As in a skillful one-upsmanship, the Russian government most recently announced it is working to create a national operating system for all it's schools.
Some believe that this instrumental leap forward - Russia's race to enter the first world economy by means of a bolstered education system is in direct response to India's most recent announcement that it is making Linux compulsory in schools.
the Russian government is working to create a national operating system for schools:
Russian OS is to be installed on every school computer in Russia by 2009. Furthermore, every pupil will get the opportunity to operate the applied software produced in Russia, Leonid Reiman, acting Minister of Communication stated at a press conference.
Experts and market participants consider the terms within which software is to be developed quite reasonable. According to Mr. Reiman, that might significantly reduce Russian dependence on foreign software.
" The question of coarse is at what level does state control of the infrastructure increase innovation as opposed to stifle it."
Linux Today reader Artem Vakhitov notes that the project is probably not as ambitious as the Minister stated. As he understands it, “several Russian Linux vendors and solution providers, including ALTLinux, formed an alliance to jointly participate in a bid to develop and implement a FOSS operating system and necessary software packages for Russian schools.” There is no guarantee that the government will actually move ahead with the plan. (See the ALT Linux statement…)
