• Dariusmiles2123
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    9710 months 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
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      2810 months 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
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      -4010 months 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
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        2710 months 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.

  • @givesomefucks
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    5710 months ago

    This won’t end well…

    Not because of Linux or Windows, but because India’s government is one of the most corrupt in the world, and everyone is just going to get bribed into saying “this is great” and it’ll get implemented without any flaws being addressed

      • @givesomefucks
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        1010 months ago

        Not really…

        They use the same propaganda tactics as Russia. No matter what the result is or what they said before any mission starts, they declare everything means they succeded and that their now a world super power.

          • @givesomefucks
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            1410 months ago

            Exactly.

            Thanks for the example!

            They didn’t accomplish their main goals or any research they said they’d do. But because it continued to orbit for longer than the mission (that failed) would have taken… They celebrate as a success and “proof” that theyre a world power.

            I really don’t think you meant to, but this is exactly what I was talking about.

            • TFA says India was the first nation to achieve Mars orbit on the first attempt. Standing on the shoulders of giants, and all, but still… that’s surely an exceptional feat?

              Is it better to set the bar high and fail to achieve every goal, or set the bar low and achieve less, but be able to claim 100% success?

              I dunno, man… I kinda feel like putting something in Mars orbit on your first try deserves some respect and recognition.

              • @givesomefucks
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                10 months ago

                TFA says India was the first nation to achieve Mars orbit on the first attempt

                It’s not a question of if anyone could tho, it’s a question of why would anyone waste all that money for basically just PR…

                To my knowledge no one has taken money from their starving citizens so they can light a billion dollars on fire. I still wouldn’t be impressed if someone did it, even if they get to tell “first!” after it.

                I kinda feel like putting something in Mars orbit on your first try deserves some respect and recognition.

                Again, just because no one has done something yet, doesn’t mean no one else could. They just choose to spend their money on something other than PR.

                • @[email protected]
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                  510 months ago

                  why would anyone waste all that money for basically just PR…

                  It’s not just PR. Developing the engineering capability to reach Mars is a goal of its own. There are not many nations that can achieve that.

            • @[email protected]
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              610 months ago

              The very fact that they can send working spacecraft is already an accomplishment. How many countries can do that?

              They are not yet a world power even if they claim to be. No doubt about that. But they are projected to become one in the not so near future. No doubt about that too.

              • @givesomefucks
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                10 months ago

                No, any country that wants to pay for it can.

                India prioritized it over other things like this:

                India’s latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS), which shows that children in several states are more undernourished now than they were five years ago, is based on data collected in 2019-20. The survey was conducted in only 22 states before the onset of the pandemic - so experts fear the results will be much worse in the remaining states, where the survey began after the lockdown ended.

                In places such as Dahod, however, the problem seems to have begun earlier. The district has seen a steep rise in the proportion of undernourished children compared with 2015-16, when the last survey was conducted.

                Stunting among children under five in Dahod is up from 44% to 55%. And the proportion of severely underweight children in the district has risen from 7.8% to 13.4%.

                Most Indian women are anaemic and poor women, especially so. And since undernourished mothers give birth to undernourished babies, experts say the worsening rate of malnutrition could be a result of women struggling to access nutrition benefits.

                https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56080313

                I’m not going to clap because Modi decided a pointless space mission that might trick people into thinking India was a world power is more important then the worst childhood malnourishment rates in the world.

                He’s letting children starve and develop life long issues so people like you do what you’re doing right now.

                • @hhkk9977
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                  610 months ago

                  what made you think India prioritised it over those things?

                  the budget for ISRO is much, much lower than the budget that goes towards programs to fix poverty related issues. ISRO is 0.27% of the indian budget.

                  the remote sensing satellites have helped farmers, fishermen with actual food production, weather satellites with predicting disasters and saving lives.

                  for us its worth the investment even without factoring in the nice to haves like finding water on the moon or launching private satellites.

                • @[email protected]
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                  10 months ago

                  No, any country that wants to pay for it can.

                  No my country can’t.

                  He’s letting children starve and develop life long issues so people like you do what you’re doing right now.

                  I am. not even Indian. I reckon what ever he’s doing affect me the same way it affect you. And I don’t even like him.

                  But I am not that bias to mix national interest with domestic interest - to paint bad picture on a target, to excavate the worse and burying the good.

                • @TheMadnessKing
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                  10 months ago

                  The cost at which India achieves these accomplishments are a fraction of what other Space Agencies. It’s something they should be proud of.

                  I went through the link and the entire fact that the article is using a small remote town to justify it with the entire India’s population is mind boggling to me. As someone from data science background, it just reeks as falsehood as no accurate source of data, sampling of such large pop and etc are mentioned.

        • @[email protected]
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          -110 months ago

          Not too dissimilar to Elon Musk really.

          We have the same kind of rot, it’s just that corporate layer somehow makes us think it’s not the same as the corrupt bullshit in other countries. But it’s not all that different.

