BOSS- What is special with Bharat Operating System by Indian Government
Today its been in news all over that Indian Government is launching their own operating system, it is very nice to such moves by our Government. As per news, "the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has developed a highly secure OS, called Bharat Operating System Solutions or BOSS. The system has successfully passed a crash test which the DRDO, Indian Army and other state-entities have been working hard to clear with their own systems.".
Moreover it is said that its answer to fight against cyber hacks India is facing regularly from China and USA. Another important thing is emphasized is all over that is going to replace "Microsoft Windows" as it comes with all features that one can expect from any good OS.
There are some bold statements being released for this Operating system, but what is it actually, they have their Website, you can also get more details from it. Though website looks really dull and unattractive, but what else you can expect from Govt. operations ?
I wonder, why they have created BOSS when any Linux system can do, first of all its not developed by C-DAC, its basically a FORK of "Debian Linux". Fork is a term used by developers where they take a software and customize, or further develop it the way they want.
Definition from webopedia :
Quote:
To split source code into different development directions. Forking leads to the development of different versions of a program. Forking often occurs when the development of a piece of open source code has reached an impasse. The project is forked so that the code can be developed independently in different ways with different results.
When they are talking about its superior security feature, then again its just because its linux and generally Linux is considered far more superior in terms of security than other counter parts as it was started with security in mind while other implemented it later.
Interestingly, its development was started back in 2007, they says its now more user friendly with latest iteration named as "Anoop".
If you read C-DAC's description of BOSS (Anoop), you will find nothing more than a regular GNU/Linux Distribution, probably only with their own branding and wide variety of Indian languages support.
See the details:
Quote:
BOSS 6.0 (Anoop)
The latest Release of BOSS GNU/Linux Version 6.0 – codenamed as Anoop , is coupled with GNOME Desktop Environment 3.14 version with wide Indian language support & packages, relevant for use in the Government domain. This release aims more at enhancing the user interface with more glossy themes and Tab like look and feel on the desktop by coupling latest applications from the community.
BOSS Linux 6.0 features the latest Kernel 3.16, Supports Intel 32 bit & 64 bit architectures, a 3D desktop environment, Graphic installer, Office application software suite Libreoffice , Internet access software (Firefox , email, chat etc.), and file sharing / converter and multimedia applications. This release comes with improved Desktop appealing features that includes Contacts , Documents , Maps , Photos and Music. The All-in-one Notification area notifies the user about Brightness , Networking , System settings all under the same menu.
The desktop comes with a on-screen keyboard with Indian language support. The Smart Common Input Method tool provides input mechanism for Indian languages with Unicode 7.0 support. The Orca Screenreader and Magnifier & E-Speak applications helps the people with visual impairments for using the BOSS desktop. The Bulk document converter helps people to easily migrate from other Operating system to BOSS GNU / Linux.
Currently BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop supports all the Official Indian Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Manipuri which will enable the mainly non-English literate users in the country to be exposed to ICT and to use the computer more effectively.
The major updates in BOSS GNU/Linux from the previous 5.0 Anokha release with this 6.0 Anoop version are :
Kernel updated from 3.10 to 3.16 latest version
Support for more hardware peripherals
Improved performance and latency improvements for Btrfs, XFS, and Ext4
Support for Intel Cherryview, Haswell, Broadwell and Merrifield systems, and initial support for Nvidia GK20A and GK110B GPU’s
full support for KVM 2.0.0
Major shift in init System Bootup to modern systemd thus ensuring parallel startup of services
A major shift in GNOME 3.4 to 3.14 with full support of Gnome-Shell including
New Application launching view with Frequent and All applications tab separated
Easy Search option across the Applications and Files in the Desktop
All-in-One Integrated System Status Area
Improved Messaging and Notification area
Latest Xfce 4.10 and KDE 4.14 versions in repository
Latest LibreOffice with
A new start center gives previews and easy access to recently used documents
inbuilt dictionaries and hunspell support
Improved PDF supprot
Xorg display server and drivers have been updated from 1.12 to 16.0.1 release and mesa has been updated to 10.3.2 with
better support for non-pci devices
support for AMD Hawaii GPU's and nouveau on maxwell devices.
Enhaced Grub2 with more support for UEFI boot devices
Default Web browser moved from Iceweasel 23.0 to Mozilla Firefox 33.0.1
Mail client updated from Evolution 3.4.3 to 3.12.9
GIMP is updated from 2.8.2 to 2.8.14 with new plugins
Latest VLC Media player and Totem movie player with live streaming support
Pidgin replaced by Empathy 3.12.7
Support for Google , Yahoo , MSN and many other protocols
Desktop wide integration with proper notification
Latest Simple scan with support for more devices
Fully compatible with LSB 4.1
Development Tools
GTK updated from 3.4 to 3.14
Gcc updated from 4.7.2 to 4.9.1
Python updated from 2.7.3 to 2.7.8
Support for Indian languages now gets better with the Replacement of Scim with Ibus with the Integrated System Settings. Now the Indic languages enabled with Region and Languages are directly mapped to the Ibus and the OnScreenKeyboard layout is provided for all the layouts.
The overall desktop experience is upgraded in this version through the Gnome-shell Activities Overview Tab. The newer applications included in this version includes
Maps
Contacts
Documents
Disks
Weather applet
Improved Orca support for all Gnome applications
Gnome key-ring Manager is improved to provide system wide authentication for all the applications. Improved Full HiDPI support for the Whole Desktop has been bought through Wayland Drivers in Gnome.
Its hard for me to understand that why there is so much overhype for rebranded fork of Debian Linux when you can do all without any fuzz ie. just use any good Linux Distribution which is free and quite user friendly. And they are using the time tested Genome as GUI frontend. However, its not considered most innovative GUI for Linux, there are many more available with creative and useful features.
And why comparing with Microsoft Windows, ofcourse replacing MS Windows with BOSS will be cost effective. However, do they realize that Linux and MS War is going from ages and yet Microsoft is dominant in regular user space. There has been increased adaptation of Linux, but its only among professionals or so called computer geeks.
I really loved the idea of BOSS but even after digging so much about it, I am yet to see anything unique or innovative feature or idea which can drive people towards it. Yes, it is very easy for Govt. to issue a circular and replace current operating system in its offices with BOSS, but still unsure how it impress regular Janta and Techie too ?
Another question is why one will not switch to Ubuntu which is also fork of Debian and has been time tested, developed from years. Another important thing to know is that though its very secure ie. Linux, its also Open Source, so everyone has access to its internal including those cyber criminals. There were many instances where a flaw was compromised or exploited in minutes of its discovery. But with active community, Linux is generally very quick to handle any kind of threats. In case of Govt. managed Linux Distro, we can't expect same as even if Govt. team is quick, they can't be fast enough as worldwide linux community to fix issues and release them.
May be this all is to give feel good illusion to common public of India, may be they have some bigger plan but for now I hope they will work on it to make it unique and useful as they have plenty of resource to exploit.
