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Russia Mandates Free Software For Public Schools
Glyn Moody writes "After running some successful pilots, the Russian government has decided to make open source the standard for all schools. If a school doesn't want to use the free software supplied by the government, it has to buy commercial licenses using its own funds. What's the betting Microsoft starts slashing its prices in Russia?"
Microsoft is no more!!!!
Dammit, I'm moving.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
or gulag you go
i think it would be more of hassle trying get a linux distro, than a free available-everywhere pirate of a windows os
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It begins in Russia.
NO SIG
The confusion between these two types of software is not trivial.
According to TFA, it is being mandated that "free" software be used, and open source isn't even mentioned (in the translated article, I don't speak russian, sorry).
"By the end of 2009, all school computers will be installed package of free software (PSPO). This is how transfers Prime-TASS, today announced Minister of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation Igor Shchyogolev at the plenary session Information Society and the modern technologies of information in the international exhibition InfoCom-2008."
"The Minister also noted that by 2010 it is expected that the number of computers in schools will reach a million. According to Schegoleva, after three years of school will be able to make a choice: pay royalties to use software products, buying them at their own expense, or go to the domestic free software."
Nothing in there about "open source" submitter, so which is it?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
I'm probably one of the few slashdotters who has lived in Russia. I will say that I met a ton of very smart people who are breaking from their national heritage in being hard-working. A university degree from Russia now and has always equated with a Masters in the US. They are just smart in not buying into the crap that Microsoft sells. There are so many entire technology stacks--just as in the Java world, not in .NET--that can be had without ever spending a thin dime on software. Face it--nobody is ever going to pay when there are free alternatives. And though as a software developer this eats into my bread and butter, I know they are right.
In Soviet Russia, the gov't pwns Microsoft;)
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
I wouldn't bet on that. It's far cheaper for Microsoft to just give very, very big campaign contributions to Russian legislators.
Microsoft would have to give quite a slash to compete with free.
wonder how much this would save the US
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Makes sense, as it's going to be hard to support schools with oil prices tanking. Russia has lost over $230 Billion USD in the last month, and it's not going to get better as oil prices remain flat or slide (perhaps to $40/barrel).
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
* the taxpayers
** the taxpayers
But seriously this is good, puts a little pressure on the budget while leaving schools free to make their decision. Good move.
You know what people will say now if you use F/OSS: "What, are you communist or something?".
Of course, the same idiots have been saying this for a long time, but now they'll have something to point to.
It's too bad the US gets so hung up on political bullshit like this to the point that it really truly does get in the way of progress. Universal Health Care? No way, it's "socialism". Regulate the financial industry? Socialism again. Progressive taxation? Wealth redistribution. (Why isn't it called wealth redistribution when the rich are taking from the poor?) At first I thought "great news, maybe the US will see the advantage of this someday". But on reflection, I think this might set F/OSS adoption in the US back by decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponosov's_Case
What's the betting Microsoft starts slashing its prices in Russia?
Microsoft already pays people to use their search engine... I'm betting MS starts paying Russian schools to use their software!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
...all software is free because, really, who the hell buys it when the piracy industry is so well developed?
Remember, Microsoft OSs have a "kill switch" implicitly built into Windows Update. If you use Windows Update, Microsoft has total control of your computers. That's not acceptable given Russia's renewed determination not to be under the control of the United States.
Even with Windows Update turned off, there are all those little things, like "codec downloads" and "DRM downloads" which can insinuate new Microsoft software onto a computer. That's unacceptable to a sovereign nation.
the Russian Government announces bankruptcy, can't afford to buy supplies and software for schools.
What's the betting Microsoft starts slashing its prices in Russia?
It's hard to compete with free. In light of M$ slashing their prices in China to compete with pirated-retail versions of their software, would they be desperate enough in a bid to hold onto market share to practically give away software in order to compete with FOSS?
Moreover, they claim piracy of their products around the world costs them "billions of dollars". I assume that's calculated on the basis of US-retail prices translated into foreign exchange rates, and they seem to have a hard-and-fast notion of exactly what each copy of their software is worth in terms of intellectual property, profit margin, cost of materials, and so forth when they make such statements. I wonder, since they're so sure of what their product is worth, if they could be accused of illegally dumping their products in foreign markets. They'd obviously be selling them for less than they know/believe they're worth in able to compete.
