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Russia's Operating System May Be Fedora Based
Glyn Moody writes "Last month, a story about Russia producing its own national operating system based on GNU/Linux started circulating. Now there's some confirmation, and details of how the plan might be put into practice. Red Hat had a meeting with the Russian communications ministry, which announced that the development of free software in Russia was one of its priorities. One concrete idea they talked about was using the Russian Fedora project as a step towards creating a national operating system."
Its not a Russian OS, its a Russian Distribution...
"Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari
Hmm... how to parse that?
If that's a reference to Communism it's a pretty lame joke.
If it's a reference to the adjective 'red' also meaning 'beautiful' in Russian, then it's a pretty smart one.
As is often the case, the key advantage that would flow from the creation of such a "national OS" is the control that it would give the Russian government - something it doesn't have with Windows, say, or even generalised free software produced elsewhere:
Not only is ALT Linux already around, but ASPLinux has been certified by the government. Are we re-inventing the wheel here?
Fedora is not created for testing. My mother-in-law (who has brain damage from brain surgeries) uses it without any trouble (Yes, I set it up but I have not had any maintenance to do since I set it up almost 2 years ago). I know, I know - "Don't feed the trolls". I couldn't help myself this time.
Guys, there is a dozen of Linux distros is Russia. AltLinux is the most known, but there are also ASPLinux, Linux XP and a military classified . All the distro developers and lots of system integrators are in the battle for the state funding right now, so do not expect to know now what will the Russian national OS be tomorrow.
It's the beta testing-ground for RHEL. Mostly works, but only mostly.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Yup. Hang your head in shame, my friend.
Come on, you're at Slashdot. It's always the lame joke.
That is not a teacher quote, but a quote of JerryLeeCooper of ZDNet Talkback fame.
I see no difference in a standard imposed by the government and a standard imposed by a corporation with a "silent" governmental approbate.
What I mean is not that creating a "national OS" monopoly is a good thing (well, if they keep the source available - you never know - it might be), but rather that we all live in a world where there is an international OS monopoly and most people agree, or at least live silent with it. I don't know if I understood your intention well, but as far as I can see, your comment goes down to saying "It's gonna change into a tool of dictatorship because it's Russia". Well, yes, historically speaking you'll probably right, but how's Russia and it's yet-to-be national OS different from the whole "western world" and Windows? I see no difference at all.
In most countries Microsoft's OS is an "imposed standard" after all. It just might not be that obvious. I live in Poland, and in here basically all schools run Windows, most govt institutions do, and there is even an application you can only run on Windows that is the only way to manage your company's finance with the govt (I don't know the exact terms in english, but it's irrelevant) electronically. This IS an imposed standard. The only difference is that it's imposed by a foreign company, and just approved by the government. I don't know what's worse to be honest.
Heh, on the other hand, it's kinda funny and ironic, that the first governments to start introducing Linux nation-wide are the ones having historically not much to do with all the "Freedom"...