This is an attempt to cover the history of Indian FOSS
- 1984: Richard Stallman creates GNU
- 1980s: TeX (softare in public domain) introduced into Kerala by Prof. K.S.S. Namburipad of the Department of Mathematics in the University of Kerala. Source
- 1991: Linus Torvalds releaes Linux Kernel
- 1996: Atul Chitnis and Kishore Bhargava convince CyberMedia (PC Quest) to distribute Linux CDs. 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
- 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
- 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
- 2002: Satish Babu out manouvers Oracle to get FOSS win a contract at PWD Kerala
- 2002: Public Demo of Hindi Gnome in Banglore Linux
- 2003: Anna University starts promoting FOSS in colleges in TN, gets join funding with CDAC
- 2004: Linux Asia starts, later becomes OSI Days in 2010
- 2007: BOSS Linux introducted by CDAC / NRC FOSS
- 2008: Prof Phatak, RetHat and ohers successfully convince GoI to not endorse OOXML as an ISO standard
- 2008: GRC Lab setup at IIT-B to work on advanced GCC Internals
- 2009: Phase II of NRCFOSS - expansion in programs
- 2010: Free Software Movement of India founded in Bangalore
- 2012: Last FOSS.IN
- 2013: FSMI stops Technical Education board AICTE from mandating Office356
- 2014: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP - State Govt of Kerala mandates all offices to migrate to Linux
Vikram, thanks updated. But can't help feeling the political twist in all of this. Why did you break away from FSF-India?