To me it seems really inevitable that microsoft will eventually have to open source windows. It may still be a ways off, but in the long run I just don't see how they can compete against linux and other open source operating systems. Linux gets better every year while microsoft stagnates. We've already seen some of the problems Windows has with driver support for example in Vista. If they open source windows and start moving toward a business model more like Red Hat, it would allow people to improve legacy drivers, find and fix various bugs in the os, and they would end up with a better operating system. No matter how much money they throw at the development of their OS, it just won't be able to keep up with the open source world, especially in terms of supporting legacy devices.
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Going back to Soviet Union? By slashing a monopoly and directing the money towards their own developers and encouraging competition as opposed to paying a foreign corporation which is already known to sue people in Russia?
Help me here...
I'm confused, can Glyn Moody read Russian, or is the article based on the Google translation?
From this, no one is being forced to use anything, they are given free software, and individual schools must foot the bill of commercial software. I'm sure this will help spur free software adoption, but isn't the real story about the Govt not buying school software anymore? A story like this in the states would imply the schools are now rejigging their IT budgets, not necessarily adopting free software wholesale. A story about govt funding to schools being cut probably wouldn't be taken in such positive light either.
Just my two cents.
[Via Google Translate: By the end of 2009, all school computers will be installed package of free software (PSPO). This is how transfers Prime-TASS, today announced Minister of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation Igor Shchyogolev at the plenary session Information Society and the modern technologies of information in the international exhibition InfoCom-2008.]
[Via Google Translate: The Minister also noted that by 2010 it is expected that the number of computers in schools will reach a million. According to Schegoleva, after three years of school will be able to make a choice: pay royalties to use software products, buying them at their own expense, or go to the domestic free software.]
That's about the only aspect of Russian educational policies that I'm likely to agree with. Having schools over here shell out lots of cash for most commercial software is a stupid policy. Of course, using a computer for everything in your curriculum (especially mathematics) is a huge mistake. Kids need to learn how to live without computers as well as with them.
If Microsoft simply let Russia go free (sounds weird right?) then perhaps there will be fewer Russian hackers writing Windows malware. That would be something of a long-shot I suppose.
Maybe the GP meant it in the sense of that Microsoft will now no doubt pull out the old "zomg open sores is SOCIALIST!!11!1!" chestnut, only this time with "SEE?!?/?1! IT IS AN U DIDNT BELEIVE US!!1!" to back it up.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Seriously? On these Pro-Torrent threads, you have everyone and their dog claiming. "Oh I just torrent Linux distro's and yada yada yada"
You would think the internets would be flooded with Linux distro's.
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
"Also part of the consortium is ALT Linux, rapidly emerging as a serious force in the world of Linux distributions (and of which, more later), Linux Ink - developer of SciLinux - and system integrators RAMEK and NCIT.
By September of this year Armada reported that Linux software had been installed in 1092 schools in the three trial areas, while a further 200 schools from outside the trial regions had also expressed an interest in testing the Open Source operating systems being developed by ALT Linux."
http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com/2008/10/russias-open-source-revolution.html
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Actions like this speak volumes about the future of the United States in the global economy. As a whole we are locked into the Microsoft monopoly more tightly than any other nation. As the rest of the world embraces free and open source software at a faster pace than we do, they are essentially leapfrogging us in technological advancement. If more USA users don't wise up to this soon, we risk becoming a technological backwater. It could take years to catch up, if ever.
If you think this isn't possible, consider how much farther ahead cell phones are in Europe, or broadband to the home in Asia.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Good news to be sure, but how do you know that the money will go towards developers or even back to the people and not towards some government official's Mercedes or vacation home?
What's the betting Microsoft starts slashing its prices in Russia?
After awhile, other countries would catch on to this, and MS would likely be forced to drop prices everywhere...
Oh man... that just made me chuckle... that would be sweet!!
goatse!
soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
I'm a native russian speaker, and "ÑÐобоÐноРÐYÐz" means a "free OS" as in freedom.
So they probably went with ALTLinux or whatever version of linux they got there that's popular.
(also, the russian text in preview is broken for whatever reason)
I have an uncle who lives in Russia, where he bought a computer preloaded with XP. After some time he realized it wasn't a legit copy, and went back to the place he bought it from to inquire about getting an "upgraded" version. The manager had this to say to him: "There is exactly ONE legal copy of Windows in Russia, what makes you think that YOU should have it?"
Hence, MS should just raise the price of that one copy.
Before I can answer, please first tell me what you mean by that.
