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?"

Comments

Is it "free" or is it "open source"?

[GuloGulo]

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?

Re:Is it "free" or is it "open source"?

[shvytejimas]

The automated translation did not distinguish the exact meaning of "free" in that sentence. The word used in the russian article was "svobodnovo", which means free as in liberty. Free as in beer would have been "bezplatnovo" - literally "payless".

Re:Is it "free" or is it "open source"?

[n dot l]

Gah. This would be easier if I could type Cyrillic characters in Slashdot comments. Anyway.

The first character is a sh-ch sound, where the sh dominates the barely pronounced ch to the point where most westerners wouldn't even hear it as distinct from the 'sh'. The 'e' is going to be pronounced 'yeh', but the 'y' part is very short and the 'eh' bit is short as well. The rest depends on where the stressed syllable is and I'm not sure of that. It's either Shchye-gah-le'-vuh or Shchye-go'-leh-vuh (I'm pretty sure it's the first one). The 'ah' is pronounced like the a in 'far', only shorter. The 'uh' at the end is like u in 'hut', but also shorter. And that's a 'soft' l, which means you pronounce it with your tongue a bit higher in your mouth, sort of like you're making the 'y' sound at the same time (if that makes any sense at all).

Disclaimer: I'm not Russian. I'm just studying it. Hopefully a native speaker will correct me if I've fucked it up. I'll correct myself if I hear it on the radio some time today (internet radio is an awesome way to pick up a language quicker).

Ponosov's Case

[ringm000]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponosov's_Case

Re:Ponosov's Case

[plague3106]

MS never appeared, and never intended to press charges. They even said they believed the headmaster didn't intentially violate their copyright. How's that karma biting them?

If anything, it's Russia that prosecuted the wrong guy that should be to blame.

Re:Read: No Money

[Vicarius]

Russia's last few 3-year budget plans, as well as the ones coming up, were betting on $70-80 price and all excess is being put into a separate fund/account. Russia still has not spent its surplus of the oil money.

Re:Microsoft OSs have a kill switch

[denis-The-menace]

Actually, Even with Windows Update turned off, MS can still force in an update.

That what happened in Aug 2007

Free as in freedom

[Anonymous Coward]

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)

Re:Free as in freedom

[Anonymous Coward]

content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"

Slashdot should use UNICODE to serve its pages.

Began years ago

[CarpetShark]

Brazil, India, China, Philippines, Extremadura...

Re:More proof

[FluffyWithTeeth]

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.

Re:aren't we talking about russia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at Distrowatch, download and burn a few CDs (granted this takes a while, but you're not actually "exploring" during this time), and spend 10 minutes trying them out. Total time spent dealing with Linux at the computer should be around 30 mins.

A few examples for machines with limited resources - Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, KNOPPIX.

Re:Read: No Money

[Risen888]

I wouldn't fret too much about the Russian economy. They're sitting squarely on top of the largest supply of natural gas on planet Earth. I think they'll make it through okay.

Yes, Linux is more expensive then Top100 pro

[Xelgen]

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.

Re:That was my thought as well

[syousef]

Both of these words translate to English as "free", but their meanings are totally different, and neither can be naturally expressed in English with a single word. The morpheme "svobod-" means free as in liberty or freedom. The root "bezplat-" is two morphemes, "bez-" meaning without, and "plat-" meaning cost or price.

Let me translate to slashdotese for you, since you didn't do such a good job.
svobod: free as in libre.
bezplat: free as in beer.

It is not about money

[Max_W]

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.