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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!
In Soviet Russia, Putin Linux you.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
Did Putin really say "GNU/Linux" or just Linux?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
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
The murder/arrest/expulsion of journalists and news sources who disagree with you? That's a big one for me.
I am become
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...
Like you, I'm an American vet, and what we fought for is still worth preserving, however tattered it may be.
Look, Putin is a very, very smart guy, and he's made a lot of decisions that have been good for Russia. But the problem is that the system under which he makes those decisions -- Tsarism in all but name -- depends on having the decisions made by someone smart who has his country's best interests in mind. Putin's not immortal, and if he's followed by someone with similarly autocratic powers, there's no way to know what he'll be like. All it takes is one bad absolute ruler to wreck any amount of progress made.
In the US, we can in fact limit the power of our leaders -- of course it doesn't work perfectly, and the current corporatocracy it seems like our "choices" at the ballot box don't matter a hell of a lot, but we do have a legal and non-violent mechanism by which we can replace our entire government in a period of no more than six years. Russia doesn't, not really; its electoral system is as firmly under government control as it ever was in the Soviet days. Which, as a lot of my older relatives can tell you, is pretty much the way things have always been in Russia, no matter the title of the guy in charge. Tsar, General Secretary, President, Prime Minister ... nothing really changes.
Corruption, gridlock, and general incompetence may be the practical result of our system most of the time, but historically, autocracy is a hell of a lot worse.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
...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.
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?
A coworker of mine rolled out several years ago a robust, audit hardened user management framework for Unix systems that does very well in audits that Active Directory routinely fails. This sits on an estimated 20k-30k Unix based systems of multiple flavors.
AD does not have a built in framework for account validation (asking appropriate authorities, does this account still need to exist?). The role based concepts are relatively primitive. There is no capability to preserve the authorization record for granting access. All of those concepts have to be added on.
Actually deploying accounts, nothing beats actual local accounts. The trick is to have a robust agent that actually manages those accounts.
I've reviewed some of the various enterprise grade products, and none of them did as well as this self-built product.
Most products for user management simply have no mind to the audits, only pretty pictures. There is rarely even any logging of value.
AD is really nothing more than LDAP + Kerberos with a pretty GUI. It simply should never be considered adequate in and of itself for user management because it does not address several key requirements of the area.
"I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend unto the death your right to say it." -- Voltaire