          • @[email protected]
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            310 months ago

            Elon represents Elon, and he likes to hear himself talk. A government that represents a billion people should act a little differently than someone like him.

    • ZeroXHunterOP
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      510 months ago

      This has little to do with government officials. Though very less information is available, I believe the military will use its own personnel or private contractors.

      • @givesomefucks
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        010 months ago

        Oh yeah, far right authoritarian governments have nothing to do with their militaries…

    • b1tstrem1st0
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      10 months ago

      Someone is really getting the fucks for basically parroting the usual narrative of the deep states lol.

    • monke
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      -110 months ago

      but because India’s government is one of the most corrupt in the world

      This same country also has a space organization that is well-respected all around the world. If we can launch rockets, we sure as hell can build a secure Linux based distro lol.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        Half the mobile rom teams are Indian devs

        We have some serious manpower for cheap, that’s smart, development/employment focused, and intuitive

      • @givesomefucks
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        210 months ago

        This same country also has a space organization that is well-respected all around the world

        Lol, sure…

        Other countries don’t pay India lip service because it’s a large 3rd world country poised to become the newest sweatshop of the developed world…

        It’s because they respect a space program who retroactively changes their goals and tells their uneducated masses that everything was a resounding success.

        Just like “any day now” for the last 30 years they are going to become a world leader.

        • monke
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          510 months ago

          My country once successfully launched 104 satellites with a single rocket. And this guy really believes we can’t build a secure linux distro because we’re nothing more than a “3rd world country poised to become the newest sweatshop of the developed world”. Wow, okay dude.

          • @givesomefucks
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            -310 months ago

            Hey, another example of India doing something that makes no logical sense just for the PR and then gullible people thinking that just because no one else has done it, no one else could have!

            Man, you all are making this easy

            • @hhkk9977
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              510 months ago

              no logical sense except the indigenous technology advancements that make sure india doesn’t need to rely on others for crucial operations (US denying gps info to india comes to mind) along with the money that they earn from private satellite launches, yes.

              i wonder why this is so easy for you, surely it isn’t because you are conveniently ignoring all the positives of a space program.

              • @givesomefucks
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                -310 months ago

                If they were doing it for real reasons…

                They’d have launched a few big ones.

                Not just throwing a bunch of junk into space to beat a record no one else is trying to beat.

                Although, to be honest I thought no one would be dumb enough to fall for the propaganda and think any of the stuff people keep bringing up in this thread was worth bragging about.

                But I can admit when I’m wrong.

                • @hhkk9977
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                  10 months ago

                  what reasons are real enough for you?

                  is a navigation system real enough? are weather satellites helping with disasters and saving lives real enough? is telecommunications real enough? is the millions they earn from private satellites real enough?

                  i’m sorry all of this falls under propaganda for you. for me personally, these are all real enough to warrant a space program.

                  But I can admit when I’m wrong

                  doesn’t look like it

            • monke
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              310 months ago

              Hey, another example of India doing something that makes no logical sense just for the PR

              Only 2 of those 104 satellites were Indian. Rest all were foreign satellites. In fact 96 of them were from the USA. But yeah, obviously all these foreign satellites satellites serve no purpose whatsoever. Obviously they were launched just so ISRO could score some PR points 😂

              There is absolutely nothing impressive about launching 104 satellites in one go. What would be truly impressive is building a linux distro, amirite?

              Man, you all are making this easy

              Insert wojak crying behind mask meme

          • @givesomefucks
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            210 months ago

            Yeah, the whole moon race was propaganda…

            The main reason America went was so USSR couldn’t say they were first.

            Everyone’s known this for like 50 years now…

  • @[email protected]
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    4410 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      1510 months 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.

    • @baatliwala
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      1210 months ago

      As an Indian… You mean we can outsource stuff to others? :D

  • @giacomo
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    4210 months ago

    “home grown” Ubuntu spin, got it

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        It’s certainly a step in some direction, I’ll check back in a few years and see if it was the right one, or if it’s just a publicity stunt.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 months 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”

          • @[email protected]
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            110 months 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              110 months 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

  • @[email protected]
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    2610 months 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!

  • @[email protected]
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    2310 months 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 fuck up because they are doing g it for the wrong reasons.

    • @warmaster
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      1610 months ago

      How is controlling the package repo for your gov a bad thing?

      • @[email protected]
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        910 months ago

        Because they aren’t doing it to control the package repo, they are doing it to score nationalism points.

        • b1tstrem1st0
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          10 months ago

          Guess what, nationalism and security go together for all the right reasons.

  • @kzhe
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    2310 months 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.)

  • Fuck Yankies
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    1410 months ago

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

    Meanwhile, in NixOS land: Image

  • @TheMadnessKing
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    1210 months 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.

  • bahmanm
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    10 months ago

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

  • Appukuttan
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    1010 months 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
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    710 months 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)