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Putin Orders Russian Move To GNU/Linux
Glyn Moody writes "Vladimir Putin has signed an order calling for Russian federal authorities to move to GNU/Linux, and for the creation of 'a single repository of free software used in the federal bodies of executive power.' There have been a number of Russian projects to roll out free software, notably in the educational sector, but none so far has really taken off. With the backing of Putin, could this be the breakthrough free software has been waiting for?"
Linux really IS communist!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
With the backing of Putin, could this be the breakthrough free software has been waiting for?
I am pretty sure that Putin don't care about the freedom part of free software
Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
In Soviet Russia, software frees you!
2011 WILL be the year of the [Russian] Linux desktop!
In Soviet Russia, GNU/Linux move to you!
They're creating the repository, they're holding the code. Its about easily creating back doors and then mandating the use of the software. In Post-Soviet Russia, the Free Software controls you!
It's always "the breakthrough free software has been waiting for"... free software has been growing over the years, but these sorts of things never seem to make the big global impact that the news reports they will. (Not saying this is a bad thing, though!)
In Soviet Russia GNU move to Linux
In Soviet Russia, Putin Linux you.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
Linux runs YOU!
Thus spake the master programmer:
"When the program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes." (Tao)
This isn't being done because Putin believes in the GNU manifesto or the free software hippy fest, but purely for no other reason than cheapness. This is highly likely going to be a proprietary fork just like Google does with their internal Ubuntu distro.
Putinix Desktop install you.
Although they might, I would speculate that their "specialized" distro will not be openly available. It's not like they are going to shutdown every computer in mother Russia in one night, load up ubuntu, and continue on their merry way. Think about ALL of the things that have to be changed, right down to the local government level. The training will be horrendous, and in a few years, they will more than likely be using windows again.
This is probably politically motivated. Getting away from American-based Microsoft.
Next to come: using Linux will be considered anti-American.
Proverbs 21:19
Forget the commie jokes here, it no longer applies. Russia is now a republic with real elections (usually more than one person on the ballot). While their government may be as corrupt as any is South America, the country is no longer a Marxist dictatorship.
Anyway, who would have thunk that the Linux world domination would start in the land of the Czars?
I am a true blue American and served my country during war time and ... yet... I find myself aligned more with Putin and his actions than with ANY political leader presently serving here in the USA. Perhaps, it is all publicity carefully crafted to make Putin look like something he is not, yet he seems to make so many choices that would parallel choices I would make if I were to be in his place.
What do other see that perhaps I am missing?
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Hmm... it must have something to do with the Stuxnet thing...
In Soviet Russia, the gov't wants YOU to use free/libre software!
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)
Did Putin really say "GNU/Linux" or just Linux?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Who let you out of your bunker?
If its not, someone will be going to the salt mines!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
And in other news, hundreds of top programmers in Russia have been summarily convicted of tax evasion and embezzlement, and have been sentenced to 20 years hard labor in the Siberian software mines.
What irony.
an ill wind that blows no good
I bet this is just political posturing so that MS will cough up more free SW and influence $$$ for their Bureau of State Software (BS SW for short...)
If history is any guide, the next move will be for Microsoft to offer an attractive discount.
In light of the Stuxnet virus and Iranian centrifuge sabotage , I'm surprised that the Russians didn't drop Microsoft sooner.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
I wonder which distro he uses personally? Or what Medvenev uses, since he's more geeky than Putin. Maybe Medvenev has already changed his iPhone 4G gifted by Steve Jobs with an Android based phone.
Just searched through the official documents (including those linked by the Russian news site). Not one document mentions "Linux" by name, but "free software" is apparently mentioned throughout. The Russian news article is the one that adds "Linux" to the mix.
It would be nice if "free software" translates into "Linux," but I see no document mandating its use - only personal commentary by a Russian news reporter.
Were you brain damaged on the battlefield perhaps? Putin's assassinates journalists, jails political prisoners (Khordokhovski among others), blackmails his neighbors with gas exports (Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Georgia), occupies Georgia, and enables Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea's nuclear programs. His propagandists make him look like an action hero, or one of the Village People. You, sir, are the definition of 'useful idiot'.
an ill wind that blows no good
Diden't MS sue even have people go to jail for useing linux and not paying for windows in Russia?
