[+] [-] sillyryan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] remael|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ayyapad|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Apocryphon|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foolinaround|10 years ago|reply
This way, they do not have to re-invent the wheel, but focus resources in the localization efforts for the OS, as well as the applications supported in the OS.
There would have been a meaningful contribution upstream.
[+] [-] eklavya|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eklavya|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mahouse|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dharma1|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eklavya|10 years ago|reply