Bharat Operating System Solutions

Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS GNU/Linux) is an Indian Linux distribution derived from Debian. BOSS Linux was released in four editions:

  • BOSS Desktop (for personal use, home and office)
  • EduBOSS (for schools and the education community)
  • BOSS Advanced Server and BOSS MOOL

BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions)
DeveloperC-DAC/NRCFOSS
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen source
Initial release10 January 2007 (2007-01-10)
Latest release9.0 (urja) / 19 February 2021 (2021-02-19)
Marketing targetDesktop computer, Laptop, Education, and Server
Available in19 languages
List of languages
Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani and Manipuri
Update methodAPT (several front-ends available)
Package managerdpkg
Platformsx86-64
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux)
UserlandGNU
Default
user interface		Cinnamon
LicenseFree software licenses
(mainly GPL)
Official websitebosslinux.in

The latest stable version is 9.0 ("Urja").

Development

BOSS Linux was developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to enhance the usage of Free and open-source software throughout India. It is a crucial deliverable of the National Resource Centre for Free and Open Source Software (NRC-FOSS). It has an enhanced desktop environment integrated with Indian language support and other software.

The software has been endorsed by the Government of India for adoption and implementation on a national scale. BOSS Linux has been certified by the Linux Foundation for compliance with the Linux Standard Base (LSB) standard.[1] It supports Intel and AMD IA-32/x86-64 architecture tunti version 6. From version 7, the development shifted to x86-64 architecture only.

Version history

BOSS Linux has nine major releases:

Legend: Old version, not maintained Older version, still maintained Current stable version Latest preview version Future release
Version Code name Kernel version Desktop Date of release
Old version, no longer maintained: Evaluation Sethu 2.6.14-2-smp GNOME 2.8
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0 Tarag 2.6.17-1-i386 GNOME 2.14 January 2006
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0 Anant 2.6.21-1-486 GNOME 2.18 September 2007
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.0 Tejas 2.6.22-3-486 GNOME 2.20 September 2008
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.0 Savir 2.6.32-5-686 GNOME 2.30.2 April 2011
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.0 Anokha 3.10 GNOME 3.4.2 September 2013
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.0 Anoop 3.16.0-4-686 GNOME 3.14.4 August 2015
Old version, no longer maintained: 7.0 Drishti 4.9.0-8-amd64 GNOME 3.22 August 2018
Old version, no longer maintained: 8.0 Unnati 5.2 Cinnamon 11 July 2019
Current stable version: 9.0 Urja 5.10 Cinnamon 19 February 2021

BOSS 5.0 (Anokha)

This release came with many new applications, mainly focused on enhanced security and user-friendliness. The distribution includes over 12,800 new packages, for a total of over 37,493. Most of the software in the distribution has been updated: over 20,160 software packages (70% of all packages in Savir). BOSS 5.0 supports Linux Standard Base (LSB) version 4.1. The new version features XBMC to allow users to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a hard drive, optical disc, local network, and the internet.

BOSS 6.0 (Anoop)

There are several significant updates in BOSS Linux 6.0 (Anoop) from 5.0 (Anokha). Notable changes include a kernel update from 3.10 to 3.16, a shift for system boot from init to systemd, the full support of GNOME Shell as part of GNOME 3.14, an update to the GRUB version, Iceweasel being replaced by Firefox and Pidgin replacing Empathy, and several repository versions of available programs being updated as part of the release.

BOSS Linux 6.0 also shipped various application and program updates, such as LibreOffice, X.Org, Evolution, GIMP, VLC media player, GTK+, GCC, GNOME Keyring, and Python.

Related specifically to localization support, language support got even better with the replacement of SCIM with IBus with the Integrated System Settings. No,w Indic languages enabled with "Region and Languages" are directly mapped to the IBus, and the OnScreenKeyboard layout is provided for all layouts.

This release is fully compatible with LSB 4.1.

BOSS 7.0 (Drishti)

The most significant change over previous releases is that support for the x86 version has been dropped, and now it is only available for x86-64. Other noticeable changes include a linux kernel update to 4.9.0, a GNOME update from 3.14 to 3.22, and software updates to various applications and programs with wide Indian language support & packages. This release aims to enhance the user interface with more glossy themes and is coupled with the latest applications from the community.

BOSS 8.0 (Unnati)

Desktop Environment is changed from GNOME to Cinnamon.

BOSS 9.0 (Urja)

Linux kernel updated from 5.2 to 5.10.

See also

References
  1. The Product Directory of The Linux Foundation, LSB Certification Management System Archived 26 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 31 October 2008
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