Indian Govt. to launch its own Operating System(Linux Distro.)

[coffee_cup]

He is not talking about yet another diastro. He is talking about building a new OS from scratch. Hence the question, why reinvent the wheel ?

Sorry didn't read that post my fault.
Ok go ahead for that good luck

So lets get it straight. What is the use case here?

An Operating System which is going to be used in sensitive govt. installations. That means:

- Nothing fancy
- Stable
- Secure
- to be used in an environment where the hardware is mostly uniform (chipset, CPU, graphics, buses etc etc do not change often), so no need to worry about 1000s of different vendors and hundreds of thousand of variations for which you have to develop drivers.

Now tell me how hard it is to set few hundred highly trained developers on this task to create something like an OS? And don't forget, the main concepts are already known, you only have to give your own flavor to the algorithms. Take good stuf from different OS and tweak them into one, in a way that it is neither one nor the other.

It is doable, the only issue here is setting priorities. If it becomes a priority for a govt with a vast pool of scientists / developers, it can be done within a reasonable timeframe.

 

[nForce]

So lets get it straight. What is the use case here?

An Operating System which is going to be used in sensitive govt. installations. That means:

- Nothing fancy
- Stable
- Secure
- to be used in an environment where the hardware is mostly uniform (chipset, CPU, graphics, buses etc etc do not change often), so no need to worry about 1000s of different vendors and hundreds of thousand of variations for which you have to develop drivers.

Now tell me how hard it is to set few hundred highly trained developers on this task to create something like an OS? And don't forget, the main concepts are already known, you only have to give your own flavor to the algorithms. Take good stuf from different OS and tweak them into one, in a way that it is neither one nor the other.

It is doable, the only issue here is setting priorities. If it becomes a priority for a govt with a vast pool of scientists / developers, it can be done within a reasonable timeframe.

nhi baba... tum samajh nhi rha hai...

The use cases that you are talking about will be easily covered by Linux and even more. It will have support for drivers. You can plugin the loopholes if there is any and improve upon the existing design. What is an OS after all ? Something that lets a user interact with the underlying hardware. Linux is already a proven platform for this!

Why should anyone change that, unless there is a compelling reason to do so ?

And again, you push 100 guys into a project like this and you will end up with a mess. 5 guys will be more than enough.

 

[knight11]

hehe.. good question..

Mac for work, I use Safari there, personal laptop runs on Windows, it was 8, recently got upgraded to Windows 10, everything updates automatically, so I use Firefox v40 there. My old college wala desktop runs on Windows Vista, never felt any necessity to upgrade. I have a small mini PC, that I use with my Smart TV to use it as a general purpose computer, home theater system. That runs on Ubuntu 14, using Firefox there as well.


Maxthon.. Chinese na ?

I have been using Firefox since v2 was release, now it's v40..I don't really believe in brand-following, but in case of Firefox, I'm willing to make that exception. I will give Maxthon a try though

Great to know that in detail.

I have just one laptop with minidistro slitaz 4.0 little bit customize for my own preference since its old. I have vm setup and i have installed xp sp2, server 2003 sp 2, server 2008 r2, ubuntu 8 installed on into virtual partition. Haven't worked on mac but i usually prefer small foot print os and browser e.g qtweb browser which is more than enough over firefox 40. I worked on embebded linux os and often needs testing in client server environment so small utility comes handy.
Usually i dissable all pictures and media, to load and all flash blocked for faster browsing. My wife prefer window 7 for home pc and her own minibook pc.

I don't have any smart tv at home and presently i am working for a client for developing one application for windows/android. I am very much interested in Sailfish OS for the phone and whenever i'll get the time i want to explore it further.

 

[Mike_Brando]

ektai chini Mikebrando most probably..

Bhai ami ki etoi famous hoye gechi naki!!Anyways,welcome to this forum bhai or shall i say dada??

 

[Soulspeek]

LOL....

This is like British adding some spices here and there and claiming that Chicken Tikka Masala is their own invention!!

BOSS has been there for a few years now, I remember the laptops given to students by the TN govt used that OS.

Spoke about it to someone here who had used, said it was terrible , maybe they can fix whatever was wrong with it and relaunch it.

Edit: found a link with more info:


India’s own BOSS OS set to be updated with a new version | Digit.in

India’s own operating system, Bharat Operating System Solutions, or BOSS, is set to be revamped with an update. A senior official has said that the newer version of the OS will come this September.