Could this be preparation for a Future Cyberwar? Makes sense that if you are going to release really virulent Viruses, Trojans, Spyware and other Malware into the wild, then you might want to be using a different Operating System than the one you are targeting! Even if you are just going to go the Stuxnet route, you would still want to be sure that your electric grid didn't get destroyed along with your opponents!
...free software has been waiting for?"
No. Free Software has not been waiting for anything.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
in soviet russia, linux uses YOU!
With the backing of Putin, could this be the breakthrough free software has been waiting for?
hahahah - a 200 million country is moving entirely to linux in government. what do you think ? and, there is no remorse, hesitation, or going back. for, comrade putin has ordered as thus ! i'd like to see microsoft try and cope up with this...
Read radical news here
?????
What are you trying to say?
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
I hope they comply with the GPL and make their source contributions publicly available. :)
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
Richard Stallman looks like Karl Marx?
Ok, Marxism is dead in Russia...joke doesn't work now. Still, I couldn't pass up the RMS reference...
Medvedev will continue to use Microsoft Windows to demonstrate he's really not Putin's puppet...
a single repository of free software used in the federal bodies of executive power
Part of the point of free software is that there are lots of repositories, and anyone who wants to create their own can do so. That phrase certainly sounds like a Soviet-style approach to a good idea about sharing.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Unfortunately, this move may reflect Microsoft's recent decision to give free licenses to NGOs in Russia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/europe/06russia.html
A favorite method of the Russian authorities for clamping down on NGOs was to accuse them of software piracy and raid their offices/confiscate computers.
Microsoft did the right thing by not allowing the Russian government to play that trick.
Now perhaps Putin is trying to make an example of a non-cooperative Western company.
REDhat/Linux
This is just more proof that free software is a virus. Communism lives in Russia, and lives in free software. Free is only free to a certain point, eventually you have to pay for it.
Yes, that's why they should use Windows, and thus support the British monarchy. God save King George!
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Not quite, MS threatened to sue people for using pirated copies of Windows. The end result, under Russian piracy laws, was a lengthy time in prison. Later, under criticism that MS was aiding in gross civil rights violations, the campaign to pursue those using illegal copies was dropped.
Yeah, I love Linux and so do most people here. But how the hell is Russia going to manage that LAN (assuming it's anything resembling a large enterprise of 10k+ machines)?
Really... there is nothing, I repeat NOTHING which is as robust or catered to large enterprise user/LAN management than Active Directory. This is one of the major reasons why large enterprises have not left Microsoft.
It's my impression that the Linux community just doesn't "get it". Am I wrong, or perhaps they're not even targeting business customers? Linux devs focus on creating a good desktop, but there's really so much more than that to consider.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
In soviet russia, computer install Linux on you!
Another case of lousy foreigners stealing American technology. Just like they stole our spacecraft and jet technology. And radar. Next thing you know, they'll have stolen our sushi and kung foo techniques too! At least we are assured that pizza and coffee will forever be known as ours!
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Actually he said to move to "Linux" if you look at the original text and the google translation. Someone with an agenda stuck a "GNU/" on the front of it.
Just to stir the pot a little, one of the big Linux cultural things I hear thrown about is that of choice and freedom, something that Russia will no longer have.
:)
I just find it ironic.
I've only ever done CUDA professionally on a Linux based cluster.
The photo of Putin at his desk shows him wearing a shirt and not brandishing a crossbow. Everything I thought I knew is a lie!
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
He's probably just playing hardball with Microsoft for a discount. You may notice that every time some country announces that it's moving to Linux, they inevitably announce, 3 months later, that they changed their mind and are sticking with Microsoft. Turns out if you're a country and you want a huge discount on Microsoft products, you just announce you're moving to Linux.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If they innovate with the hurd or the kernel-hackers they will have experts with insight deep into the system. But, they have to contribute their security enchantments for the complete group of coders to be able to go through their code checking for security hazards. Also, Russia has a geopolitical motive to make Linux better because the alternative is that other countries will send money to USA, and that could be bad for Russia. So, they will have to accept some freedom to get the best innovation. They should do like IBM does. IBM depends on Linux in their operations, so they hire a lot of people to fix Linux. The result is a higher market share that attracts more developers that leads to higher market shares. Economically this is called externalities. You pay to develop Linux because that means others will do the same. With crowds there are many free-riders, but there will always be people willing to contribute by their own free will or because they see the common good. And the beauty of OSS is that even the part of the crowd that wants to #""# up everything has their place. They make destructive software. And for every part of software they make, they make it harder and harder to access components that can harm systems. So they actually help out when trying to do bad stuff.
