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Russia to develop Linux-based Windows alternative to reduce its US tech dependence
In a move to decrease Russia's dependence on American technology, the Russian government has announced plans to develop a state-sponsored national operating system. Shifting away from Windows would mean both money savings for Russia, and increased digital security.150 million rubles (5 million dollars) have been set aside to create an operating system that will be based on Linux. It's not yet known whether this national distro will be built from scratch, or simply a branch of a popular distro like Ubuntu. Speaking to AFP, Russian politician Ilya Ponomarev said "The devil is in the details," and that a meeting to decide the exact specifications of this new operating system would occur in December.
This move is a sign that Europe and Asia continue to be unnerved by the US-dominated technology industry. The last few years have seen a massive shift towards open-source software across Europe and Asia, and also a marked increase in the activity of European and Chinese space agencies.
Russia [System operates you!] won't be the first country to work on a national operating system either: China's Red Flag Linux first appeared back in 1999, and only last week India announced its plans to build a proprietary, hyper-secure operating system.
Comments
10
Subscribe to commentsJeff HesserOct 28th 2010 9:37AM
so.... have any of these countries succeeded in this type of endeavour? Seems like if all it took was a few million bucks to get your country a free-open operating system to replace Windows then everyone and their dog would be doing this. I'd guess my company gives more than that over a few years to Microsoft for their products. Some Sys Admin in Russia pitched this pipe-dream to the government and has lined his pockets! haha.
Sebastian AnthonyOct 28th 2010 9:57AM
Ya! Quite a few governments use Linux now, AFAIK -- mostly in Europe. China also famously saves a lot of money by using Red Flag instead of Windows.
PaulOct 28th 2010 10:54AM
And the books are often cooked to hide the usage of pirated software. Not so much in Europe as in Russia and China (and Eastern Europe). While they do use Linux, in practice it will often be that while a machine is officially running it, it also either dual-boots into or is primarily a Windows machine, for which the source of the license is, at best, nebulous.
It's mostly because copyright is something that has not gotten much penetration in the societies/cultures, particularly as the communist systems acknowledged neither copyrights or patents.
PaulOct 28th 2010 9:45AM
I'm guessing that this is, right now, solely a negotiating tactic, trying to keep MS from being too finicky about ensuring only legitimately licensed copies of Windows are used in schools, offices and institutions (for now, the Russian home user isn't worth the hassle of going after). I bet, that should MS come back to the table with a deal for a much lower price per license for the above, the Russian government would suddenly find the need of a new Linux-based OS as less pressing than other Matters of State.
For the record, it's my understanding that Russia, Eastern Europe and China right now have more pirated copies of Windows (including in universities and other government run institutions) than they have licensed copies.
2late2dieOct 28th 2010 9:54AM
What I don't get is why it's state-sponsored. Well, actually I kinda get it but it's just a shame. This should be something that private organizations in Russia push for. There is a lot of talented developers in Russia and they just need some proper capital to get things going.
Sebastian AnthonyOct 28th 2010 9:58AM
Good point. Russia actually recently announced some plans to make a 'Silicon Valley' near Moscow.
Maybe they plan to spend the money on private contractors...
ragtagOct 28th 2010 10:32AM
They've already made the default wallpaper. :)
http://technology.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/8783/
Sorry, couldn't resist.
jfjbOct 29th 2010 12:24AM
that is a very very very old wall paper, dude
Jeff HesserOct 28th 2010 11:12AM
and honestly, this whole 'less dependant on...' none-sense needs to stop across the board! being dependant one another is a good way to avoid falling back into another cold-war scenario. Let each country do what they are best at, lets face it the US is primarily a consuming society so if we can't export one of the few things we are good at then where will we get the money to spend spend spend! haha
DavidOct 28th 2010 10:58PM
In Soviet Russia, Linux roots you!