THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over 2 lakh computers deployed in schools will now run on an upgraded Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)-based Operating System (OS) developed by the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE). Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan released the upgraded KITE GNU/Linux OS Suite here on Thursday.
The OS Suite can be used as a complete computing platform not only by students and teachers in schools, but also in home computers, government offices, DTP centres and by software developers. The new OS Suite has all the important updates of the popular Ubuntu OS. It also features a lot of FOSS-based applications which are not part of the Ubuntu 20.04 repository.
Most of the applications in the OS Suite have been updated to their latest versions and customised as per the school curriculum, especially for higher secondary and vocational higher secondary sections. The OS can be freely downloaded from the website of KITE - www.kite.kerala.gov.in
The updated OS suite features a large collection of Malayalam Unicode fonts which assist Malayalam Computing, DTP Graphics and Image Editing software. Also included are sound recording - video editing 3D animation packages, database servers and desktop version of mobile apps. Further, the OS also contains internationally-acclaimed FOSS applications like GeoGebra and GCompris which help the learning of different subjects using IT. The state had made full use of FOS in education by adopting ‘GNUKhata’ instead of Tally, the proprietary accounting application which is license-based.
The state will be able to save Rs 3,000 crore through FOSS-based OS. For the first time in the country, the software for job roles for the National Skills Qualification Framework in Vocational Higher Secondary Schools was completely shifted to free software.
Novel platform
KITE’s new FOSS-based Operating System Suite officially launched
The OS Suite can be used as a complete computing platform by students and teachers in schools
It can also be used in home computers, government offices, DTP centres and by software developers.
Suite can be freely downloaded from www.kite.kerala.gov.in