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Putin's Internet Czar Wants To Ban Windows On Government PCs

Posted by timothy on from the here's-where-czar-breaks-down-as-a-metaphor dept.

SmartAboutThings writes: The Russian government is allegedly looking to ban Microsoft's Windows operating system, increase taxes on foreign technology companies, develop its homegrown OS and encourage local tech companies to grow. All these proposals comes from German Klimenko, Vladimir Putin's new 'internet czar, as Bloomberg describes him. In a 90-minute interview, Klimenko said forcing Google and Apple to pay more taxes and banning Microsoft Windows from government computers are necessary measures, as he is trying to raise taxes on U.S. companies, thus helping local Russian competitors such as Yandex and Mail.ru.

2 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And? by buchner.johannes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly. With the privacy blunder Microsoft committed with Windows 10, plus its NSA collaboration, it is not unreasonable for other countries to ban Windows for government work and spend the money on alternatives.

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    NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  2. Re:And? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When the US government is in court with Microsoft over how they could use secret laws to claim Microsoft has to break the laws of other countries ... I fail to see how Microsoft, or any US company, can really be trusted.

    This seems an entirely prudent response from Russia. I'm actually surprised more companies aren't actively wondering just how much Microsoft and others can be controlled by the US government.

    When the US government is actively trying to ensure backdoors in encryption and the like, why would you assume there aren't any? You think these companies are going to make the international version with no US spying capabilities?

    Good luck with that.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.