For one the usage of Linux has evolved substantially in the last decade. While some of you maybe still holding onto perceptions of Linux based on user-experiences from the past, the Linux trending today has come a long way towards reinventing itself during the years. Delving upon the thought further, Windows isn’t flawless either; it does come with its share of installation and configuration hiccups.
To install Linux today, you don’t have to browse through the site to download .exe package and accept series of agreements to install the OS. All you need to do is click “Install” and the process works seamlessly across various distributions to include Ubuntu, Debian, Redhat, Fedora and others.
The Snap Store has a vast number of apps, not just the open-source clones to include Telegram, Spotify, Slack, VLC, and many more. With the sheer number of distro variants available, it is extremely difficult to determine the right Linux distribution that works to suit your needs, but one thing you can safely place bets on is “lesser frustrating experience” for the average user.
Plus, you enjoy better battery life on Linux OS over Chromebooks, Macbooks and Windows laptops. New tweaks will be introduced in Linux systems this year to double on power management in desktops by stripping down background processes, improving graphic drivers and kernel features.
The Indian Market Perspective On Linux OS
In the Indian server OS market, adoption rate of Linux has been increasing from 7% to 8.1%, as per the recent Springboard Research. Strong online support community, lesser ownership cost, minimised security threats and lack of piracy-related issues are few main reasons contributing to increase in adoption of Linux OS in India.
A recent news report claims reasons for the increase stating, “The rise in Linux adoption in India has been fuelled by procurements coming from a wide range of verticals including the government, education and enterprise segments. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (1-999 devices) dominate the Linux server OS market with an adoption growth rate of 8.3%, 2.4 percentage points higher than that for large enterprises (>1,000 devices).”
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Linux Server OS Adoption Growth
Small & Medium Enterprises
Considering it’s a free open-source technology, countries with low per capita income are quick towards adopting the base version to save on costs and meet business goals within limited budget constraints. This clearly explains why SMEs in India are quick to switch from Windows OS to Linux OS.
Strong server security and competitive pricing strategy offer compelling reasons for the price conscious customers – startups and SMEs to actively adopt open-source solutions. However, as a matter of fact, despite growing base of Linux servers installed across India, MS-Windows OS continues to hold a monopolistic ground at 91.8% adoption rate. Customers in India still see Linux as a threat because of lack of awareness and cannot completely count on the support offered to fulfill mission-critical business requirements.
Growing Linux Usage By Academia In India
Dating back to the beginnings of 2000, Kerala was the first state in the country to introduce Information Technology as a subject at the High School level using Microsoft Windows and Office. Free software enthusiasts then staged protests to ensure Government enforces inclusion of free software in the curriculum of students. Eventually year 2007 saw the largest installation of GNU/Linux in schools, and about 500,000 children passed out learning about Linux application and systems.
To promote free and open-source software in India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, GoI has initiated couple of initiatives to include indigenized GNU/Linux Operating system distribution “Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS)” supporting 18 Indian languages, launched the National FOSS portal, and National Help-Desk for FOSS. The participating agencies in this consortium mode project are AUKBC Research centre, CDAC (Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi), Chennai and IIT (Bombay, Madras).
BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) is a GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC, Chennai in order to benefit from the usage of Free/Open Source Software in India. BOSS GNU/Linux is a key deliverable of National Resource Centre for Free and Open Source Software (NRCFOSS).
NRCFOSS is promoted by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), MCIT, Government of India. FOSS plays dual role to bridge the digital divide and strengthen the Indian software industry. All versions of BOSS Linux are available for free download here.
BOSS, certified by the Linux Foundation, is available for easy deployment on both desktop and server applications.
To make Linux relevant for the primary and secondary school environment, an educational variant EduBOSS has been introduced in schools. It is a complete usable operating system with GUIs and console applications for routine tasks and additional functions that are useful for teaching/learning in schools.
As recently, the Linux Foundation launched the LF Deep Learning Foundation, an umbrella organisation established to support and sustain open source innovation in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning. Some of the reputed tech giants who are a part of the LF deep learning initiative include Tech Mahindra, AT&T, Amdocs, Baidu, Tencent, Univa and the likes.
BOSS Linux Deployment In India
BOSS Support Centres have been set up across the length and breadth of the country to help users regarding installation issues if any and for maintenance support. BOSS has been deployed in e-governance and educational domains.
It has also been deployed in Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Haryana in various applications. As recently, Government of Tamil Nadu has issued a directive mandate stating BOSS Linux to be used as mandatory operating system in all government departments.
An agreement with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for deployment of BOSS/Linux in e-governance applications is also being made.
In A Nutshell
Considering technology has influenced every aspect of our lives, it’s important that the education system of our country goes through a major revamp as well. We need to seriously consider switching from traditional passive models of education and training to be embed active training methodologies using open-source tools such as Linux OS to meet changing educational demands of a digitalised economy in transition.
