Is Russia seeking control of young minds through Linux?

In an attempt to reduce its dependence on foreign software, Russia is planning to install its own version of Linux on school children's desktops across the country, according to CNews. Fantastic, right? Well, all that glitters is not gold.

Leonid Reiman, RF acting Minister of Communication states Russian OS and application program package development is of vital importance,...[with] [t]he main aim of the given work [being] 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....

"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."

I like the rhetoric. I believe that choice is good. But that is precisely why I'm concerned by how Russia is playing this Linux card. If the idea is to save money, as Christopher Dawson of ZDNet points out, then Russia would be better off using existing Linux distributions like Edubuntu or OpenSUSE, both of which have been customized for the education market.

More importantly, I don't trust that this is about choice. Instead, it seems to be more about control, as Marc Wagner notes. It smacks of statism to me. It's perfectly acceptable for a government to settle upon a standard to promote. My concern is that Russia will devolve into imposing this standard, rather than merely suggesting it.

I don't like forced open source any more than I like forced closed source. Choice is good. Let's hope Russia remembers this.

[seethenet27]

Not a chance

The thesis of the article makes no sense. All school districts work by decree. Take a look at any of the US school districts, and how they are run, on any aspect of ongoing operations, including IT and yes, the OS used by students (when they even have access to computers at school.)

School districts ARE statism, to use the term the article mentions. It's not a Russian thing, it is a USA, and perhaps a world thing. THe Russian edict to take a look at Open Source, for school districts makes sense, and it is not only Russia that is looking at it. It has nothing to do with "controlling" young minds. The OS used has nothing to do with course material and state propaganda, whether in US or Russian schools.

THis article had a provocative headline and an article that did not back it up.

[john16911]

your real intention

You should know linux is nothing new in the educational world. which bring me to the real issue. why do you even bring such a ridiculous contention. unless your backers think that they should hook russia to the american microsoft co. to train the young generation to use this product so they will continue to spread it in their future careers, to other countries including russia and spread this closed source OS that could easily have hidden backdoor code (see the statement below) infinitely easier to do wholesale eavesdropping on a country while making billions if dollars doing it.

"The recent incident of "backdoors" in Microsoft software is indicative of a fundamental problem that electronic commerce will need to address very soon," Jerry Harold, president & co-founder of NetSec, told SOURCES in an interview. "Commercial software generally is built for functionality and is based on proprietary code that is developed and tested behind closed doors. Even if Microsoft has stringent internal requirements for software assurance, it's very difficult to catch a backdoor that may be hidden by a single coder deep inside hundreds of thousands of lines of code," said Harold, who previously was a computer security engineer for the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

[wyzanimal]

WAKE UP WORLD--Putin is a Bad Man.

This theory IS plausible. Putin has been tying very hard to regain Russia's once powerful and threatening place in a cold war world. STATE CONTROL is an absolute necessity in that endeavor; just look at how many of his critics have suddenly died recently. He virtually controls the Russian media now. A Putin version of Linux OS could of course be used as a first step in an endeavor to begin again the brainwashing of Soviet youth with pro Putin, anti west propaganda....did I say Soviet youth? It Seems that?s where Putin has us headed.

[john16911]

wake up world???

The easiest place to start would first be YOURSELF. you seem to be just another brainwashed american voraciously consuming whatever is propaganda is put on your plate and regurgitating them as facts like a model consumer you are. yuo must be getting your ques from your president bush does all the time. he just like yourself is unequaled in reciting "facts". i know you are too far gone to even begin to understand what i just said. for the one who still have a shred of sanity left. All one has to do is to replace russia and putin with us and us government and you get the pretty accurate picture of todays reality and not your world full of fantasy speak.

[Matt Asay]

Brainwashed, no, but concerned, yes

I take the point below that all education is statist (at least, public education). But we're talking about a country without a long history of freedom/democracy, and one that Putin is increasingly discarding in favor of control. I'd rather that schools exercise the choice they have now (even when that includes pirating Windows) than to have the government dictating education...down to the operating system people are using. As my former professor, Larry Lessig, has said, "Code is law." It's one thing to dictate what children must learn, but to also control the code that delivers it? That's a double measure of control that I don't think I'd want President Bush to have, much less Putin.