Novell eDirectory and ZENworks, Redhat RedHat Directory Server or 389 Directory Server, Apache DS, OpenLDAP Those are a few. Some are open source, others are not. Or it wouldn't be too tough to write their own, they have many with skills necessary to accomplish the task from scratch or reverse engineer what they like. They already have the source from Microsoft. Shouldn't be a big deal. IMHO.
"If Hitler invaded Hell," Churchill once remarked, "I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."
The USA has HOLLYWOODioso and ARMIOSO
Communist... postcommunistkleptocratic... just stick with Eevill Rooskies for constancy, people! :P
then yo will have an instant market for gaming.... the parent whose kid has it installed for his need a open office.... the kids in school will also need a home based pc ....
IF putin were smart he'd next get into the hardware and make pcs that do not come pre-installed with microcrap....in a a decade you'd have a technological powerhouse making cash off hard mostly and that can subsidize all the other things you need to pay for....
how is this different from the usa?
the soviets built and maintained there own tech sir in fact americans after the cold war went in and bought up quite a lot of that tech and guess whose using it now..... Kung foo is chinese in origins - communist pizza originates from italy WOW wonder whose stealing all the tech and stuff....
Putin loves freedom so much that he ordered everybody must use free software. Anybody caught using non-free software will get executed on the spot.
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
...have you heard of Samba and OpenLDAP perhaps?
MS helped the Russia gov legally via "anti-piracy raids" with Windows using NGO's who where critical of the Russian gov.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/europe/12raids.html?_r=2
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/01/1259203 from 2009. So I guess Russia is trying to do something similar? Maybe they will have better luck than the US has had. I really haven't seen the US move drastically away from proprietary software. But the politicians make it sound like they are going to change things drastically. I guess its hard to change big government over night. The policies sound great though, right?
Actually, very good for Linux growth, if it get's used in Russian Schools too.
I swear that Nginx has been a bit of a success. Thankfully it was looked over completely. http://wiki.nginx.org/Main
Software frees you!
I'm not fluent in technical Russian to be sure about this but Programnoe Obespechenie sounds to me like Software Security. Isn't this plan mainly about firewalls, VPNs, security audits and so one?
Of course Linux and OpenBSD are strong in those areas, but I would imagine companies like Cisco and MS could make their software open enough (to a select group of Russian experts) so that they would qualify as open software.
... more or less. Putin was president but when he joined the United Russia party, they clearly did not want him to be their candidate for President. Putin's current post as Chairman of the Government, colloquially called "Prime Minister" is a post appointed by the President much like the Secretary of State in the USA.
In fact, to really understand what Putin's role is you have to look at a country that maintains a "leader of the government" role and has a strong President as well, not a figurehead president like Canada's "Governor General" or Britain's "Monarch".
The important point is that in Russia the President is elected, but the Prime Minister is not. Putin is the head of the party, United Russia, that has a majority of elected representatives, so this may indicate that President's will typically appoint such a person to the role, however the President is not bound by any such rule. The only force acting on them is the same force that acts on presidents of the USA in that they can't appoint people to the highest roles in government unless the majority of political players more or less acquiesce. This is the same as any other country which has one person at the top of the political pyramid. Certainly, the elected people in the Russian government are elected in free and open elections that are as free and as open as in the USA. And candidates for president are not likely to get any serious number of votes unless they have the backing of a political party, and that means that they have to survive some sort of balloting within their party. This is democracy no matter how you slice it.
The sound you just heard was an executive chair flying through a window of the biggest office in Redmond. "I'll fscking kill Putin!"
