• Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I ain’t a super Linux user, but I find it crazy that so many governments aren’t scared to put their data in the hands of US corporations like Microsoft of Apple.

    I work for the state in Geneva, Switzerland, and my employers gives me an iPhone and forces me to use Windows at work.

    I know that developing your own Linux distribution or any other solution is difficult but my country is even using a foreign cloud service instead of a swiss one😨

    • MuchPineapples@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      People are so shortsighted about this. Spend billions on Microsoft products to prevent spending millions on a safe solution that will never be suddenly deprecated.

    • kitonthenet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I mean, you guys have all that Nazi gold still so I’m not sure extrapolating that “neutrality” to other countries is necessarily useful

      • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I’m just talking about keeping your data and those of your citizens away from Apple and Microsoft.

        I don’t know enough about the nazi gold, but whatever your country is, I’m sure it has a dark history too. Still this is in no way related to the original post.

  • LeFantome@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    The article says this will be “based on Ubuntu” but it will probably actually just be Ubuntu with custom defaults, pre-installed software, and maybe repositories.

    This just makes sense in my view. The cost relative to the number of machines they must deploy will be miniscule. If they do not mess with the core system too much, they can outsource almost all the admin and expertise to Canonical in terms of security and packaging. People saying this will blow up. Why? It does not sound like they are really creating a full distro from scratch. Is Ubuntu not viable?

    In terms of why crating a custom version instead of just using actual Ubuntu. Again, the cost of customizing a distro can be dramatically less than making even simple configurations on every system after the fact. They can standardize what the desktop will look like and set key defaults. They can choose what applications are installed by default. They can remove applications from the repository that they do not want to be installed. The can ensure that localization is done well, etc.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I remember when Ubuntu was just Debian with custom defaults, pre-installed software, and their own repositories. Basically what every new distro is in the beginning.

      And yeah creating dpkg packages isn’t really all that difficult. Don’t know why people are saying this will be a disaster. There’s a lot of technically proficient people in India that could handle doing QA, and putting a dpkg on a server that gets automatically picked up by all the various systems that need it. Hell, they could develop their own applications and package them up and distribute them around much easier on a Linux system than a Windows system.

        • sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Even if it is, this is an instant attitude switch for uncles who go “open source is not acceptable in the industry” or “open source is not sustainable”

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Only if it actually succeeds. If the Indian gov’t gives up on it after a year or two, then maybe it’ll have the opposite impact.

            I work with some Indians, so I’m going to ask them their thoughts. I’m genuinely interested in whether there’s a will in India to actually make this a thing. I know it wouldn’t fly in my area (US), but it has worked to some extent in other regions.

            • sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz
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              1 year ago

              Potential is 100% there if they can get some stuff running

              If the DE, compatibility layer and the antivirus thing is open source I want to make an openSUSE spin of it with kiwi

  • andruid@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Very cool! Always good to see more countries get closer to embracing FOSS. Really helps with the collaborative benefits that FOSS can have, plus allows for organizations to have more control in their digital destinies instead of simply being customers.

    Hope the best for the project!

  • donut4ever@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    People bitching about it being based on Ubuntu or “just Ubuntu”, I’ll take Ubuntu over windows and macos any day.

  • kzhe@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Finally something done right by India (just my rough impression, I remember them like banning VLC and then encrypted apps, idk exactly what they do.)

  • laylawashere44@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    This is 100% a nationalism thing. They want to be able to say we make our own operating system. That’s it. It’s going to be a disaster when they inevitably removed up because they are doing g it for the wrong reasons.

  • bahmanm@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Hopefully they pull it off for real and it will not get bogged down by bureaucracy and red tapes.

  • taanegl@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Another fríggin’ Ubuntu distro. Can’t somebody just commit to Debian instead… please?

    Meanwhile, in NixOS land: Image

  • TheMadnessKing@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My main concern is support and delay b/w security patches the OS will introduce. I’m making a wild guess, but I think they should have lot older hardware devices and from performance pov, they should benefit given latest Windows are not that great on older devices and older win versions have already reached EOL.

    If they do get it right, they probably need to retrain their staff to be able to use other apps like Libre Office and more.

  • Appukuttan@kerala.party
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    1 year ago

    A lot of schools and colleges in Kerala (Indian State) use Ubuntu. Kids are taught how to use software like GIMP and Audacity in schools. It has become part of the syllabus in public schools.

    12 th standard students have to do maths practical in GeoGebra.

  • kitonthenet@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Can they do it? Yes. Can they do it with a reasonable level of support for many different desktop hardware so it’s cheap to implement? Probably, though it won’t be as comprehensive as windows. Can they get a 1:1 replacement for windows that has the same level of security as windows? No, because many national governments collaborate on windows security. But! They’ll be safe-ish from NSA back doors in windows (if you think there are any)

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Interesting because to airlines, using a Linux-based RTOS is a major security issue to the point where most airlines use homegrown RTOS solutions. But this isn’t the first national government switching to Linux for operations I’d argue are equally if not much more sensitive.