TOSS (TCE Operating System Services) is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution and as claimed by the developer TOSS was developed targeting the student developer’s community. It offers build-essential, OpenSSL, PHP, Java, gEda, xCircuit, KLogic, KTechlab and a variety of essential engineering software for engineering students and developers. Currently, TOSS has reached version 2.0 with major updates.

About the development team:

This is a project developed at Computer Science and Engineering Department of Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.  Surprisingly, all the team members of TOSS project are highly-skilled student developers. The team includes, lead developers Mr. Sarvesh Ghautham and Ms. Sowmy Narayan along with designers Mr. Saravanan.P.S and Mr. Raghavendhra. This team of four also supports a 700 member GNU/Linux Users Group of TCE. In their website, a member of TOSS development team claims “TOSS is not just another spin-off from Ubuntu. The core of Ubuntu has been retained with minimal changes to the default Linux Kernel enabling users to retain its more popular and useful features while giving the users, a completely different look and feel. Despite the eye-candy offered with a variety of user-friendly interfaces, TOSS mainly targets student developer’s community. TOSS is fully open source. Our motto is “Open source Open minds Open future” and we fully support third party efforts to improvise TOSS. No part of the OS is locked by any means.”

Main goals of TOSS:

• To roll out a single OS for the entire college (Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai) supporting all departments of engineering.
• To attract students and people towards open source software offering broadly-appealing GUI and other utilities in this TOSS distro.

Vital Stats: TOSS v 2.0

• Distro base – Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
• Packaging – (Managed by deb)
• Linux Kernel – 2.6.28 (Probably, Killer Bat of Doom Version)
• Default Desktop environment– Gnome

TOSS: Fast facts

System Requirements:

In the past, we have come through several well-accomplished and easy- to-use Linux-based desktop distros. How would this TOSS version stack up?

Let’s find out.

TOSS focuses on usability of engineering tools and some sort of security. The Ubiquity installer allows TOSS to be installed to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment. TOSS also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization to reach as many people as possible. UTF-8 became the default character encoding, which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. As it is a completely open source OS, there is no restriction in performing administrative tasks, which allows the root account to remain unlocked, and allowing even new developers to make system changes. Currently, TOSS does not have a separate edition for ‘Servers’ and the still, the compatibility with game consoles and HDMI consoles are not present and might be released with upcoming upgrades.

TOSS comes installed with a wide range of software that sun java jre, flash player, VLC media player, Firefox web browser, thunderbird email client, exaile audio player, empathy IM client . It also shares ubuntu’s repositories so that users can install any Linux software of their choice with ease. TOSS allows networking ports to be closed using its firewall, with customized port selection available. GNOME (the current default desktop) offers support for more than 46 languages and TOSS also supports Tamil fonts as step to localization. TOSS can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VirtualBox).

Installation

TOSS 2.0 (live CD session)

Installation of TOSS is generally performed with the Live CD. The TOSS OS can be run directly from the CD (albeit with a significant performance loss), allowing a user to “test-drive” the OS for hardware compatibility and driver support. The CD also contains a clean Ubiquity installer, which then can guide the user through the permanent installation process. CD images of all current and past versions are available for download at the TOSS web site. Installing from the CD requires a minimum of 256 MB RAM.

Users can download a disk image (.iso) of the CD, which can then either be written to a physical medium (CD or DVD), or optionally run directly from a hard drive (via UNetbootin). A Microsoft Windows migration tool, called Migration Assistant can be used to import bookmarks, desktop background (wallpaper), and various settings from an existing MS Windows installation into a new TOSS installation.

TOSS can be booted and run from a USB Flash drive (as long as the BIOS supports booting from USB), with the option of saving settings to the flash drive. This allows a portable installation that can be run on any PC which is capable of booting from a USB drive.

Mobile and TOSS:

One of the attractive things about this TOSS, is it is one of the major distro to come out with full support for mobile devices. It offers total support for mobile devices connection both via data cable as well as sd card readers if (present in laptops).mounts the phone memory as a drive which gives high flexibility for system-to-phone and phone-to-system data transfer. Also Bluetooth is supported if hardware is present in laptop.