I would recommend either reading up on Putin's quietly enthusiastic suppression of opposition, close ties with a circle of crony-capitalist plutocrats who did very well in the post-soviet privatization, and vaguely sinister cult of personality.
If you have already done that and still like him; I urgently suggest checking yourself for signs of closet authoritarian nationalism...
And that is different than Obama/Bush/Cheney (insert your own politician here)? Do you really believe that the US government hasn't perfected the suppression of opposition and they don't have close ties with their own capitalists? Their (the US) methods may be different, but they practice the same thing.
A new dictator - Linus was getting soft in his old-age, and RMS never really had the gravitas that Putin brings to the table...
Ken
Bah, the US has always been willing to hold its nose and do business with the likes of Pinochet, Samosa, Baby Doc, Marcos, Zia-ul-Haq, the Shah, Saddam, Mubarak, and assorted Sheikdom police states. Why continue to harangue the Russians?
For him, it's free beer that counts.
I think beer is something Putin drinks when he wants to sober up after a vodka bender.
Putin doesn't drink alcohol at all.
If it would stop marching together with neonazy in protest marches. Armbands with slightly distorted swastikas among democracy defenders produce not a small cognitive dissonance. Google for such opposition figures as Limonov, Russian National Unity etc, and yes democratic opposition are not ashamed to block with them. Fierce defense of billionaire oil-barons like Khodorkovsky don't help opposition either.
This might just be a reprisal for Microsoft granting free licenses to NGOs in an effort to prevent Russia using software licensing as a means to repress opposition groups. I wonder if it'll actually result in any actual change though or if it's just lipservice.
China has the source code of Windows so they can easily develop high quality malware to get confidential Russian documents. I think Putin is doing this to avoid Chinese (maybe USA too) attacks to their confidential information stored in computer systems
Mmm, This is very good news, the father of Socialism was a man called Jeremy Bentham, an 18th century philosopher whose basic credo was 'the maximum good for the maximum number of people' also called 'Utilitarianism'
Closed source operating systems are the total antithesis of this, yes you might say, but how do coders get paid, a silly question really, try asking how those in the armed forces get paid with the same tone of voice.
When Microsoft released Windows 95, had they waited a couple of years before releasing the source code, so they could make a decent profit on their hard work, they would have had millions of coders working on windows, no they found a fat cow to milk and conned everybody, by rebadging Windows 95 as Windows 98 then ME then 2000 then XP then Vista and last of all 7.
There are two ways to write a computer program 'top down' or 'bottom up' each method has its advantages and disadvantages.
'Bottom up' means each individual routine is written first, like a routine to poll the keyboard a routine to poll the mouse, another routine to calculate results and a routine to display those results, the final bit of the programme is to write a big loop that goes around calling each individual routine.
Bottom up means you will probably end up with a different program than you thought you would end up with. Bottom up is more evolutionary.
'Top down' The big control loop is written first then the individual routines are written.
'Top down' is tidier, quicker to write and more profitable.
'Bottom up' takes longer and is more messy, but most of the time you end up with a more powerful program.
UNIX is written bottom up and Windows is written top down.
There are programs in UNIX that are over 30 years old that have been improved and improved because people have had access to the source code, VI is a good example for this.
Companies like Microsoft do not want open source because they are basically selfish and greedy.
Chemistry used to be called alchemy, where researchers worked in secret and did not share there discoveries with others, then the scientific revolution happened when alchemists published and in doing so became chemists, why should computer software be any different?
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
In Soviet Russia software programs you.
Normally I ascribe all life to intelligent design, but in your case I'll make an exception.
I hate the free as in speech/beer distinction in FOSS. I always forget which one is why so then I try to use some logic "Okay... Of the Beer/Speech options, speech doesn't cost anything. So I guess that free as in speech is that the software costs nothing, free as in beer is that it is left up to you how you want to use it, modify it, whatever...".
Of course, that train of thought leads exactly to the wrong result (I think).
What better spokesman for Open Software than a PR-savvy tyrant who quietly has journalists murdered?
[header]
Point-missing Rieser FS joke goes here.
[footer]
Don't try to pin on capitalism what is actually corporatism. Capitalism is defined by the lack of government, certainly not the excess of it. We are talking about two of the most expensive, most powerful governments in history. By definition, a superpower government cannot possibly be "capitalist".
