Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) is the principal archive of books and periodicals in the Nepali language, the mother tongue (or lingua franca) of a little over 30 million people of South Asia. It manages the largest archive in the Nepali language, and supports the use of Nepali for the social, economic and cultural advancement of all Nepali.

In this context, since January 2004, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya undertook the Nepal component of the 30-month long PAN Localization Project (www.PANL10n.net), a multi-nation localization project being conducted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with the support of International Development and Research Center (IDRC), Canada. This project includes a Nepali GNU/Linux distribution 'NepaLinux' comprising of localized GNOME, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla suite, and other utilities that include Nepali Spellchecker, Thesaurus, Nepali Unicode support, etc. This distribution can be used in Nepali as well in English environment.

Though NepaLinux is basically a live CD it can also be installed in the computer. The work for the installation process has been facilitated through the European Commission supported Bhasha Sanchar Project (www.bhashasanchar.org) which is led by the Open University (UK).

NepaLinux is a Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), in which the source code is open and the users have the freedom to use, study, modify according to one's needs and redistribute it. NepaLinux, being a Free/Open Source Software, does not charge for its software unlike proprietary software, which cost a lot and also do not allow the users to study, modify, or redistribute.

Some of the packages included in NepaLinux are Linux Kernel 2.6.12, Gnome 2.10 Desktop Environment, OpenOffice.org 2.0, Gimp Graphics Editor, IRC Client, Gaim Messenging Tool, Development Tools (Includes C and C++), Mozilla Suite, GnomeBaker CD/DVD Burning Utility, Firewall Security, Antivirus, Rootkit and Sniffer Detection Tool, Image Viewers, Games, etc.

The official website for NepaLinux is www.nepalinux.org. Other available places to look for assistance are:
- Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya support forum: www.mpp.org.np/forum
- NepaLinux Mailing List www.nepalinux.org/lists
- NepaLinux Wiki: www.nepalinux.org/wiki
- IRC for realtime queries (#nepalinux on irc.freenode.net)