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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."
IBM trains you
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.
In Russia all MS products de facto cost $3 for 650MB for companies smaller than 50 employees. People just buy them on the flea-markets.
:-) It could work for Munich, Germany, but not for Moscow, Russia.
So I do not see Ballmer in Moscow any time soon with such mission.
...a stunned silence fell upon the hall.
One is a huge, slow-moving, ultra-conservative, monolithic bureauocracy which has recently been forced by circumstance to open up to unconveltional methods ...
and the other is Russia.
=brian
Say Nyet, say Nyet...to .NET!
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.
This is the best I can make of it:
... 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 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
-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.
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...
I disagree with you on this point. I think the problem is that many Americans have never heard of Linux. If more people new that they could get a free operating system, more people would use it. All that most people want with a computer is internet, email, and an office suite. These things are no harder to use in Linux than Windows, and if more people new they could use them for free, then more people would use Linux.
Have you tried Linux yet?
IBM has signed an agreement with Russia's Department of Communications as part of an effort to increase the use of Linux within Russia's government. A "Linux Computer Center" will be created in Moscow that will hire up to sixty people (including IBM's own specialists) by early 2004. It's purpose will not only be to encourage government organizations to use Linux--the employees will also spend time testing the operating system source code and porting applications to this platform.
The Center's location will be an important asset. The Center will be constructed as an additional building on a Russian university campus, thus offering active participation and employment to students as well as members of the DOC and IBM.
There are many important things the Center staff will have to do. Two are to translate and localize the operating system to the Russian language, and to train government employees on Linux operation. But an important goal of the organization is to push forward a "Digital Russia".
According to Andrew Korotkov, organizations of the federal government already contain examples of using IBM technology to for solutions. "We will switch our current computer systems to Linux and use Linux solutions on our future computers. Our goal is to put all branches of the federal government on a large-scale open source solution, united as one."
It will be hard to switch to open source completely, as closed source applications, from companies like Microsoft, might be required for some tasks. However, the hope and drive remains exactly that.~
Translated by Integer
Cover your eyes and click this link!
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.