Above all, when government accepts a bribe from the "private" sector, it is done consciously and deliberately. Only government holds the key to corruption in government.
Putin can divide by Chuck Norris, multiple times...
It's neither here nor there for the actual Free Software movement itself because the Free Software movement transcends governments, nations, and other such trifles. So any new user of the Free Software is a welcome addition, but to say that it's a breakthrough people are waiting for is a bit much.
> What better spokesman for Open Software than a PR-savvy tyrant who quietly has journalists murdered?
You mean just like all those non-embedded journalists killed in Iraq during the reign of George Dubya the Second ?
Launch nuclear deterrent!
-Operation denied, are you root?
SUDO LAUNCH NUCLEAR DETERRENT!!!
-SUDO: command not found
help SUDO
-bash: help: no help topics match `SUDO'. Try `help help' or `man -k SUDO' or `info SUDO'.
help help
-help: help [-dms] [pattern ...]
Display information about builtin commands.
Displays brief summaries of builtin commands. If PATTERN is specified, gives detai...
Then all you see is a blinding white flash. ;-)
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
"One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
It is absolutely correct decision. It is not possible to know what is inside the compiled soft.
Besides the problem of a "monoculture" is very serious.
That would be not GNU/Linux but signed by federal authority KFB/Linux of FSB/Linux whatever you like.
Since they are frequently fall in the situation where arresting opposition leader laptops with encrypted home directory gives absolutely nothing to investigation.
So they choose to fix the problem at the root.
Next step would be prohibiting another distros since they are not "certified" for Russia.
Linux commanded into use by a hostile dictator. Linus may be a benevolent dictator, but Putin is a hard core, badass, murder you if you get in the way dictator. The old fashioned kind. Glad he's looking out for OSS.
Nice move from the russians but it's not like Linux is a small piece of software used by some dog punk anymore.
Putin & co have one singular motivation - to steal as much money as possible before they're kicked out. Linux makes it easier. See, relatively small percentage of people know about it (mostly nerds), so you can hire your own companies, pay them millions of dollars for free software and steal not the usual 30%, but ALL of the money paid. Brilliant.
There have been several cases over the last couple of years in which the Russian government has raided NGOs and civil society organizations and accused them of software licensing infractions. Since in Russia pirated versions of Windows are very common, this was a good way to disrupt dissident organizations without coming out and actually saying they were trying to close down these groups. Microsoft Russia aided and abetted them by pressing charges against these organizations. However, recently Microsoft has come under pressure from human rights groups in the US and Europe, and announced they would no longer cooperate with the Russian government in these matters (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/opinion/15wed2.html).
It wouldn't be out of character for Putin to be basically telling Microsoft, "OK, you won't play ball with us, we'll stop putting money in your pocket".
Several of the posters are correct in thinking that Russia's latest move towards Linux is a reaction against Microsoft, but it's not about license fees. It's about free speech; it's about politics. Recall that Microsoft recently dealt a major blow to Russia's attempts to suppress non-profit organizations who criticize the Kremlin. Case in point:
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/10/17/2241228/MS-Gives-Free-Licenses-To-Oppressed-Nonprofits
"Crude and slow, clansman. Your attack was no better than that of a clumsy child."
I can't find Sweeden on a map, either.
Having one software repository for Russia, allows a single point at which back doors can be inserted.
If everybody has to get their software from that one place. Most people are not in a position to check the source code, plus there may be "incentives" (backed by the KGB) not to tell others about any back doors you have found (similar to the USA and their SS^H^H Homeland Security agents).
It will become unpatriotic to use source code directly from outside Russia, apart from a few designated trusted individuals. You will find state organisations responsible for obtaining software and Russianizing it.
They will send back some patches, but it would pay to be very wary. Individual patches may be okay, but apparently unrelated patches may make it easier for the Russians to compromise non-Russian sites.
Mr. Solzhenitsyn never got a talk. It was straight to the Gulag for him.
Russia is one of the major producers of spam, malware, and other niceties. And I guess the local market is very important for those evil-doers. Do we really want them to put their targets on free software?
WTF? Where is Khodorkovsky?