Russia's Open Source Revolution

[LinuxMint-4]

Russia's Open Source Revolution

http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com ... ution.html

WHAT does Microsoft do when someone says: No, sorry, we do not want to use your software any more. If that someone is a small business operating in an increasingly cut-throat world, a great deal of pressure can be brought to bear on them to fall into line.

But what if that someone is a whole nation, and that whole nation happens to be a world superpower with the resources and will to forge its own, alternative route to technological competitiveness?

This is what has happened to Microsoft in Russia, and it all started with a school teacher. Back in 2007, Aleksandr Ponosov (pictured below right), the headmaster of a village school in Sepych, in the Perm region of Russia, was arrested for running unlicensed copies of Microsoft software on his school's computers.

It has been reported that no less than Vladimir Putin himself intervened to get the charges thrown out; had he not, Posonov was facing up to five years in jail.

Pirated software is a major global problem which costs Microsoft millions of dollars, and Russia has played its part in that problem, but what followed the Posonov scandal could surely not have been foreseen in Redmond.

Rather than pay massive licensing costs to legitimise the country's Microsoft software, then deputy prime minister (now President) Dmitry Medvedev decided on an altogether more radical route - to use Open Source, Linux-based software in all Russia's schools.

Given the sheer scale of the country and the amount of planning, training and resources required, it is a massive enterprise.

Indeed, Medvedev has set Russia on the path to a much wider use of Open Source software: He intends it to be used across the board in the public sector and has set a completion date for the project of 2010.

There are a number of benefits to be had from Russia taking this route: No licensing costs to pay, the accelerated development of its own IT sector and the end of its reliance on software produced by its great rival, America.

I recently returned from a five-day trip to Russia - more specifically, to Kazan, the capital of the autonomous republic of Tatarstan, which is one of three regions (Tomsk and, ironically, Posonov's Perm are the others) taking part in a trial of Linux-based software in schools.

The $2.7million contract to supply the Linux system was won by a diverse consortium led by Armada, one of Russia's biggest IT companies.

Also part of the consortium is ALT Linux, rapidly emerging as a serious force in the world of Linux distributions (and of which, more later), Linux Ink - developer of SciLinux - and system integrators RAMEK and NCIT.

By September of this year Armada reported that Linux software had been installed in 1092 schools in the three trial areas, while a further 200 schools from outside the trial regions had also expressed an interest in testing the Open Source operating systems being developed by ALT Linux.

Of course, introducing Linux into an entire education system is not simply a matter of turning up with a few installation disks: There are complex logistical issues, teacher and student training programmes and support structures to get in place first.

Igor Gorbatov, deputy general director of the Armada group of companies, said recently: "The project has not only developed a set of distributions, but a complete infrastructure development, able to respond to queries from schools and produce distribution upgrade with a full compilation of source code."

While Leonid Soms, CEO of Linux Ink, added: "The increase in the number of schools using the (new operating systems) will no doubt give new impetus to the development of new programs to further improve them, will contribute to the expansion package for students and increase its functionality."

The distribution at the heart of this project, ALT Linux, was founded in 2001 by a merger of two large Russian free software projects and by this year it had grown into a large organisation developing and deploying free software, writing documentation and technical literature, supporting users and developing custom products.
ALT Linux produces different types of distributions for various purposes: There are desktop distributions for home and office computers, for corporate servers, universal distributions that include a wide variety of development tools and documentation, certified products, educational distributions and distributions for low-powered computers.

ALT Linux has its own development infrastructure and repository called Sisyphus, which provides the base for all the different editions.

Coverage of ALT Linux in the West remains sparse: Susan Linton, owner and operator of Tuxmachines.org, reviewed version 4.0 of the distribution for Linux.com back in September of 2007 and was generally complimentary in her assessment of its suitability for users outside Russia.

So I was most interested to see the recent appearance of ALT Linux 4.1 Desktop appear in the Distrowatch.com new releases list.

Here is what the Distrowatch release notes revealed about ALT Linux:

Alexey Rusakov has announced the release of ALT Linux 4.1 "Desktop" edition, a general-purpose GNU/Linux distribution intended for use on desktops, laptops and netbooks: "We're happy to announce our new release, ALT Linux 4.1 'Desktop'. Changes since version 4.0: based on the new stable 4.1 repository branch; 2.6.25 kernel with better hardware support; KDE 3.5.10 (GNOME 2.22 and Xfce 4.4.2 can be installed from DVD); Firefox 3; NetworkManager allows managing any network interface without root privileges; a new look of the system management center; updated bootloader and display management modules; Kaffeine as the default player of audio and video files; updated and revised menu; new applications - QtEmu (QEMU with a GUI), VirtualBox.

I downloaded the live CD ISO and burned it to a disk so I could take ALT Linux for a trial run myself. Here is what I found.

Unless you speak Russian, you will need to be quick at the initial boot screen to select a different language by hitting the F2 button - but there is a slight problem, all the alternative languages are written in Russian Cyrillic script! To help, English is listed as: Ka3axcTaH.