Its all free, right?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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In a way, this is going back to the Soviet economic system.
In the USA (and other 'free' market economies), the principle that a manufacturer or distributor 'owns' a market is a pretty well established idea. Even though you and I are the 'market' and the idea of someone owning us, even in a narrow sense, harkens back to the days before the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Soviet^H^H^H^H^H^HRussian government is taking control of the market for O/Ss. Clearly a case of nationalizing private property.
Have gnu, will travel.
Yeah, that could only happen in Russia. Our elected officials would never do such a thing.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Obviously "Red Star Linux" had a profound effect on Microsoft's China marketing policy, not.
Ooh! Ooh! I know this one!!!
Karma's a NOUN!
"We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
Brazil, India, China, Philippines, Extremadura...
I got basically the same idea that you did from reading the article, but then I asked myself, if it's "free" software they're after, what's to stop MS from just giving Windows to them for free on some kind of "educational deal".
Seems like exactly the kind of thing MS would do.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
""After running some successful pilots..."
THIS is the big one. Not whether a contract was signed or not.
What Linux needs are success stories showing that it is viable as a large-scale enterprise operating system. No commercial organisation wants to be first into a new, unknown environment. Why can't we see the results of these pilots, and have them widely publicised?
Maybe the GP meant it in the sense of that Microsoft will now no doubt pull out the old "zomg open sores is SOCIALIST!!11!1!" chestnut, only this time with "SEE?!?/?1! IT IS AN U DIDNT BELEIVE US!!1!" to back it up.
If your argument stands on its own, it shouldn't require you to belittle your opponents. Last I checked (at the risk of providing an opening for a moronic joke), MS is not staffed by immature 11 year olds.
I'm neither here nor there on the merits of your argument, but please argue with facts, not some hideously exaggerated caricature of your opponent.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Fortunately, that's just not the way Russian politics work. Even if they managed to bribe politicians to make the laws in their favor, it would change nothing in practice. Besides, Russians wouldn't accept it. They will always get what the want for free or almost free as long as they have the will to.
I think the founding fathers of the US would scoff at the idea that Americans are the just the same as those who fought off the British, let alone comparing Russians from before Communism to todays.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
That doesn't really clarify anything. Obviously there is a difference in terminology, but is "svobodnovo" the equivalen of "open source"?
I ask because the context seems to indicate this is a cost saving measure, with little to nothing to do with open source software. Your translations seem to contradict the article.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
"But sooner or later an accountant in Redmond is going to step up and say that they can't keep doing it."
This is not in line wioth reality, as MS has been essentially "giving windows away" (in the form of unpoliced piracy) for years, and the consensus is that it has actually helped them rather than hurting them.
What makes you think this will be any different?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
Doesn't Russia just pirate all the software anyways ?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Aside from stereotyping russians, you guys are showing a lot of cultural bias, that you probably don't realise. Stop calling people lazy, and go read The Importance of Living. Or just spend time living in a hunter-gatherer tribe for a while. You might find yourselves returning to your lives and calling the people around you workaholics... or just plain insane.
"To truly understand another culture, you must first understand your own."
Microsoft is staffed by people that do, among other things, throw chairs at people, describe open source as "cancer", and want to "$#%^&*@ kill Google". I'd say the poster isn't exaggerating that much.
Some of the money will surely get to Alt Linux company. As for the rest -- I'd rather give it a try.
On a side note -- how many houses does this McCayne guy have?
What? They're not taking control of a market, the education department is simply just no longer buying software for itself. It's a cost cutting measure, not nationalisation.
They're not stopping anyone else from buying software, and I imagine private schools will continue to use microsoft software.
This is an excellent move from any points of view. In fact, I predict that countries like Russia will soon lead Open Source movements because for developing economies it makes sense on many levels. Here is my take on one of the points.
If I lived in Russia, I would be afraid of running anything but a Linux distro or software that I legally purchased in the U.S. or other developed countries. This is because software piracy is so wide spread that even competent people may not be able to tell you what is real and what is not. Go to any market and you can get a "genuine" copy of Windows bundled with many other goodies for pennies on the dollar. All you have to do is to run a file "crack.exe" to make things work. I shit you not, this is exactly what some of the README files supplied with the software will tell you to do. Don't ask me how I know that. The question is: How can you sleep comfortable knowing that your business secrets and your reputation may be at risk for running software of unknown origin? This is not about Windows v. Mac OS v. Linux. This is about knowing where your software comes from. If they setup a department in charge of creating a secure Linux distribution suitable for public schools, they eliminate any intentional or unintentional damage that could be caused by pirated software.
