# Timeline of FOSS in India **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [15 January 2021 06:22 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/timeline-of-foss-in-india/548 "2021-01-15T06:22:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anand](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/anand/32/156_2.png) [@Anand](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Anand)\ **Post date:** [15 January 2021 06:22 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/timeline-of-foss-in-india/548/1 "2021-01-15T06:22:42Z")
Timeline of FOSS in India, initially documented by @Rushabh_Mehta at [https://gist.github.com/rmehta/51f814190e59873113d2](https://gist.github.com/rmehta/51f814190e59873113d2). Please free to suggest edits in replies. This document will be updated to incorporate all the edits suggested by the community, # Indian FOSS: Timelines This is an attempt to cover the history of Indian FOSS - 1984: Richard Stallman creates GNU - 1980s: TeX (software in public domain) introduced into Kerala by Prof. K.S.S. Namburipad of the Department of Mathematics in the University of Kerala. [Source](http://swatantryam.blogspot.in/2007/08/story-of-free-software-in-kerala-india.html) - 1991: Linus Torvalds releaes Linux Kernel - 1996: [Atul Chitnis and Kishore Bhargava convince CyberMedia (PC Quest) to distribute Linux CDs](http://atulchitnis.net/2006/happy-10th-anniversary-pc-quest-linux/). Over a million CDs distributed over a span of 10 years. People stood in queues in front of newstands to get a copy of PCQuest. - 1998: PCQ swaps Slackware Linux with Red Hat Linux. - 1998-2000: Linux user groups (LUGs) start forming in all major cities [pending: link - 1999-2001: [IndLinux incubated via FreeOS to kick of Indic Localization](http://www.indlinux.org/blog/?p=32) - 2000: [IT@School project takes shape in Kerala to promote FOSS in schools in Kerala. Project chaired by Dr U. R. Rao, former head of ISRO](http://swatantryam.blogspot.in/2007/08/story-of-free-software-in-kerala-india.html) - 2001: FOSS initiative named Freedom First was held in Thiruvananthapuram to promote free software in the country. RMS was the chief guest and FSF India was inaugrated. - 2001: Linux Bangalore (later FOSS.in) kicks off - one of the [biggest FOSS events in Asia promoted by Bangalore LUG](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Linux_User_Group) - 2002: Satish Babu out manouvers Oracle to get [FOSS win a contract at PWD Kerala](http://swatantryam.blogspot.in/2007/08/story-of-free-software-in-kerala-india.html) - 2002: [Public Demo of Hindi Gnome in Banglore Linux](http://www.indlinux.org/blog/?p=32) - 2003: [Anna University starts promoting FOSS in colleges in TN, gets join funding with CDAC](http://www.opensourceforu.com/2012/03/msc-in-foss-from-anna-university-au-kbc-c-n-krishnan-throws-some-light/) - 2004: [Linux Asia starts, later becomes OSI Days in 2010](http://osidays.com/osidays/) - 2007: [BOSS Linux introducted by CDAC / NRC FOSS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Operating_System_Solutions) - 2008: [Prof Phatak, RetHat and ohers successfully convince GoI to not endorse OOXML as an ISO standard](http://deepakphatak.blogspot.in/2008/05/this-is.html) - 2008: [GRC Lab setup at IIT-B to work on advanced GCC Internals](http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/grc/index.php?page=history) - 2009: [Phase II of NRCFOSS - expansion in programs](http://www.opensourceforu.com/2012/03/msc-in-foss-from-anna-university-au-kbc-c-n-krishnan-throws-some-light/) - 2010: [Free Software Movement of India founded in Bangalore](http://fsmi.in/about) - 2012: Last FOSS.IN - 2013: [FSMI stops Technical Education board AICTE from mandating Office356](http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/aicte-rescinds-microsoft-office-365-mandate/article4701358.ece) - 2014: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP - [State Govt of Kerala mandates all offices to migrate to Linux](http://kstakerala.in/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=1521) ## FOSS Communities **Swathanthra Malayalam Computing** Formed in 2002, underwent a revival in 2005-2007 and has been consistently producing FOSS, fonts under open licenses and translations ever since. > **[Swathanthra Malayalam Computing](https://smc.org.in/)** > > Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (SMC) is a free software collective engaged in development, localization, standardization and popularization of various Free and Open Source Softwares in Malayalam language. **BangPypers** BangPypers, the Bangalore Python Usergroup, started by Anand Pillai in 2005. > **[Home | BangPypers](https://bangalore.python.org.in/)** > > The Bangalore Python User Group ---
**Author:** ![Anand](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/anand/32/156_2.png) [@Anand](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Anand)\ **Post date:** [15 January 2021 06:27 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/timeline-of-foss-in-india/548/2 "2021-01-15T06:27:15Z")
I think BangPypers, PyCon India, Bangalore Ruby, RubyConf etc. also deserves mention here. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![omshivaprakash](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/omshivaprakash/32/184_2.png) [@omshivaprakash](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/omshivaprakash)\ **Post date:** [15 January 2021 14:03 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/timeline-of-foss-in-india/548/3 "2021-01-15T14:03:07Z")
We can add language specific developments into this timeline. I can contribute to the activities that happened around Kannada. Local language communities around FOSS needs a mention too. ---
**Author:** ![Vaishnavi\_Singh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/vaishnavi_singh/32/233_2.png) [@Vaishnavi\_Singh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Vaishnavi_Singh)\ **Post date:** [15 January 2021 15:44 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/timeline-of-foss-in-india/548/4 "2021-01-15T15:44:48Z")
Yes. I guess BangPypers need mention atleast. ---
**Author:** ![puttalu](https://forum.fossunited.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@puttalu](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/puttalu)\ **Post date:** [16 January 2021 04:48 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/timeline-of-foss-in-india/548/5 "2021-01-16T04:48:43Z")
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing should be in there. It is one of the oldest FOSS developer groups at this point. Formed in 2002, underwent a revival in 2005-2007 and has been consistently producing FOSS, fonts under open licenses and translations ever since.