There is also the option of hitting the F3 button to select your screen resolution but, strangely, the only option available is 800x600. On my first test, on a desktop Pentium 4 machine with 1GB RAM and using a 1280x1024 resolution 19inch LCD monitor I was stuck with 800x600 once the desktop loaded, and nothing I did would change it.

However, when I tried the live CD on my Dell Latitude X1 laptop the correct desktop resolution, 1280x768, was set up.

ALT Linux 4.1 presents a nice first impression: The light, fresh KDE 3.5 desktop is inviting and looks professional. My initial test on the desktop machine was short-lived - I really could not handle the 800x600 resolution - but in that short time I was pleased to find both my wired ethernet network and sound automatically configured.The bulk of my time with ALT Linux has been spent on the Latitude X1, which is a modestly-equipped machine with just a 1.1GHz Intel Centrino mobile processor, 512MB of RAM and an external DVD/CDRW drive.

Given the X1's modest specifications, I have been very pleasantly surprised with the speed of ALT Linux: Applications load quickly, accessing menus does not induce the usual live CD slow-down and ALT seems to be a solid, stable distribution.

My 8GB USB memory stick was immediately mounted and I was able to access it through Konqueror; I have had no difficulty playing an AVI video and MP3 music fron the USB stick with no noticeable lag, which is good going for a live CD/USB memory stick combination.Both my sound and my X1's trackpad were automatically configured, but the same could not be said for my network. The X1 has Intel/PRO Wireless wi-fi but this was not even detected by the live CD. Plus, repeated attempts to launch network Manager resulted in long period of watching KDE's bouncy-cursor and.. nothing.

I tried loading the nm-applet from a terminal - nothing - and had no success with the KDE panel NM applet either. This was a major disappointment - the Intel/PRO Wireless chipset is very common in modern laptops and I would expect pretty much every recent distribution to work with it.

Pleasingly, however, after a few minutes of configuration I was able to get online using my Huawei E220 USB mobile broadband dongle in conjunction with the KPPP dial-up internet tool (connected to the 3 mobile broadband network).There is a very good selection of default software on the ALT Linux live CD: KDE games; Inkscape; Xsane; GIMP; KPDF; digiKam; UFRaw (for editing RAW images); Panorama Maker; Firefox 3.0; Thunderbird; KTorrent; Kopete; Konqueror; kaffeine; K3b; OpenOffice.org 3.0.

ALT Linux is well-equipped with configuration utilities, too: There is a System Management Centre which contains sections dealing with System, Date/Time, Users, Network and Graphical configuration issues. I would like to see the package management - handled with Synaptic and using RPMs - included here, too, making a more rounded control centre.Also, if ALT Linux is to make ground outside Russia the developers need to make their documentation available in languages other than the Russian version available on the desktop - and there needs to be at least an English-language forum available.

Of course, being a distribution dedicated to serving the Russian populace, they may well see these issues as being well down their list of priorities and, frankly, I would not blame them.

From what I have seen and experienced of ALT Linux, it appears to be a first class platform on which to build a strong, flexible network of Linux-driven computers.

I shall be watching the Russian schools experiment, and ALT Linux in particular, very closely in the future. I suggest that if you have an interest in the future of Linux/Free Open Source software, you might like to as well.

Related reading: http://beginlinux.wordpress.com/2008/10 ... microsoft/

[Patrick]

As more and more developing nations become partners with the industrialized nations the crack down on piracy will become more prevalent. F/OSS really is a no brainer.

[LinuxMint-4]

A slight clarification.....The story dates back to 2007 and this is a follow up/progress of how everything is going.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19th of September 2007, 09:35 GMT


http://news.softpedia.com/news/Russian- ... 6072.shtml

Russian Linux Will Be Installed in Every School
Pupils will operate with open-source


By Daniel Voicu, Linux Editor




A Linux operating system will be installed on every school computer in Russia until 2009. Moreover, every pupil will have the opportunity to use software produced in Russia. This could significantly reduce Russia's dependence on foreign commercial
software.

Leonid Reiman, acting Minister of Communication, considers the development of the Russian operating system and software development of vital importance. In a press conference, he said: "In 2008 Russian software is to be tested in three pilot regions, i.e. Tomsk region, Perm Regions and Republic of Tatarstan. While by 2009 domestic software is to be installed on every school computer".

Sergey Shalmanov, CNews Analytics Analyst commonets on the existing model for the use of software in education in Russia: "The historically existing model to use software in education in Russia is sure to fail. It has already lost some of its advantages because of widely spread illegal practically free Miscrosoft software. The existing practice to install Windows software on school computers is not profitable both economically, because of discounts for client license, and strategically as it initially ties a young user to the platform and products of one company, although very popular and convenient in operation."

The ALTLinux company has already announced its desire to put in a bid for the tender to develop alternative software. Alexey Smirnov, Director General at ALTLinux, considers that the developers should just adjust the given operating system to school conditions. In this way, the work will be finished by the end of this year and the testing will be done in 2008, launching it into mass production in 2009.

Alexey Novodvorsky, ALTLinux Deputy Director General, believes that the creation of a national infrastructure for development, support and information will be needed, and the cooperation between the software developers, authorities and educational institutions is of great importance.

[allix]

This is no surprise, linux has been very big in russia .