The alternative is to team up with software vendors that can distribute proven valid copies of the software at the market prices that is acceptable to the population. We've heard that Russia's economy is on the rise but they're nowhere near reaching the point of incomes seen in the U.S. and Western Europe. So somebody has to step it... Case closed.
Pfsht. America did all of that stuff in like, a five-year span. You Ruskies are lazy AND stupid. Gosh.
If the US Federal Gov't ever steps between the local school districts (the 'market') and textbook publishers (the 'owners' of that market), even if Federal funds are at stake, the publishers scream 'Communism!'.
Have gnu, will travel.
Just because the Education department there doesn't want to foot the bill for proprietary licensed software they are being Soviet? This isn't about forcing anyone to use Open Source, this is about cutting costs and using what works at the same time. Also note in the summary that they are giving schools the choice of either using Open Sourced software or the school themselves footing the bill for proprietary software. The public school system is a Government operated entity and therefore the Government has the final say. It's no different than in the USA, where Government (Federal or Local) education laws influence public schools. Why should the Government have to buy proprietary software licenses if they think it's cost effective and productive to use a cheaper alternative?
You Americans have a habit of screaming "Communism" at anything vaguely related towards state aid/state control without really knowing what Communism is.
Yep, it should be hard to believe for lot of ppl here, but for a lot of places (excluding only multimillion cities) in ex Soviet countries, this is the case. There is no broadband unlimited internet tariffs. 1 Mb of download, can cost up to 0.10$. Downloading will take couple of days .iso of a CD, and more then a week for DVD image.
And a CD/DVD with Vista/Full Adobe Creative Suite/Full MS Office pro/3D Max/whatever will cost about 4-5$ at any CD/DVD shop, which can be found on every single step.
Now tell me, which options whould you prefer?
Downloading an iso of CD for 50-60$ during a week, + another 20-30$ for additional packages, drivers, codecs, whatever..
Or buying let's say 2 DVD's for 10$ in 10 minutes, one with "All windows + office" (Several versions of windows + several versions of office, + antiviruses, system utilites, daily soft), and second "All computer graphics" with (All Adobe applciations for graphics, video, web-design, +3d max, maya, corel draw, image viewers, video players, etc..). So which one? :)
That is the main reason why it's so hard to push open source in here.
P.S. It's hard to find a fresh Linux distro in CD shops, and even if you can find not 2 years old, the price is the same.
Actually, if you consider it we are very quite socialist. We have public schools, laws forcing hospitals to provide aide when a patient enters in critical condition. They bail companies out when they screw up. We have social services like welfare, wic, &c coming out of the ass. Government services which make up a decent portion of the populations jobs (see: military, see: cops, see: politics &c) and fund our economy. To end my causation abruptly, those crying Communism every step of the way need to remove our military, our public schools, and a bunch of other things they have come to rely on to protect them and aide them.
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
comunism is still strong in russia
Please, attack Microsoft on legitimate issues (e.g. prior extreme anticompetitive behavior, and incomplete reform), not pointless ad hominem attacks.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Microsoft is staffed by people that do, among other things, throw chairs at people, describe open source as "cancer", and want to "$#%^&*@ kill Google". I'd say the poster isn't exaggerating that much.
Well one could say that having 'passionate' people is an asset even if they be a tad on the impulsive side. One could also say choosing the terms 'cancer and '"$#%^&*@' to be justified when they are a perceived threat to your business and you wish to instill that fact within the company by using such exaggerated language.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
Once the world economy tanks and Russia is forced to abandon free software in favor of 'for profit' OS's, then we can breathe a sigh of relief that those who came up with the OS are getting their rightful compensation for IP rights!
OMG russia gets it and invests in its people!!
in about ten years due to this you are going to start seeing a lot more professional coders enmasse coming out of russia. This is what Canada should do with our OIL money, and commodities. IF Schools want MS software then pay out of your own packets and no money anymore allocated for such other htem paying sysadmins and deployments.
As i said it would and could save provincial and federal govts of canada a whopping 1.8 billion a year. ( we only have a revenue of 200Billion )
Then you could use half that cash to pay the greedy hollywood ones for all the movies and tv and games. The other half could be used for better health care, a lil lower taxes ( or keep us from the USA made recession ) and continue to pay down our debt which gives us a lil extra every year.
