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Russia Mandates Free Software For Public Schools

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the in-soviet-russia-joke-makes-you dept.

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?"

3 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Is it "free" or is it "open source"? by GuloGulo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...
    1. Re:Is it "free" or is it "open source"? by shvytejimas · · Score: 5, Informative

      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".

  2. Ponosov's Case by ringm000 · · Score: 5, Informative

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