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IBM Opens A Linux Training Center In Russia
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."
...no, no, I won't. Millions after me will, though.
I see this as a good thing. Open source will definitely help give some countries a good advantage into getting on a competitive tech level with the rest of the world. Of course, if enough non-America nations wind up embracing Linux as their sort of official operating system, we could have a situation like the English units/metric units thing... but maybe I'm looking too far ahead. Or maybe I'm just being stupid.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
These are great news.
Just a year or so Russian Ministry of Education approved a deal to Microsoft, not to local educational system developers. It was a normal case with a rumors of bribery wich usually turns out to be true.
Today we see that technological superiourity and the development model of Linux opens the doors even in Russian political system.
I am happy for Russia, and you know, we have a lot of smart people who will contribute back to Linux soon.
...a stunned silence fell upon the hall.
News that IBM is opening a Linux Competency Center in Russia comes a day before Moody's Investors Service upgrades Russia's foreign debt to investment grade, according to "Russia Earns Investment-Grade Status". These developments are wonderful news for Russia and the West.
Russia certainly has many flaws: there are signs that civil rights are being abridged in Russia under the Putin government. However, Russia is far ahead of China in human rights, civil rights, and basic decency. Consider the recent atrocity described in "China Detains Health Official for Publicizing AIDS Coverup". The Chinese arrested (and possibly tortured) a person for revealing that Chinese officials had attempted to sell AIDS-tainted blood products to Americans in the USA.
It is a no-brainer as to which country deserves American support. American companies should bypass China and put all their investments into Russia and Eastern Europe. American consumers can encourage the American companies to do so by boycotting any product or service that is "Made in China" (which includes "Made in Hong Kong" or "Made in Taiwan"). Furthermore, we should pull our money out of mutual funds that invest in any company located in China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan).
It is imperative (for the preservation of Western society) that Russia outperforms China economically. The Russian value system shares much more in common with the American value system than the Chinese value system.
Personally, I think Russia is a far better place to encourage technology than China. Russians are nice people, and their government is slowly but surely becoming more reasonable as the years go on. The Chinese government, on the other hand, doesn't really like the US and is only trading (er, dumping their goods) with us just so they can raise the money needed to build up their military. China will never allow US companies to penetrate their markets or make any money there...
The United States and Russia have the potential to be great trading partners, in stark contrast to the mortal enemies we were a few decades ago. China on the other hand, is in a relationship of convenience (for them), and as soon as they've drained the US dry, they'll become a far larger problem and threat to the US than Russia ever was...
We should not encourage (or even allow, I say) technology transfers to China (of course, Clinton sold us down the river by giving all sorts of secrets to the Chinese, so the damage may have already been done).
As an American living in Russia, let me tell you about the linux scoop:
there is practically no linux here. why? because MS is free, or practically free.
I can run down to the metro station and pick up MS winxp, MS office for 2 bucks a pop (licenses included).
Games and DVD's are no different, and they have all the latest stuff.
it's quite common when purchasing commerical software that the 'crack' resides on the same CD as the software.
Games are just the same
Russia has a beyond serious pirating problem (I'm sort of not complaining, I was tired of paying $50 per game in the US).
If a business has an option to run on linux for free or windows for free, they would probably choose windows, and that's what they do here.
I would love to see some member of the SPA or MS come here and try to do an company audit on any of the businesses here. i guarantee you these people would be left crawling out of the building with broken legs.
I've been a linux consultant and my business has been running since 1999, and in the States we're doing pretty good. I thought it would be easy to do some consulting here in Russia.
are you kidding? the only consulting I've been doing here is for a company in Sweden...
because internet costs here by the megabyte (usually between 3 and 6 cents per meg), i've written an accounting and billing application (iptables, php, mysql) that counts packets NAT'd behind the firewall for each machine. the whole thing runs on linux, and i'm finding more and more private underground networks that are more than willing to adopt linux to perform this function.
believe me, i'm trying like mad to get people interested in linux over here, but the fact that all MS products are practically free keeps getting in the way.
Desktop is taken by MS. Contrary to other countries, there is no reason to switch to Linux to save money because Linux and WinXP costs the same - about $3. You can buy pirated XP and almost any Windows software and development tools for the same cost - about 100 rubels - everywhere. What works for Linux in eastern countries doesnt work in Russia.
Servers are taken by FreeBSD. Ask any russian sysadmin and you will hear that Linux sucks on server side. Almost all major ISPs and hosting companies are running *BSD.
There is some tuny amount of commercial Linux development coming from outsources projects, mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The unfortunate truth is that IBM opens this center to push IBM hardware not Linux in Russia. Russia has always been a Sun land and IBM realises this.