Linux vs Windows - Conquering a Windows Based World

In an attempt to reduce licensing fees of existing software, by 2009 all school children in Russia are to be taught using the free and open source software Linux . It will be tested first in three pilot regions, while other regions will have the option to use it as a second operating system.

” Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux, said that schools formerly tended to run illegal copies of Microsoft operating systems, but after Russia entered the WTO, the laws became much stricter and schools began to be prosecuted for doing so.”

Could be a lot of political positioning with this effort, nonetheless, it is one huge migration to keep an eye on.

This snowball started when the police arrested a Sepich headmaster who bought a computer with Windows, that was apparently pirated. So instead of going after the group selling the PC’s they arrested the end user. As you can imagine Schools in the i Perm region are now using Linux rather than Windows for fear of the Gulag.

Schools in the Perm region will soon quit buying software from commercial companies, said the region’s Education Minister Nikolay Karpushin. The announcement was made in line with the report on ensuring ‘license purity’ in the region’s schools.

According to Karpushin, schools would start using freely distributed software like the Linux OS, Russky office and Open office desktop apps, Ekho Moskvi reports.

Nice.