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/2008/10/14/americas-schools-held-hostage-by-microsoft/
22 comments:
hello steve,
a very good paper and a excellent reviews.
@+ petitbob
Very nicely written. I'll have to give this a test on my laptop.
"English is listed as: Ka3axcTaH" ... Kazakhstan?? They speak English in Kazakhstan?? :-) I don't mean to inpolite but this is either an error or a very funny bug. "English" should be something like "AHr/\uũccKuũ" ... In proper cyrillic letters (I don't know if these will be rendered correctly): "Английский"
Good to hear that gnu/linux is been in
Russian education system.
Makes very great sense for russia. No reliance on US tech, fosters home grown talent and kids will learn far more about computers than they ever would using windows
hi Steve,
99% of schools use now licensed Microsoft software, and Linux project is just a pilot project. It may well be closed down if Microsoft pays large enough bribe to the Russian government.
See the M$'s info:
http://www.microsoft.com/rus/news/issues/2008/09/extends_duration.mspx
60464 installations of Windows Vista, 62172 ones of Office 2007 are used in Russian schools now.
Russia suffers from lack of young teachers, too. I praise ALT Linux for its Russian interface and simplicity -- but anyway teachers would be slow to retrain from Windows to Linux.
@ scorp123 - I'll double check that I got that right, but I'm fairly sure I did.. I made a note of it when I was reviewing ALT so that others would not have the same initial problem I had. My Russian is non-existent, though I was able to guess at the correct buttons for a lot of the various controls and features because they're in the same places as they would be for an English language distro.
@ alexei - I am sure you are correct about Microsoft still exerting a lot of financial influence in Russia and elsewhere, and I am under no illusions that Open Source will not replace Windows overnight. However, there has to be a start made somewhere, and getting Linux into schools where it is used by bright young minds - the leaders of the future - seems as good a place to begin as any, in my view, and is to be encouraged.
@ the anonymous poster who didn't have the courage to leave his/her name on their political comment about Russia - this is a technology blog and, while I'll allow a degree of leeway on such comments on MY blog, your remarks were both cowardly and naive, hence I have rejected them. Don't bother me again, and I suggest you read a little more widely about the West's aggressive imperialistic nature - and, yes, I include my own country, the United Kingdom, in that statement.
Alexei,
yes, they (MS) fight back - but first, they now HAVE to fight back in order to at least hold the ground. Which is new.
And second, their margins are drying out. Gone the times when you could charge hundreds of dollars for Office licences.
I mentioned it in other comments, too: Here in Germany, I was told that MS PAYS for getting Windows XP pre-installed on netbooks. Yes, they PAY for this privilege :-) (it is likely called a marketing subsidy....)
In essence:If you, as a big licensee, are nowadays not able to get Windows basically for free and Office for more than 5 USD, you are clueless or did not even try to get a better price (which could have some reasons).
So FOSS has done a great job, either way.
Hey Steve,
Great article!
I am really pleased that an entire nation is learning to use Open Source from the root level. I hope others too join the revolution.
thumbs up to the Russian leadership!!
Microsoft will continue its high profile presence here in the US for some time to come, but worldwide there is a fundamental shake-up already in process - in Brazil and other areas of South America, India, China, and now Russia. And the EU doing its part to make sure there is fairness.
Big change is coming, not tomorrow, probably not next year, but it really seems unstoppable.
it should, and surely will, set an example for other countries, both developed and developing, in understanding the immense potential of Linux and Open Source as a whole in terms of cost reduction, reliance on country's own resources.....
hats off to these Russian Politicians who have the courage and will to break from the chains of proprietary softwares....
Thanks for a great article from ALT Linux Team!
I hope that's will bring good
new viruses, rootkits, and another usefull stuff)
It's strange to see that our government doing something right
nice article anyway
*MolbO is gone testing AltLinux
Regarding Linux and education, I take advantage of the paper to point you to the AbulEdu environment for schools. The project was started ten years ago by a teacher in a small school in France, and is now very mature, with many software for children from primary school to high school. It has already been localized in several languages (but not Russian, I guess), and is used worldwide. It is here :
http://www.abuledu.org/
Russian people with knowledge in French could easily localize it.
The DVD can be downloaded here :
http://gforge.ryxeo.com/frs/download.php/98/
What is interesting in this distro is that it comprises many educational software designed by teachers, not geeks (well, some of them are... ;-) ). These software can also be installed on other platforms (e.g. Windoze) :
http://www.abuledu.org/leterrier/accueil
Well, hope it gave you some interest in participating in the project and spreading localized versions of the software. :-)
f.p.
wwow, didn't know it though i live in russia ))
it's interesting, maybe in some next years instead of 'Linux, what's this' children will ask 'windows, what's this?' ))
Nice article, and even better news. But English is the de facto language of open source, so anyone who uses something else makes harder the participation of the international community, which is the only original strength of open source. This effort will probably whither and be left behind current developments in a few years, although will cover the needs of a certain niche (Russian schools) nicely. Sad development..
Hi Steve,
Ciaran O'Riordan here. A friend passed me this link and I found it very interesting but have some thoughts about approach.
One is that it read like an accepted fact that "Pirated software [...] costs Microsoft millions of dollars", but that's only if we assume that it's Microsoft's money, and if Russia doesn't buy Microsoft software it then must "owe" money to Microsoft.
A more important issue is how the new software is referred to: Open Source. This points readers toward the techy aspects (who wants source code?). The issue for Russia here is freedom, independence, sovereignty. So it might be useful to use the original name "free software" (1983), instead of the marketing term "open source" (1998) which was invented so that companies who make most of them money from proprietary software could talk about free software without raising any discussion points about computer users having any particular freedoms or rights.
The GNU website's philosophy section has some good articles about the issue of freedom and why "open source" misses the point.
Anyway, thanks for this article. I hope this reply is taken as a sign of appreciation.
@ Ciaran,
Firstly, many thanks for reading my article and taking the trouble to comment - and the same to everyone else who has left comments, it's very encouraging to me as a blogger.
To address Ciaran's point directly, he is probably correct in saying that a more accurate way of describing the Linux software being used in the Russian pilot scheme would be to use the term 'Free' rather than 'Open Source'.
However, I have come across this hoary old chestnut before and it always poses a problem - do you then interpret 'Free' to mean 'without financial cost' or does 'Free' mean 'containing nothing which contravenes the strict interpretation of freedom as outlined in the GPL etc'?
The problem, you see, is that many distributions, while being available without cost, do contain software and codecs which in the strictest sense are not free - they are proprietary: I refer to things like Nvidia and AMD/ATI video drivers, multimedia codecs etc.
The distribution being used in the Russian project, ALT Linux, does have some proprietary codecs available for users, so it cannot be 'free' in the legal sense, but it is free, as in 'without cost'!!
This is a minefield I have tiptoed through for some time and a while back I settled on using Linux/Open Source as the best of several complex options - but for this article I forgot myself, so apologies for that!
Steve,
With or without commenting, a lot of people read your blog, so keep up the good work.
My spine tingles at the prospect of mass upstream patches. This is a very good thing for GNU/Linux, even if the distro is never developed for anyone outside of Russia's borders.
Red Devil, one way of dealing with "free" is to link to the meaning.
While the ambiguity of the word is unfortunate, the message it sends in contrast to "open source" is much more effective once the meaning is made clear.
"Freedomware" is another I've heard that sends an accurate message.
@ Gnuosphere - thanks, that's a very sensible suggestion. I'll 'play' around with that idea next time I'm faced with the same problem.
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