Thinvent provides a specially customised version of Thinux for Rural Telecentre Operators. This version of Thinux includes the following features:

  1. An operating system built on the stability and security of Linux. Thinux has a built-in recovery mode and a “read-only” base, so that the system can be recovered on-site after a failure in the field.

  2. Preconfigured drivers for all the hardware devices that users typically attach to the computer.

  3. Pre-installed applications that enable common computing tasks such as browsing and document preparation. These applications also cover the syllabi of common computer courses that the telecentre operator may wish to deliver.

  4. Compatibility with most popular Windows software.

  5. Localisation. Users can access Hindi and other Indian language websites and create documents in Devanagari on Thinux. Thinux can also display most software menus and help in Hindi, Tamil and other languages, which helps rural students and users.

  6. Support for connectivity through dial-up, DSL, CDMA, GPRS, Wi-Fi and VSAT. Built-in VPN connectivity.

  7. Remote Management: With Thinux, you can remotely configure, upgrade, control, inventory, view and reboot your computers from anywhere in your network, through a simple browser-based interface. This simplifies the management of a network of thousands of computers with varied connectivity.

  8. Remote Monitoring: To help you run the project, Thinux reports details such as uptime, connectivity issues and resource utilisation (such as the number of printouts). These statistics are collated and made available at the central monitoring location.

  9. Unified Communication: Thinux has built-in support for modern forms of communication: email, chat, VoIP and video-conferencing. The centres can use these services to communicate with you and with each other, and can also offer them as services to villagers.

  10. UI Customisations: When a new entrepreneur sets up a computer centre, the operator faces a number of teething problems, which lead to frequent support calls. We minimise these calls in two ways.

First, we customise the entire UI to be user-friendly. All the commonly required software and tools are arranged in a convenient, organised manner. Online help and tutorials (localised to Hindi) guide operators through common tasks such as taking their first printouts.

Secondly, we provide a number of status icons on the screen. When an operator calls for support, our support staff can ask for the state or colour of each icon and quickly determine the cause of common problems. These icons are especially helpful in debugging problems with printing or Internet connectivity.

The above software uses less than 512MB of disk space.