@Ram: Thanks a ton. That was helpfull. How do we type in Indic Languages on a standard keyboard. Do we need to use a overlay on the keyboard to show the various charecters or any other way. Also whats SCIM, IBUS etc ? Regards Narendra Diwate <div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 23:12, Ramnarayan.K <<a href="mailto:ramnarayan.k@gmail.com">ramnarayan.k@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im">On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 8:14 PM, Narendra Diwate <<a href="mailto:narendra.diwate@gmail.com">narendra.diwate@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > The posts over the past few days and a TV advert for the Indian version of > Linux named BOSS have prompted me to write this query. > </div>BOSS has been around for some time its the CDAC linux version check out <a href="http://www.bosslinux.in/" target="_blank">http://www.bosslinux.in/</a> have never used it so no comments on that However on the language front. Actually in Ubuntu its quite easy The first place to choose is right at setup - where Ubuntu allows you to choose installation in the n number of languages (am not sre how many) but a fair bit of indian languages are present <div class="im"> > Though i know a couple of Indian languages, i have used the computer only in > English like most if not all on this list and computer users in India in > general. Though i know Ubuntu and a lot of other Linux OS's support use of > Indian languages, I frankly have no Idea how to use it and to what extent is > it developed. > </div>am snipping the rest of your post and will run through the mainpoints To install and enable additional Language support go to System - Administration - Language Support and go to the install / remove languages and then just select any (or many) of the languages you want and then proceed with install. After the installation is successful (am not sure if a reboot is required) then you will be able to choose your login language at the time of login. Thats it you are ready to रोक एण्ड़ रोल *** additional notes are below First choosing the language to install is quite easy (as mentioned first at the fresh install phase) . This choice by default will enable your computer to boot up in your preferred language of choice, However this is not final at any stage later on you can install any (repeat any) and any number of other languages and the the login in time one can choose which language to boot into (as far as i know in windows one must buy separate versions for different languages) In most of the supported languages the basic software that comes the menu's and interface are much translated into the language you may have chosen. However not all the software has every thing translated. Depending on what your default keyboard choice was (which can wildly vary - if you want, from your language of choice) , the OS (Ubuntu) will keep that choice irrespective of which language you choose and one must choose an additional keyboards (language input) to begin typing in a particular language (System - Preferences --Keyboard -- Layouts) In case you have already installed say english language and US english keyboard its just a matter of a decent net connection to install the additional language packs enjoy ram -- ubuntu-in mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-in@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-in@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in</a> </blockquote></div>