Mint works. Most alternatives don’t. I can install Mint on a total newbie’s system, and not have to worry about something breaking two weeks later. Hell, most newbies can install Mint if you give them the USB.

On a deeper level, I think Mint devs are one of the few teams that understand the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ philosophy.

The government distros (BOSS and IT@School) are for government offices and schools, respectively. Also, both are open-source. Mostly they add better support for Indian languages, and some educational software.

Android uses the Linux kernel, so it is Linux (but not GNU/Linux). This isn’t just semantics - Android has a UNIX-style filesystem, shell scripts, etc.

But yes, desktop per capita is probably decreasing as well.

If they’re moving to smartphones, that’s still (mostly) Linux.

I don’t see anyone here switching to linux on their personal pc other than the IT students who are forced to install kali linux.

I think someone is pulling your leg. All the IT / engineering students I know use either a normal Linux distribution like Ubuntu, or Windows. Kali is for cybersecurity people and wannabe h4X0rs.

Do these private computers run a properly licensed version of Windows? What’s the cost for a license? Same as in other countries?

Only the big ones. Pirated Windows is extremely cheap, and Microsoft doesn’t care too much as they want people using Windows. A new proper licence would be Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. This is a considerable sum for the average Indian.

Is there more Linux expertise available than in other countries?

I don’t know that much about other countries. I do know that we are probably the most Linux-friendly country in the world. But most of the senior people in the FOSS community are from Europe / US / East Asia.

Most schools in India already use some distribution of Linux.

The government is probably the biggest customer you can get as a vendor / manufacturer. You’d be insane to not give them whatever support they ask for.

Indian here. The reason isn’t Windows’ price tag - pirated Windows is very cheap and common - but a government push to make us less dependent on foreign (i.e. US / Chinese) companies. Schools, government offices, hospitals etc. have shifted to, or are shifting to, Linux (mostly Ubuntu and Mint). This shift started over a decade ago, but the US sanctions on Russia have spooked the government into speeding things up now.

Are there any mainstream tablets running RISC processors though? I though RISC processors of that power level were still in the development stage and/or only available in China.

But why not release 23.10 but without the affected language pack? The Ukrainian translation can be released once the vandalism is fixed.

In addition to what they said, it is considered rude in some parts of India (TN, Andhra, Telangana, even Gujarat to some extant) to bluntly say no. People who don’t know these social cues may take a no as a yes. And people from these states are over-represented in the US.

Isn’t it extremely common to accept only some of a person’s ideas? Most modern historians and sociologists would agree that history is mostly driven by material forces rather than by ‘great men’ or supernatural forces. Doesn’t mean they have to be communists.

Unlikely. Different Indian govt departments use different distributions, but they are usually forks of Debian, Ubuntu or Red Hat.

Step 1: Make a list of the software you use, and search online to see if they work on Linux.

Step 2: For the ones that don’t work on Linux, find alternatives and use them for a few days.

Step 3: Download a linux distribution’s iso into a pen drive, and boot from that. See how everything feels. (Don’t install it yet.)

Step 4: Install a linux alongside your Windows (i.e. dual-booting).

Step 5: When you realise that you are no longer using Windows, you can think of removing it, particularly if you’re short of disk space.

As for which distribution to use, I would suggest Linux Mint, but Pop OS and Ubuntu are also fairly beginner-friendly.

I mean, the .ml domain belongs to Mali and they have every right to take it back.