Russian OS to be installed in every school (CNews)
The main aim of the given work is to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government."
Posted Sep 24, 2007 14:48 UTC (Mon)
by proski (subscriber, #104)
[Link] (8 responses)
Posted Sep 24, 2007 19:12 UTC (Mon)
by coriordan (guest, #7544)
[Link] (5 responses)
It won't be home users or corporations who do the Big Switch to free software, it'll be governments.
They're the ones who switch for the right reasons - sovereignty etc. It's happening all across Latin America, a few large parts of India, and some isolated parts of Europe.
Posted Sep 24, 2007 19:14 UTC (Mon)
by amikins (guest, #451)
[Link]
Posted Sep 24, 2007 19:38 UTC (Mon)
by muwlgr (guest, #35359)
[Link] (2 responses)
Posted Sep 24, 2007 20:12 UTC (Mon)
by foo-bar (guest, #22971)
[Link]
Posted Sep 24, 2007 20:55 UTC (Mon)
by coriordan (guest, #7544)
[Link]
Giving money to Microsoft is one common misuse of funds. At least by breaking that addiction, the public administration will be in a position where it's possible to use the funds correctly.
Posted Sep 24, 2007 20:40 UTC (Mon)
by jordanb (guest, #45668)
[Link]
Posted Sep 24, 2007 21:57 UTC (Mon)
by dmarti (subscriber, #11625)
[Link] (1 responses)
If a foreign country locks up one of your programmers for developing a tool that even law enforcement agencies used, wouldn't you want to be less dependent on that country's software?
Posted Sep 24, 2007 22:51 UTC (Mon)
by proski (subscriber, #104)
[Link]
However, let's be fair to Microsoft. I don't think they ever acted like Adobe. That's not to say that they cannot act like Adobe in the future if they choose to.
Posted Sep 24, 2007 19:38 UTC (Mon)
by gvy (guest, #11981)
[Link]
BTW a person from a ministry with the name I didn't remember was present at the summer conference in Obninsk organized by ALT Linux Ltd, and was speaking quite sane things as well.
What I really like is that the Russian version of the interview actually translates "free" correctly, "as in speech". The price is certainly an issue for Russian schools, but it's nice to see that somebody in the government understands that it's not only about price.
Correct meaning of "Free"
I think this is how we win.More to come
Not to mention bits and pieces in the United States in local government.More to come
I would not see that so rosy. That's post-Soviet state, so with its government going to coordinate that all, quite a lot of clever people will find a way to abuse and mispurpose funds collected and allocated for this. I live in neighbouring post-Soviet state, and so, know :>More to come
Whatever happens with the money, the end result will be schools getting Linux. The money is for extra localization, adaptation to the school environment and other non-critical work, it doesn't really matter if half of the money is wasted :-)More to come
Misuse of funds will happen no matter what software the government uses.Corruption is there anyway
I think you're right. For buisnesses free software is pretty much entirely about cost, they care very little about the actual freedoms. Even those who benefit from 'share and share alike' don't care about the user's freedom to run the software he pleases. With governments, though, *all* aspects of freedom are important for the purpose of preserving national sovereignty. More to come
Personally, I like "free as in Dmitry."
Correct meaning of "Free"
Indeed, DMCA and similar laws spoil the software vendors by allowing them to rely on the law where they should be relying solely on the code. No government or business should trust software that is legally exempt from criticism or reverse engineering for research purposes.
Correct meaning of "Free"
Pavel, I guess you can thank AEN for that spellchecking, too. :) Although many people are involved, naturally.spelling right