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IBM Opens A Linux Training Center In Russia

Posted by timothy on from the nyet-nyet-nyet-for-darl dept.

prostoalex writes "IBM and Russian Ministry of Communications announced the opening of the first Linux Competency Center in Moscow. Representative of the goverment was quoted saying that such a center will help 'create a Linux ecosystem enabling Russian hi-tech companies to expand into global markets faster. IT solutions based on Linux and open standards will open up great opportunities to businesses in Russia.' This news piece in Russian also quotes Russian government official planning to expand the Linux initiative into provincial cities as well, if the center in Moscow turns out to be a viable idea."

1 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Rough translation of the russian text by parkanoid · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is the best I can make of it:

    The Ministry Of Communications will promote Linux.

    Yesterday, the Ministry of communications and information of Russian Federation and IBM corporation have signed an agreement about the creation of a Linux competency center in Moscow. Among its tasks will be not only support of governmental institutions in using Linux, but also testing and porting of applications based on open source. Up to 60 people (including foreign specialists from IBM) will be employed at the center, which will open in 2004.

    (snipplets follow, translating the whole thing will take too long):

    -The center will be located on the territory of a university, and students will also take part in its work.

    -The federal government already has limited experience in using IBM technologies

    -"Our task now becomes usage of open source programs in making current and future systems in the government work as a whole" (A. Korotkov)

    -Experience shows that, in other governments, open source software may constitute 30% of [all software]. Our country is far behind that, and it's unlikely that usage of standard software, such that [software products by] Microsoft, can be left behind completely due to the aggressive promotion by the manufacturers.

    -"Open source programs aren't completely free, and I cannot say how much we will have to pay for the center"

    -The resources ... will include Intel-architecture IBM eServer xSeries, high-performance Linux clusters, data storage systems. Use of the full specter of IBM software for linux, including WebSphere, DB2, Lotus, Tivoli and Rational, is expected.

    -The first meeting [between the sides] occured back in september 2002.

    -Once the center [is fully operational, tested, etc], similar centers may be deployed in other cities.

    -"This will save tremendous amounts of money for the budget, and this is just the beginning" (minister of communications)

    Pardon any awkwardness in the language, it's hard to translate on the fly.