The official told Hindustan Times that the new OS will be presented to all government stakeholders tomorrow. The government developed BOSS in order to reduce dependance on foreign operating systems. The OS was first launched back in January 2007, however it lost ground quickly due to the lack of adoption and faster upgrades offered by other operating systems. The official said, “We have no dearth of developers here. BOSS has almost all the features that one can get in, say, Windows. The earlier version was less user-friendly and had few features. We will seek help of Indian software biggies to develop it further.” He also said that the system was tested over the past three months. Many government agencies asked to check for vulnerabilities and the OS worked as it was supposed to.

BOSS is a linux distribution, which was developed by the Centre of Development of Advanced Computing or C-DAC that is based in Pune. The Defence Research and Development Organisation as well as Gujarat Technological University was actively involved in developing the system that supports all Indian languages.

The latest version of the OS that’s currently available on the official website is BOSS 5.0. This version is codenamed ‘Anokha’ and is comes with the GNOME Desktop Environment 3.4 version. It features the latest Kernel 3.10 and supports Intel 32-bit and 64-bit architecture as well as a 3D desktop, graphic installer, Libreoffice 4.1, and more. The OS has an on-screen keyboard, which supports a variety of Indian languages, thanks to the Smart Common Input Method tool that supports Unicode 6.1. According to the official website, this helps ensure that even those users who aren’t well versed in English, will be able to use a computer effectively. The OS also comes with the Orca Screen Reader as well as Magnifier & E-Speak to help those with visual impairments. Another version of the BOSS OS, called EduBOSS has been designed for students and teachers. It comes with a number of educational applications for students at primary and higher levels.

 

[nForce]

Great to know that in detail.

I have just one laptop with minidistro slitaz 4.0 little bit customize for my own preference since its old. I have vm setup and i have installed xp sp2, server 2003 sp 2, server 2008 r2, ubuntu 8 installed on into virtual partition. Haven't worked on mac but i usually prefer small foot print os and browser e.g qtweb browser which is more than enough over firefox 40. I worked on embebded linux os and often needs testing in client server environment so small utility comes handy.
Usually i dissable all pictures and media, to load and all flash blocked for faster browsing. My wife prefer window 7 for home pc and her own minibook pc.

I don't have any smart tv at home and presently i am working for a client for developing one application for windows/android. I am very much interested in Sailfish OS for the phone and whenever i'll get the time i want to explore it further.

Great!
I think the biggest problem with linux is hardware support. With Steam OS, that might change. What is your take on Firefox OS and Ubuntu Mobile ?

 

[coffee_cup]

nhi baba... tum samajh nhi rha hai...

The use cases that you are talking about will be easily covered by Linux and even more. It will have support for drivers. You can plugin the loopholes if there is any and improve upon the existing design. What is an OS after all ? Something that lets a user interact with the underlying hardware. Linux is already a proven platform for this!

Why should anyone change that, unless there is a compelling reason to do so ?

And again, you push 100 guys into a project like this and you will end up with a mess. 5 guys will be more than enough.

I don't know what problem do you see by having more people working on a project. I have worked in projects with almost a thousand people and they were wonderful great projects with fantastic outcome. It is all about discipline and how you manage the project.

Regarding your arguments, perhaps we are saying the same thing with different approaches. What you are saying is to take Linux as it is and tweak it to meet your needs. What I am saying is not only Linux but analyse different OS and take strengths from every of these and combine them into a new OS (which fits your needs in sensitive environments).

Having something "strangely secured" (i.e. no known vulnerabilities) makes it harder for average to high skill attackers to penetrate it.

I have seen some great Pakistani assembler or machine language programmers doing stuff so easily, so I know although challenging, it is not something that can not be done.

See an "enemy" giving free tips...

 

[knight11]

So lets get it straight. What is the use case here?

An Operating System which is going to be used in sensitive govt. installations. That means:

- Nothing fancy
- Stable
- Secure
- to be used in an environment where the hardware is mostly uniform (chipset, CPU, graphics, buses etc etc do not change often), so no need to worry about 1000s of different vendors and hundreds of thousand of variations for which you have to develop drivers.

Now tell me how hard it is to set few hundred highly trained developers on this task to create something like an OS? And don't forget, the main concepts are already known, you only have to give your own flavor to the algorithms. Take good stuf from different OS and tweak them into one, in a way that it is neither one nor the other.

It is doable, the only issue here is setting priorities. If it becomes a priority for a govt with a vast pool of scientists / developers, it can be done within a reasonable timeframe.

