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Linux To Be Installed In Every Russian School
J_Omega writes "According to an article from last week at the Russian IT site CNews, Linux is slated to be installed in every Russian school by 2009. The article makes it appear that it will be going by the (unimaginative) name 'Russian OS.' As stated in the article: 'The main aim of the given work is to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government.' Initial testing installations are supposed to begin next year in select districts. Is 2008/09 the year of Linux on the (Russian) desktop?"
Once you become proficient in using Linux you are having a better understanding of OS and network internals than your Windows-using peers.
This has nothing to do with suiting needs or not.
This is a reaction towards this long, protracted and phenomenally stupid lawsuit brought by the Russian branch of the BSA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6499843.stm
In brief: a school in the middle of nowhere was sold computers with pirated windows and office which they believed to be genuine. Instead of going after the manufacturer and the reseller the Russian branch of the BSA went after the headmaster of the school and tried to make him personally criminally responsible. he case got phenomenal adverse publicity and reached to the level of the both Putin and Gorbachev wading in and asking that the real culprit is prosecuted. Instead of that the idiots continued and even tried to invoke the MAFIAA favourite tool of WTO scaremongering.
At this point the Russians did the very Russian thing of making a point in principle. Is the OS suited or not no longer matters in the slightest. They will simply no longer do educational business with Microsoft in principle and this is it.
It is a part of Russian character - you may push them for a very long time and they will do nothing. At one point they will go into "Za nami Rodina, ni shagu nazad (Fatherland is behind us, no further steps back)". This is a point you simply do not want to reach when you negotiate with them and it was reached solely through the BSA stupidity.
This also makes a major difference between the Russian case and similar situations in Asia a few years back. There Microsoft managed to defuse the situation through offering seriously discounted Windows and BilliGatus gifts to education and health. In this case this will not work. It is not a matter of money it is a matter of principle from now on.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
AFAIK the decision was taken about a month ago and announced on Russian TV. I got a couple of letters on the subject from Russian friends when it happened.
You are right - it is related to the teacher. Frankly, Microsoft should have given it a second thought and stopped simulating that it has nothing to do with it especially after both Putin, Gorbi and Zhirik got involved with it. Before that it was a piracy case. Now, after MSFT ignored all political parties from the left to the right end, the current and the past presidents it has become a political issue. It is not a matter of money any more.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
That article, no matter what it claims, is totally misleading as, according to most other sources (namely gazeta.ru) this line of argumentation ("oh, we are going to build our own OS!") is solely used as a way to make a better deal with MS after the serie of busts in the russian schools using pirated copies of Windows. No matter what it does, the Russian Ministry of Education is not stupid.. they just want a better deal.
http://www.automatiq.se