IS THIS SOCIALIST OR COMMUNIST? no! Its proper business planning and use of the capital available to what you can get for your return on investment. ( you could even lessen our post secondary tuitions to point that CANADIAN CITIZENS ONLY enjoy almost free education and that alone will pay billions in the future)
THEN take the 4 billion from that wireles auction and MAKE the big 3-4 ISPS upgrade adhere to net neutrality and give ME japanese speeds to the home.
Example while peterborough was digging up all the streets around me to fix sewers , why didnt some one or an ISP then drop fibre into the street.
Half the work and cost by the city other by the ISP, a sharing of that means a ton less cost in the end and all of peterborough could have enjoyed something.
We need ot keep voting for the copyright MP's and htose that share there mindset.
SAY no to strategic voting form now and and vote accordingly. IF a local liberal was vocal vote him/her in again. If that is an NDP MP( who increased there seats almost 40% this time around)
then vote him/her in.
Remember Capitalism can only work good in a balance of social order. Russia as i see it is moving in not only the right direction but one that will see it move into a real super power status with all there people having access to free knowledge.
They can hire now better teachers, better equipment, and give the students more teachers per student ratios.
The fact that your government is as corrupt as their government (what government isn't?) doesn't make the problem go away. It's ok to critisize others when you have that problem too, as long as you acknowledge it. My 2 eurocents.
That sounds like the talk of a commie...
He's not sure. He'll have a staffer get back to you.
bork bork bork!
Source Opens YOU!
Microsoft is staffed by people that do, among other things, throw chairs at people, describe open source as "cancer", and want to "$#%^&*@ kill Google".
Please, attack Microsoft on legitimate issues (e.g. prior extreme anticompetitive behavior, and incomplete reform), not pointless ad hominem attacks.
"Qualis rex, talis grex."
The symptoms of systematic dysfunction were well known to the Romans. Leadership is a very legitimate issue.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
However, even these "cancerous" open source licenses are considerably better for the end user than virtually all proprietary licenses.
Compare:
You can use this software any way you want, and distribute it however you like so long as you distribute the source code in the same way you received it.
if you To:
You can use this software in a limited number of ways on a limited number of systems, you cannot redistribute it at all and don't get to look at the source code.
If you think licenses like the GPL are restrictive, then you must really hate proprietary software even more.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
we're "crazy zealots" and the reason why linux is going nowhere.
Makes sense...
Textbooks are probably the single largest waste of school funds, after sports (nothing against sports but that's another comment). Bad teachers use textbooks as a crutch to hide their own ignorance on their subject while letting the book do their job. They also teach students bad habits by getting all their data from a single source, generally not even a very accurate source.
In the United States a move to open source would be nice but I would prefer a move away from textbooks and toward better teachers that teach their students how to research their topics. Research is a much easier task with the internet than it has been in the past with projects like Google's book search and Amazon's A9 make it much easier to incorporate real books into said research. But such a move would be strongly opposed by both the teachers unions and the book publishers. And as such hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of actually happening.
--
I'm a glass half full kind of guy.
What Microsoft will almost certainly do, is give away free Windows and Office licenses to these schools. They'd rather lose the money, than lose the users, because free software is "contagious". Get a kid used to Linux, he's likely to continue using it beyond the classroom, maybe even writing interop tools to help migrate his friends and relatives away from expensive commercial apps.
You don't need to look very far... Microsoft wouldn't be a tenth of the size today, were it not for rampant proliferation of its OS during the 80's and 90's. People grew up on Windows, whether or not they paid for it is irrelevant, it's what they know and inertia is what keeps them there.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
It will just not go into some corrupt useless aquisition. If it instead go to some other corrupt useless aquisition, the situation didn't get any worse. Now, if it goes to some usefull aquisition (even if also corrupt), the russian people will gain.
There is simply no downside. Even if everything goes wrong, they won't be any worse. I guess there is some chance that something will fail to go wrong.
Rethinking email
Thank for the translation, but I already had it. As you and others, the translation is suspect.
That being said, neither russian word for "free" means open source as it is normally used.
So thanks for the translation and assuming I needed it when I didn't , but someone beat you to it and it still doesn't answer my question.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
So who's gonna bribe Russian officials if the software is free?