Upstream Features in the TOSS 2.0:

* Based on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope,

* Kernel: Linux 2.6.28,

* Gnome 2.26 comes with noticeable improvements in Pulse Audio support, screen management, file-sharing, and disc burning.

* Better notifications, faster boot times, enhanced suspend-and-resume and better switching between Wi-Fi and 3G connections.

* The Ubiquity installer features graphical improvements and support for the ext4 file system.

TOSS & its Engineering tools:

As per the main goals of TOSS development, TOSS focuses on several useful engineering designing & developing tools, specially formulated for the engineering students. Though, TOSS offers a spectacular desktop environment, the below engineering tools are considered, as the core factors in the development.

Below are the pre-installed Engineering tools, comes packed with TOSS:

gEDA – An ECAD (electronic CAD) or EDA (electronic design automation) application suite. gEDA is mostly oriented towards printed circuit board design (as opposed to integrated circuit design).

Xcircuit -A generic drawing program tailored for making circuit diagrams. The graphical interface attempts to maintain consistency between X11 window rendering and the pure PostScript output. xcircuit is mouse, menu and keyboard driven. The emphasis is on single character macros.

NASM – The Netwide Assembler is 80 xs86 assembler designed for portability and modularity. NASM is an 80×86 assembler designed for portability and modularity. The project supports a range of object file formats including Linux a.out and ELF, COFF, Microsoft 16-bit OBJ and Win32. It will also output plain binary files.

Kicad – An open source (GPL) software for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and printed circuit board artwork. Kicad is a set of four software products and a project manager. With the project manager, Kicad, you can choose or create a project and launch Eeschema, Pcbnew. This electronic workbench is free of charges and is open source (GPL). It is useful for everybody working in electronic design (schematic diagrams and Printed Board up to 16 layers).

QCAD – A multi-platform 2D CAD system. It is aimed at mechanical engineers as an alternative for non-free CAD systems presently in use by them. The interface is user-friendly and highly useful for technical and engineering use.

Electric – Electrical CAD system. Electric is a sophisticated electrical CAD system that can handle many forms of circuit design, including custom IC layout (ASICs), schematic drawing, hardware description language specifications, and electro-mechanical hybrid layout.

KLogic – An application for building and simulating digital circuits easily. It provides an easy way for building circuits containing standard components like AND, OR, XOR and flip-flops like RS and JK. In order to build more complex, more structured and reusable circuits, sub circuits can be used. The simulation is running permanently per default while building your circuits. Especially available features include Single stepping simulation, Karnaugh graphical analysis method, Signal flow of components, a tune able delay.

KTechlab – Open source electronic design automation software. It supports real-time electronics simulation and PIC microcontroller debugging.

Compilers and Interpreters – For software engineers, we have the standard gcc compiler for C, g++ for C++, gcj compiler and java interpreter for Java, Perl and Python interpreters built in.

Conclusions:

When compared with other major Linux distros, TOSS seems to be a real-competitor. So here are the conclusions

• Ease of Installation & Use: 4/5
• Speed & Stability: 4/5
• Community Support & Documentation: 5/5
• Features: 5/5
• Overall performance: 4.5/5

So what’s the bottom line then?

Well, if existing Linux users want a solid, easy to use desktop distro, they should give TOSS a look. Though it is quite not up to the heights of some of the existing proprietary operating systems, it’s probably better than other Linux open source distros. In the new version 2.0, some of the minor bugs have been ironed out and it’s a good starting point for Linux beginners and student developers. If a user is looking for something a little different to Ubuntu or Fedora, but still easy enough install, try TOSS. The user might be surprised at what a great distro it is.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD TOSS version 2.0 from HERE

• The first stuff would be the slider QWERTY which is the ultimate choice for professionals who love mobile-computing.
• Droid’s mini USB is a standard connector, available everywhere, unlike the iPhone’s proprietary 30 pin connector.
• The availability of external memory slot (MicroSD) is a significant aspect that will be much appreciated by people who want to back up their important data and transfer the third party applications to other devices. iPhone lacks this facility to get the data off the phone, except for email, which is also restricted from transferring  sensitive data. The iTunes backs up only  Apple’s app data and contacts.
• A huge difference between Android and iPhone can be summed up in their multi-tasking facilities. The iPhone is absolutely a single-task handset, while the Android beats it in this segment. When making a call or attending a call, if an iPhone user wants to refer a note, he has to hang the call by getting out of the telephony interface and has to initiate “Take a note” app. But with the Android, the same user can perform several different tasks at a time without his phone slowing down.
• The next and best thing in Android is its advanced memory management or what is termed as the  “automatic garbage collection.”  It takes care of the application overload crashes and memory releasing tasks. Unlike iPhone, it can release the ‘garbages’ leftover in the access memory. But in iPhones, due to the lack of this advantage, a running program will eventually quit, due to the shortage of memory.