[ubergeek111]

And what about manga/anime's effect on us ?

Hey, everyone's (a) different, and (b) out for their own benefit. They are, we are, and probably the Chinese are too.

Should we be saying that Japanese are controlling/changing our minds through Anime/Manga (I believe that has been claimed) or is it a different point of view. On this topic, I find it's a different point of view and find most people Americans - so enjoy the world as is, and if you like anime/manga/inuyasha check out this site that I personally go to often - maybe you'll like it : www.JustExpressing.com

[wyzanimal]

Putin is X KGB--of course he want control

As a brainwashed American consumer I have access to all information from all over the world. MY News criticizes MY president daily, and no one is shot, poisoned or put in a mental hospital for doing so. I can use whatever OS system I please. Not so in Russia. This isn't baseless American propaganda, it?s a theory that Russian history is repeating itself with the blessings of the Russian people...AGAIN. John 16911, Please Google "Putin dictator, or Putin KGB or Putin critic, but hurry, because if you're a good little Russian, you may not be able to for very much longer. The Fantasy world is yours.

[AlexeyRusakov]

It is about local support

Matt, I understand that an opinion from Russia may sound not very trustworthy, but I believe it's better to have one. What you mentioned and cited is not the whole picture. Let me to add some details to it.
A few words about myself. I'm sure you've heard about Sisyphus repository (one of the largest OSS repositories in the world, the base of ALT Linux distributions); I'm maintaining GNOME in Sisyphus, but I don't work for ALT Linux company (yet). I think that's enough to position my further words correctly (of course, I will promote ALT Linux :)).
Yes, OpenSUSE and Edubuntu are distributions well-suited for education. But it's not clear about how well they go for Russian education.
The first concern is the set of software. Are there out-of-the-box in these distributions: Russian dictionaries? fully translated and setup educational toys and games for children? fully localized and setup tools to study geography? etc etc. Yes it is by all means possible to fix them in each and every place so that they suited our schools' needs. But it's time and money, while we already have (for quite some time) ALT Linux Junior distro that was successfully tried in some schools across Russia. And yes this distro has little to no proprietary components.
The other and actually the most important concern about "foreign-based" distributions is poor Russian-speaking communities around them. Distributions with Russian roots (such as ALT Linux and ASP Linux) have stronger communities, and you can always reach a certain package *developer* and explain in Russian what you want. Regarding school distributions, and given that English is not widely spoken in Russian suburbs :) this is a very important concern. Any considerable translation again takes time and/or money.
Given these two points, Edubuntu and OpenSuSE do not save money.
Now, to relieve your concern about control, I want to add the following detail: at the moment, there are already two competitors for the tender: one proposes ALT Linux, the other one proposes Mandriva. And there possibly will be more. So there will be a competition. If some local company wins and then starts playing bad ("imposing standards"), it will lose community and, very likely, developers (developers of GNU/Linux are quite sensitive about being free). RedFlag's experience has shown what happens in such situations, but in case of, e.g., Sisyphus it is always possible to fork away and establish another distribution. For schools, switching to the fork will be as easy as editing sources.list. So it's not a lock-in, and it's not that easy to impose standards if community and developers don't accept them.

[john16911]

I'm amazed...

wyzanimal, you can believe whatever you want. Even your ex CIA chief president and his lunatic son. I have one question for you though.

WHO DIED AND MADE YOU PEOPLE THE WORLD'S OPERATING SYSTEM POLICE. Haven't you done enough damage already?? you people are so completely ignorant and arrogant to think you have the god given right to critisize and control others even down to the point of choosing their OS while completely ingnoring your monumental shortcommings. you truly belong in an insane asylum.

Russians have an appropriate proverb that address your condition:
In another persons' eye one can notice even a mote, but in one's own - cannot see even a log.

the moral being: People usually easily notice other people's minor flaws, but don't notice their own flaws, no matter how serious.

to the effect notice out the log lodged in your eyes before noticing the grain of sand in others.