Bharat Operating System Solutions

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bharat Operating System Solutions" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent sources. (March 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

BOSS Linux (iOSS Linux)
Developer	C-DAC/NRCFOSS
OS family	Linux (Unix-like)
Working state	Current
Source model	Open-source (The source was never made freely available to the public)
Initial release	10-January-2007 (18 years ago) (10-January-2007)
Latest release	10.0 ("Pragya") / 15-March-2024 (18 months ago) (15-March-2024)
Marketing target	Desktop computer, Laptop, Education, and Server
Available in	19 languages
List of languages Assamese, Bengali, English (India), Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani and Manipuri
Update method	APT (several front-ends available)
Package manager	dpkg
Supported platforms	x86-64
Kernel type	Monolithic (Linux)
Userland	GNU
Default user interface	Cinnamon
License	Derived from GNU software but does not accept changes.
Official website	bosslinux.in

Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS GNU/Linux) (lit. 'India Operating System Solutions Linux (iOSS Linux)') is an Indian Linux distribution based on Debian. The latest stable release is 10.0 (Pragya), which was released in March-2024.

BOSS Linux was released in various editions for different purposes:^[1]

• BOSS Desktop: Designed for personal, home, and office use.
• EduBOSS: Designed for schools and educational institutions.
• BOSS Server: Server variant of BOSS GNU/Linux supports Intel and AMD architectures.
• BOSS MOOL: A special edition for maintainability by changing how kernel drivers are loaded as modules.
• Secure BOSS: A Secure Linux distribution with access control and security policies.
• CDAC ERP: ERP is an application to automate the business processes.

BOSS Linux was developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing with the aim of promoting the adoption of free and open-source software throughout India. As a deliverable software of the National Resource Centre for Free and Open Source Software, it has a desktop environment that includes support for various Indian language and instructional software.

The software was endorsed by the Government of India for adoption and implementation in India. BOSS Linux has been certified by the Linux Foundation for compliance with the Linux Standard Base.^[2] BOSS Linux supported Intel and AMD IA-32/x86-64 architecture until version 6 ("Anoop"). Version 7 ("Drishti") onward only supports the x86-64 architecture.

BOSS Linux has nine major releases:^[3]

This release came with many new applications focused mainly on enhanced security and user-friendliness.^[vague] The distribution included over 12,800 new packages, for a total of over 37,493. Most of the software in the distribution had been updated as well: over 20,160 software packages (70% of all packages in Savir). BOSS 5.0 supported Linux Standard Base (LSB) version 4.1. It also featured 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.

Notable changes in this release 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 updated version of GRUB, the Iceweasel browser being replaced by Firefox and the Pidgin messaging client replacing Empathy, as well as 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 improved with the replacement of SCIM with IBus with the Integrated System Settings. Indic languages enabled with "Region and Languages" are now directly mapped to the IBus, and the OnScreenKeyboard layout is provided for all layouts.

This release is fully compatible with LSB 4.1.

The most significant change over previous releases is that this release does not support x86 and BOSS is now only available for the x86-64 architecture. Other notable changes include a 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.

The desktop environment is changed from GNOME to Cinnamon.

The Linux kernel was updated from 5.2 to 5.10.

BOSS GNU/Linux version 10 features the Cinnamon Desktop Environment and aims to provide a complete e-Governance stack based on free and open source software.^[a] The recommended system requirements include 2 GB of RAM, 15 GB of hard drive space, and a minimum 1GHz Pentium processor.^[4]

• Debian
• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Free culture movement
• Simputer

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bharat Operating System Solutions.

• Official website
• Bharat Operating System Solutions at DistroWatch