Android is a feature rich OS that enables a programmer to write very sophisticated business utilities or even a continuous-monitoring application. Undoubtedly, the iPhone OS is a fascinating entertainment device with intriguing slider interface and much more. But the Android platform is predicted to deliver more than entertainment in the future and has the potentiality to take over other prominent operating systems, according to some experts. However, there is still not an “one-fits-all” phone. For now, Android devices seem to compete well with iPhone.

Learn more about Dot Com Infoway’s Android Application Development Services

Facts apart, plagiarism is a crime which is wildly spreading over the online world. Plagiarists, like spammers, have mushroomed to a phenomenal extent that they do not even bother about the cyber laws which condemn the act. According to a research done by Fasthosts, one in every five businesses have at least an item of their website plagiarized by another company. Sad thing is, sometimes such copycat-companies enjoy more profits than original site developers.

Say NO to Plagiarism

Online Plagiarism: Exactly, what is online plagiarism? A plagiarized item is a stolen item. A material is plagiarized when proper credit is not given for content (text, design and concept) copied from another website. In other words, it is stealing someone’s online work without due permission. By all means, plagiarism is a scourge, especially for the online world because, a) the plagiarist is lost in millions of other websites and b) plagiarism is a simple ritual of cut, copy, paste.

Cyber Laws against Plagiarism: It is a wonder that many web geeks still plagiarize in spite of being aware of the DMCA and its Section 512. But it has always been a routine for plagiaries to scrape through existing content and replicate it on their websites. It can be said that a really big part of content available online is information that has been used over and over again.

DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a US Copyright law which implements the treaties made under World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and is considered as a largely enforced act related to Internet activities. Under the act, it is an offense to produce and disseminate technology and services, intended to bypass the measures (known as Digital Rights Management) that control access to copyrighted works. It also penalizes the act of outsmarting an access control, whether or not there is real infringement of copyright itself. In addition to the above things, the DMCA extensively enforces penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet.

OCILLA: The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) is a safe harbor for service providers, (including ISPs), against copyright liabilities if they adhere to certain prescribed guidelines and promptly block access to the allegedly infringing material (or remove such material) if they receive a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder or his agent.

DCI’s battle with plagiarists
With online plagiarism rampant all over the web, every other company is reeling under the scourge of it. Dot Com Infoway has itself been a victim of online plagiarism. Recently, DCI busted a few website rip-offs of our own corporate site enforcing the DMCA on them.

The sad part is that these plagiarists did not bother to change even the text of the site. It is just a beginning and our SEOs are still unearthing more sites that have plagiarized our site. Only thing is, the list grows like a dragon tail.

Below are some of the sites that plagiarized ours:
www.endeavourtechnologies.co.in
www.elinksol.com
www.rayssoft.com
www.vsys.in

To give you an inkling of how effective our plagiarists were, we have given the screenshots of our corporate sites and a plagiarist’s site below:

Our Corporate site

A plagiarist's site

As a victim of copyright infringement, DCI has taken steps under the DMCA, filing a CEASE and DESIST notice to Google and the concerned OSP. This is a clean strategy for busting existing plagiarists and circumventing plagiarism in future.

These are times when we think about a robust law enforcement body, specifically for worldwide Online Copyright Infringement and particularly, in the Indian subcontinent, where thousands of IT service providers operate and serve global companies. In worst case scenarios, there are possibilities for online infringements upon top secret files belonging to government institutions or organizations. Though DMCA and OCILLA come handy in catching cyber criminals red-handed, more severe laws and penalties would annihilate copyright infringement and make the web climate more conducive and secure for businesses.