Start from writing the kernel itself. Though i am proficient in c++ and had only patched the linux kernel max, but still writing the kernel from the scratch would be difficult one. You will very talented team of brilliant developers for that and a pool of testers to test them.

After developing the kernel you need the collection of tools like busybox which is compiled on your developed kernel.
Then you need to decide whether it will need and X or not. If X is needed you can go for Xorg or Wayland.
Then you can choose from thousands of destktop from gnome, kde, opendesktop, matchbox, for the desktop.
Develop you program to be run over your os compiled with gnu gcc compiler or developed your own compiler if you think you have such potential.

 

[nForce]

I don't know what problem do you see by having more people working on a project. I have worked in projects with almost a thousand people and they were wonderful great projects with fantastic outcome. It is all about discipline and how you manage the project.

Regarding your arguments, perhaps we are saying the same thing with different approaches. What you are saying is to take Linux as it is and tweak it to meet your needs. What I am saying is not only Linux but analyse different OS and take strengths from every of these and combine them into a new OS (which fits your needs in sensitive environments).

Having something "strangely secured" (i.e. no known vulnerabilities) makes it harder for average to high skill attackers to penetrate it.

I have seen some great Pakistani assembler or machine language programmers doing stuff so easily, so I know although challenging, it is not something that can not be done.

See an "enemy" giving free tips...

Okay.. most eye catching thing first, you are not my "enemy". I don't consider a Pakistani in general to be my enemy.

Now, back to topic.

1. Something, "strangely secured" - It will adhere to the same standards and guidelines, one way or other, the implementations may be different. Vulnerability in your implementation is another issue, that can happen with anything and there are more chances that if you build something from the scratch, then it will be more vulnerable. Probably you are thinking that a system will be vulnerable, if someone is able to see your source code securing it. Believe me, it's not, it does not work that way. Everything boils down to authentication and authorization. I mean, look around, all the websites that you see, they all run on servers? and majority of those servers run on linux. Are they getting hacked everyday ?

There is also difference between OS level security, your application level security and Web Security. A hacker does not need always need to know, your source code to hack into your systems.

2. Second, I am telling you, time, work and efficiency cannot be plotted like a simultaneous equation.

It is not manual work that if you put a lot of people, things will get done faster, it is usually sequential and one process can start, only after the one before has ended. Here in India, stupid companies like TCS follow that model. They recruit a hell lot of guys and end up in management nightmares.
Again, it totally depends upon what you are trying to achieve. I'm talking about customizing an OS.

 

[TruthPrevails]

Bhai ami ki etoi famous hoye gechi naki!!Anyways,welcome to this forum bhai or shall i say dada??

i guess you are senior then me so bhai cholbe. And regarding knowing you.. ami actually anek din dhore ai forum tai ghurchi, ses mes join korei nilam Btw keep on trolling "THAT GUYS" i silently cheer for you and rainman

 

[RazorMC]

i didn't know that... what reason.

Managing code for different distros was too tedious esp since Flash is freeware and has already been replaced by HTML5 as the leading-edge multimedia solution.

 

[Mike_Brando]

i guess you are senior then me so bhai cholbe. And regarding knowing you.. ami actually anek din dhore ai forum tai ghurchi, ses mes join korei nilam Btw keeping on trolling "THAT GUYS" i silently cheer for you and rainman

Thanks,i love trolling those lungis occasionally.Btw,where do you live??

 

[TruthPrevails]

Thanks,i love trolling those lungis occasionally.Btw,where do you live??

KOLKATA

 

[RazorMC]

When is the last time u used linux . I have installed it on about 8 pcs in my village saying its a new windows , told them how to instal new software and they were like ducks in water . No virus, no blue screen of death evrything just worked out of the box and nobody has reverted back to windows. If some illeterate village folk can run it how hard could it be??

It's all right for desktops, but laptops show a lot of issues. WiFi will turn off randomly. Linux does not support dual wifi tethering either like Windows does. Lots are apps are designed for Windows (not even Mac sometimes) and it's hard to find alternatives for Linux.
These are just the tip of the ice-berg. Advanced users will have more issues esp wrt hibernation support, GPU driver conflicts (NVIDIA is notoriously difficult), sub-optimal hardware performance, more tedious Plug-and-play etc etc

 

[Mike_Brando]

KOLKATA

Ahh,so you're a fellow Kolkatan!Btw,i live in South Kolkata,what's your location??