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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
2011 WILL be the year of the [Russian] Linux desktop!
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, Putin Linux you.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
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
Really, is there anything wrong with wanting cheapness and robustness?
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?
No, but don't try to veil this as some sort of win for the ideals of FOSS when it's not. It's a political play and nothing more.
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
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.
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.
What's wrong with that? Cheapness and efficiency are big parts of the "GNU manifesto" with enlightened self interest on the part of the users being key.
This is highly likely going to be a proprietary fork just like Google does with their internal Ubuntu distro.
Again, I don't see the problem. Google finds it cost effective to contribute back most of their changes because then they are incorporated into the main code base and the burden for maintaining a fork is greatly lessened. Realistically, I don't even see that Russia needs a fork or how it would benefit them. For Google, they like having a performance leg up for massively parrallel computing. Russia though, they mostly want servers and desktops and don't need a performance leg up. Likely they'll implement some proprietary applications, maybe even a security module or something, but for the most part there isn't a benefit to not giving the changes back and there is a cost.
Actually, it's probably just the opposite. After the BSD backdoor story and after the Wikileaks cables, maybe Russia is concerned about using Microsoft Windows. Of course, Microsoft would *never* work with the NSA/FBI/CIA/Control/Chaos on back-doors that undermine the security of Russia... I can't imaging why they would want their own operating system...
Celebrate failure, and then learn from it - Nolan Bushnell
I am not a simpleton who believes USA GOOD RUSSIA BAD, so I have no reason to think that the Russian gov't can actually make good use of FOSS, even if it doesn't support all of its ideals.
Is there a memo I missed that says any prime minister in the world can't possibly be supportive of some FOSS ideas such as ridding one's self from Microsoft's crap systems?
No matter the ulterior motives; wanting to get rid of Microsoft's systems is always a good thing.
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.
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
No, but don't try to veil this as some sort of win for the ideals of FOSS when it's not. It's a political play and nothing more.
I am not a simpleton who believes USA GOOD RUSSIA BAD,
Logical fallacy, false dichotomy. USA BAD, RUSSIA BAD.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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!
The ideals are winning, the ideals are what brought about cheap and good.
I should really stop talking to trolls.
...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.
Maybe you're right.
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.
No, but don't try to veil this as some sort of win for the ideals of FOSS when it's not. It's a political play and nothing more.
Most probably wouldn't care less about "ideals" winning - in practice, Open Source has already won.
What remains is Linux to start raking in desktop wins. And activity like this definitely helps more than some abstract victories about ideals.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
His reasons for wanting Linux based software is probably based on security.. Usually the code is available so it can be cleared as "safe". No black box's with foreign or criminal based backdoors for Putin..
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
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
Really, is there anything wrong with wanting cheapness and robustness?
With software, no.
With a girlfriend - most assuredly yes.
#DeleteChrome
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.
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.
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.
Really, is there anything wrong with wanting cheapness and robustness?
Other than it does not align with reality?
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?
They actually have access to Windows sources....
While I don't use/code any GPGPU programs, I know that gaming on Linux is iffy and Arch isn't very stable with their ATI drivers. Maybe it's only because I'm using Arch.
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.
Communist... postcommunistkleptocratic... just stick with Eevill Rooskies for constancy, people! :P
The "Windows sources" will save you from zero day USB stick efforts?
Fooling Russia into running Windows as the consumer/industrial OS is the way in, getting to read the unsafe MS code is just a selling point for bespoke gov projects.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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?
And activity like this definitely helps more than some abstract victories about ideals.
Really? Because most consumers are even going to know about this or care?
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!
The sound you just heard was an executive chair flying through a window of the biggest office in Redmond. "I'll fscking kill Putin!"
Actually, it's probably just the opposite. After the BSD backdoor story and after the Wikileaks cables, maybe Russia is concerned about using Microsoft Windows. Of course, Microsoft would *never* work with the NSA/FBI/CIA/Control/Chaos on back-doors that undermine the security of Russia... I can't imaging why they would want their own operating system...
I don't think Microsoft needs to work with the NSA/FBI/CIA, etc on making Windows unsecure. They seem to do a pretty good job keeping it that way all on their own.
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.
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.
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]
I think it was KAOS, from Get Smart, not Chaos. Slashdot would be nothing if not filled with pedantic types like me.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
Actually, it's probably just the opposite. After the BSD backdoor story and after the Wikileaks cables, maybe Russia is concerned about using Microsoft Windows. Of course, Microsoft would *never* work with the NSA/FBI/CIA/Control/Chaos on back-doors that undermine the security of Russia... I can't imaging why they would want their own operating system...
[dons tin foil hat] Do you think already having the source code to Windoof, and the source code to GNU/Linux, that the Russians may have based their choice on reasons other than licensing costs?
Mr. Solzhenitsyn never got a talk. It was straight to the Gulag for him.
You are mixing centuries here. Solzhenitsyn was sent to GULag by Stalin, in 1945 (for his criticism of Stalin.) He was released and acquitted in 1953. He started writing while in prison.
His conflict with the USSR's establishment (not just KGB) really began in 1963. But he was not arrested, though KGB watched him and stole some of his papers. Solzhenitsyn protested, with no success. All this "invisible war" lasted 10 years, with all sides being perfectly aware of each other. In 1974 his case was discussed by the Politburo (not KGB) and the decision was made to cancel his citizenship and eject him from the country. He was picked up, loaded into an airplane and shipped to Germany, all in two days.
All this is available here, for example.