BOSS - India's OS

BOSS – Bharat Operating System Solutions

Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS) is a Linux distribution developed by NRCFOSS (National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software). This software is also known by the acronym BOSS GNU/Linux or simply BOSS Linux. The latest version of this operating sysem, BOSS GNU/Linux Version 3.0, was released in September 2008. This software package has been described as India’s own PC operating system and as the most meaningful product to come out of the Indian software industry.

The software has also been endorsed by the Government of India for adoption and implementation in a national scale. BOSS GNU/Linux is a “LSB certified” Linux distribution: The software has been certified by The Linux Foundation for compliance with the Linux Standard Base standard.

BOSS GNU/Linux is derived from Debian GNU/Linux. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic operating system tools in Debian come from the GNU project; hence the appendages GNU/Linux to Debian and BOSS. Debian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure operating system: it comes with over 18733 packages. BOSS GNU/Linux includes nearly all of these packages. The product is a free software in the sense in which the term is used by the Free Software Foundation, and it is distributed under GNU General Public License. The latest desktop version of BOSS GNU/Linux is fully localised to eighteen Indian languages

BOSS CD pack:

1) INSTALL CD

To use the INSTALL CD, you need to have a minimum of 4.0 GB of Harddisk space, 512 MB of RAM and a CD-ROM drive. Insert the BOSS GNU/Linux install CD into the CD drive, restart your computer and boot from CD by editing the BIOS setup. The BOSS GNU/Linux splash image is displayed as the starting screen and the cursor blinks at the boot: prompt. Press Enter and follow the instructions. You can proceed with the default installation by clicking “Next” button or do custom installation.

2) LIVE CD

The BOSS GNU/Linux Live project aims to create BOSS Live CDs, DVDs and USBs  for all the releases of BOSS (and newer). BOSS Live is Linux CD based on Debian GNU/Linux. BOSS LIVE CD is a GNU/Linux distribution that boots and runs completely from CD. It includes recent linux software and desktop environments, with programs such as OpenOffice.org, The Gimp, Mozilla, Pidgin, Totem and hundreds of other quality open source programs. It also includes document converter, Presentation tool, 3D effects, bluetooth devices support and Input method for Indian Languages.

3) UTILITY CD

This CD consists of workstation related packages, like Apache webserver, egroupware collaboration tool, webmin – GUI for administrative tasks PHP, Mysql, Postgresql, Educational tools, Openoffice fonts and some other language fonts ,etc. You can find out the usage of the Utility CD and about these extra packages below. This BOSS Utility CD or Addon CD  contains the packages related to workstation.

1. Official Site

2. Download BOSS from here