Please Welcome: Anatolian Leopard a.k.a. Pardus 1.0
Pardus, named after the famous Anatolian leopard, is available for
download online.
The open source, Linux based operating system Pardus, developed within
the scope of the Uludag Project under the auspices of the National
Research Institute of Electronics & Cryptology (UEKAE) of the
Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), is now
available for download.
Pardus 1.0 fully supports the Turkish language, and is designed for
easy installation and operation. It was developed by a group of
distinguished Turkish software developers. Empowered with innovative
technologies, Pardus is expected to arouse interest in the global Linux
community.
Developed With Free Software Approach
Pardus developer Assoc. Prof. Erkan Tekman said that they developed
Pardus through the free software approach. Tekman said: "Pardus is free
software and will be distributed under the General Public License
freely. We started working on Pardus in 2003 when the necessity of
having a national operating system emerged. In 2004, we completed the
planning and design phases and entered the implementation phase."
Tekman added that the open source software has several advantages over
closed and proprietary software. He said "The first advantage is
security. source software, by its very nature, is inspected by
thousands of eyes from the very beginning of the development process to
the release stage. If a developer or a company with evil intentions
drops some suspicious code into the software, it cannot remain hidden
from all these cautious eyes for long. Because the source code is open,
possible security flaws are patched immediately. Besides, since the
open source software is controlled and inspected by a large group of
developers, it is much more stable than proprietary software.
Flexibility is another asset of open source software, since the source
code can be modified and changed as needed and thus the software can
meet new requirements. Linux, which is being developed by a global
community working together, provides savings in total cost of ownership
through its licensing method and its ease of maintenance and management
as well."
According to Dr. Tekman, there are 300 different Linux distributions
including those that support the Turkish language. However, Pardus
sports full Turkish spelling check and provides grammar support,
through the Turkish Natural Language Processing Library and Spell
Checking Plug-in called Zemberek. This is available not only in office
programs, but in most desktop applications, including instant messaging
and e-mail clients.
"We have a configuration manager that enables application installed in
the system work in harmony," adds Dr. Tekman, "We called it MAR. We
named our package manager PiSi. They offer very smart and original
solutions for two, previously not addressed problems. Sharing of MAR
and PiSi with the global Linux community may well be declared as the
first free software export by TUBITAK."
Pardus comes with numerous popular free software like Firefox web
browser and office suite. Various applications, from
Internet tools to games, from media players to personal information
managers are also included in the Pardus CD.
With the widespread use of Pardus, Turkey's software imports are
expected to decline dramatically, and hardware sales and computer
ownership to increase consequently, as the total cost of ownership of
computers drop off. Pardus will also contribute to Turkey's efforts
toward becoming an information society and accelerating the
e-transformation process. It is believed that, with the introduction of
Pardus to the world at large, Turkey will secure itself a firm place on
the global IT platform.
www.uludag.org.tr
Pardus is a Linux based, open source, national operating system,
developed by the National Research Institute of Electronics &
Cryptology (UEKAE) of the Scientific & Technological Research Council
of Turkey (TUBITAK). The Pardus infrastructure is designed modularly in
a human-centric and task-based fashion, for easy installation and
operation. Pardus is distributed and used freely under the General
Public License (GPL).
TUBITAK UEKAE is a research institute, which leads in developing new
technologies in information security, communications and advanced
electronics with more than 30 years of experience. UEKAE manages
projects for state and private organizations, and contributes to
science by cooperating with the universities as well.