I actually favor open source over the alternative, but there is nothing morally wrong with wanting to develop with a closed source philosophy. It's up to consumers to pick their poison. From Microsoft's point of view they have a legitimate reason to dislike the GPL, in that inclusion (accidental or otherwise) of GPL code is a danger to their business model.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Many open source licenses do behave rather similarly to a cancer (though admittedly, the characterization contains grossly unfair pejorative connotations). I'd think virus would be a more appropriate characterization, (with two notable exceptions, cancers aren't transmissible in any significant way),
That would be a tolerable analogy for licences generally, as exactly the same applies to every proprietary licence. I'd be happier if people comparing, say, the GPL to a "virus" were also comparing, say, every other licence that has ever been written.
You want to alter or redistribute Microsoft's software? Well, you can't unless you agree to some licence terms (assuming that Microsoft offers any). So your release is infected by someone else's licensing terms, so the "virus" has been spread. Only in this case it's likely to be a nasty virus.
"There is exactly ONE legal copy of Windows in Russia"
That's bollocks. I still use a copy of Windows XP Home that I bought legally in Russia for about $70. It's a no-frills "OEM edition" which I (and the retailer) considered myself eligible for, since I built my PC from parts.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
As if someone in the ex-soviet block actually paying for Microsoft licenses...
That is so. It better be equal to Masters, since most schools over there require that you study for at least 5 years before they issue you a diploma. 6 years is not uncommon either. Then there's the issue of high schools. If you compare Russian high school with US one, grade by grade, US kids are 1.5 to 2 years behind. This means little to no remedial education is necessary once they start their higher education. And all good schools require applicants to pass entrance exams. Simply completing a test is not enough.
Once they start => once Russian kids start. I fail at pronoun agreement.
Stupid, lazy, gullible, with a huge sense of entitlement - that's how 95% of Russians perceive Americans. Sad but true.
OK, how about the fact that he dances about the stage doing monkey impersonations and shouting "Developers developers developers developers developers"?
There is a major problem with calling it a cancer, and that is in context. You can't call open source a cancer and proprietary software healthy cells. This is due to proprietary software's inability to grow and intermingle. Maybe if you call proprietary software a tumor, GPL could be just a more aggressive cancer that turns everything into wonderful goodness, while BSD is a healthy cell.
While the virus idea works better, the whole premise is just silly, pejorative, and flawed. Highlighting Balmer's stupidity in saying it works just fine in showing Microsoft has a screwball for a CEO.
-The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
I passed through Sydney Airport yesterday and all of the free internet terminals were using Ubuntu. Unfortunately, on the screens I saw, there were no desktop icons for Opera, so if someone closed the browser window, people though the computer had crashed. You get the picture. In short, while some tech people are trying to make open-source available to the public, many short-sighted mistakes are still being made.
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Compared to who? Estonia?
Don't get me wrong, the U.S. is clearly a mixed economy (a term for some reason out of favour). But it seems to be a lot more right leaning than the rest of the first world.
I find it hard to reconcile the 'million' computers in the school system' and the large population of Russia.
If adopting open source allows / helps them increase the exposure to and skill development from computer usage, than GO.
Please, attack Microsoft on legitimate issues (e.g. prior extreme anticompetitive behavior, and incomplete reform), not pointless ad hominem attacks.
You're not from around here, are you?
Incomplete reform? I think you meant "continuing current extreme anticompetitive behavior", and omitted "expected future extreme anticompetetive behavior." The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Or, as a famed technology leader once said:
"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it." Jean-Louis Gassée, former CEO, BeOS
Help stamp out iliturcy.
"In a way, this is going back to the Soviet economic system."
Bullshit.
The education ministry is a software consumer just as any other entity not devoted to software production. They are just stating their conditions for a product from the market, just as any other private held company would do in any free market.
I can't see how the Russian education ministry asking the market (Microsoft, Red Hat, Oracle, Canonical...) for open source software is any more "communist" than NY Yellow Cab Co. asking the market (Ford, GM, Honda, BMW...) for yellow cars.
Lets be quite clear, proprietary code is the cancer, it eats up all code and ideas, patents and copyrights them preventing any one else from using them at all. It strives to achieve a monopoly and kill off all opposition regardless of the damage done. Not only that it stifles competition in coding quality, resulting in coding infections running rampant across networks, a weakening of the fitness for purpose of the code. See, a digital cancer.
Now open source represent actual healthy competition and evolution of the most secure, reliable and usable code. It allows a healthy diverse technological digital ecosystem to grow and flourish. It promotes 'open' and 'equal' access to all code resources, healthy and vital companies thrive in that environment. Of course they only thing that suffers is those cancerous old proprietary companies who find they are no longer able to implement monopolistic practices to starve out the vital elements of a healthy industry. Just like any tumorous growth, once effective treatment begins, in the case Free Open Source Software, first growth stops and, then the influence of the proprietary cancer shrinks and it either reverts to become a healthy part of the industry or it dies off and disappears all together.
See Free Open Source Software - equates to healthy technological development and closed source proprietary software is without doubt the cancer.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
That is one thing about the USA, that they donÂt have any clue what communism really is. The term has ben scapeogoated and misused so many times in the USA without people really knowing that it is basically used for everything which is not in the USA. ;-)
In other words the McCarthy era had one effect, they brainwashed the people about the term communism so much that nowadays they dont even know what it is!
If you want to blame somone then tell openly he/she is a communist/socialist no matter what he/she really is, works everytime in the USA
I just read on this page http://linux.armd.ru/ that the president of Russian Federation ordered to create a robust reliable open source OS by 2010.
It is the top priority task for the security of Russian Federation. The school project is just a part of it.
Last I checked (at the risk of providing an opening for a moronic joke), MS is not staffed by immature 11 year olds.
Staff or management? See my malware journal entry. Somebody is immature in there.
Agreed ! Like the US had a tiny little federal government that has little control over state matters !
the other part in "the master plan" is to also not being in the hand of NSA and other "contributors" to MS software. In times when Russia is on a collision with WE (wester Europe) and US they need to be sure they are not being compromised. They are also upgrading and finally launching their own GPS satellites, they use some WE and US up to now. And more of that kind of project to free themselves from WE and US.
EU is pushing hard for laws and technology to wiretap communications, old Soviet countries are franchising NATO etc etc.
Oh God! I love the smell of astroturf in the morning, especially coming from a brand new user.
Even the (disputed) reports of Ballmer throwing a chair never indicated he threw it at anybody, merely "across the room, hitting a table in his office."
Hmmm, astroturf... "disputed", huh?
Please, attack Microsoft on legitimate issues (e.g. prior extreme anticompetitive behavior, and incomplete reform), not pointless ad hominem attacks.
More astroturf. When are you guys going to stop lying about the patents you're going to sue us for, but will not tell us what they are?
I never used to care much about Microsoft, always considering them a toy system that no one in his or her right mind would ever use, but I kept that opinion to myself. I also went out of my way to support the guys who wanted a native XEmacs on Microsoft Windows NT.
Since you have declared war[1], I will not ignore it. Stop attacking us, ShadowRangerRIT Microsoft dude. We're not a bunch of spineless John McCains and we will fight back. Microsoft is NOT the innocent party here and you have done things well beyond those you listed.
[1] Rigged benchmarks in the 90s, funding SCOs bogus lawsuit, your totally fictional Linux to Microsoft "case studies", ...
.... with two kids of my own growing up hear i am most pleased to hear about this move.
Cant see how MS will handle this one. After all their usual strategy is to bribe... ahem, encourage converts back into the fold by offering cheap licences... but russian schools are so poor (well the public ones anyway, private ones are loaded) that MS would practically have to offer it for free otherwise they will go with Linux (or use pirated versions).
Interestingly enough, Microsoft didn't instigate this action and in fact they wanted to work with Russian authorities to resolve this in an amicable fashion:
http://www.microsoft.com/rus/news/issues/2007/02/news_20070207.mspx
This is a real problem - how do you enforce copyright and intellectual property rights when the victim may have no idea they are in violation?
I know quite a few people who have been bitten by Windows Genuine Advantage. They purchased computers from a vendor who in fact sold them illegal copies at full market price. So they have effectively paid for an XP license but the copy they were sold is illegal.
Maybe we need to treat PC vendors like pharmacists? You must be licensed in the state where you want to sell a computer. Every computer sold must have your name or company name on it, and if you are caught selling a computer without a license it is a $1M fine.
Eric Sarjeant
eric[@]sarjeant.com
Well, that's the idea. The proliferation of the GPL encourages a more open software market on the whole, by forcing companies to either compete (by reproducing code under a different license) or cooperate (by using GPL code and releasing their improvements). Either way, everyone benefits to some degree. That's why we have Linux.
BSD, MIT, etc. licenses exist for those who want to improve the market by lowering production costs rather than encouraging competition. That's why we have OSX.
Sam ty sig.