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Vladimir Putin Is Replacing Microsoft Programs With Domestic Software (bloomberg.com) 277

Posted by BeauHD from the state-sponsored-software dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Moscow city will replace Microsoft Corp. programs with domestic software on thousands of computers in answer to President Vladimir Putin's call for Russia's authorities to reduce dependence on foreign technology amid tensions with the U.S. and Europe. The city will initially replace Microsoft's Exchange Server and Outlook on 6,000 computers with an e-mail system installed by state-run carrier Rostelecom PJSC, Artem Yermolaev, head of information technology for Moscow, told reporters Tuesday. Moscow may expand deployment of the new software, developed by Russia's New Cloud Technologies, to as many as 600,000 computers and servers, and may also consider replacing Windows and Office, Yermolaev said. Putin is urging state entities and local companies to go domestic amid concerns over security and reliability after U.S. firms shut down paid services in Crimea following Russia's 2014 annexation. The plan poses a challenge to the likes of Microsoft, SAP SE and Oracle Corp. in the country's $3 billion software market. Adding to pressure, Putin's internet czar German Klimenko wants to raise taxes on U.S. technology companies to help Russian competitors such as Yandex NV and Mail.ru Group Ltd.
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Vladimir Putin Is Replacing Microsoft Programs With Domestic Software More

Vladimir Putin Is Replacing Microsoft Programs With Domestic Software

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  • can unintentionally do the right things: kick Microsoft's, SAP's et al.'s ass.

    • Replying to myself, alas. I see that the trolls and AC Putin/Trump supporters have taken over this thread. This is most unfortunate and wholly unintended.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

      can unintentionally do the right things: kick Microsoft's, SAP's et al.'s ass.

      ...and after defeating the nefarious Microsoft, SAP's, et al's. the tyrant and dictator would never replace them with software riddled with security loopholes and backdoors they could exploit, right?

      I know it's cool to hate big software companies, but at the very least they have better history of trying to maintain security and privacy than Russia of all places. Be careful who you you side with in this crusade.

      • I call this a win, just means it will be easier for our hackers to get into Russian systems and expose political secrets. As for the business side of it, I seriously doubt Russia paid for any of that software.

    • can unintentionally do the right things: kick Microsoft's, SAP's et al.'s ass.

      While it's a good first step, Russia should do the world a service on the OS front by backing efforts to make ReactOS a full fledged OS. Have 2 flavors - a win64 version that's fully compatible w/ Windows 7, and a win32 version that's fully compatible w/ XP. Make sure that Classic Shell runs on it, or better still, make it a part of the shell so that people can pick whichever UI they wanna work in.

  • So in Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:03AM (#52975725)

    ...domestic software replaces YOU, mr. Nadella ?!?

  • This will cost Microsoft a fortune (Score:5, Funny)

    by spywhere ( 824072 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:03AM (#52975727)
    They're going to lose the revenue from both of the Office licenses used by the Russian government...
    • I am only aware of this one... gc6j3-gtq62-fp876-94fbr-d3dx8

      Is there another one?

      (Seriously, it's an Office 2000 licence number, I typed it so often, I still remember it...)
      • anyone else remember the RQ2D3? or remember what this belonged to? 020736-428526-011875-6507
        good old days when no one called home
      • Lemme guess... You remember that number because you had to re-install your machine with Windows ME and Office2000 so many times?

  • They'll come crawling back (Score:5, Funny)

    by Guyle ( 79593 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:08AM (#52975755)

    Once the average Russian gets tired of their homegrown software crapping out on them they'll be begging for their Windows 98 workstations back.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • (Assuming Russia is going Linux,) can you tell me which of these came crawling back to Microsoft? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Come on baby (Score:5, Funny)

    by LichtSpektren ( 4201985 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:09AM (#52975761)
    Let it be called KremLinux and all is forgiven!

  • Suprise (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:13AM (#52975783) Homepage Journal
    The only surprise here is that Moscow was using Microsoft software at all. That sounds insane.

    • I wouldn't be too suprised (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sasparillascott ( 1267058 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:23AM (#52975825)
      Microsoft probably works with every government they sell their software into as far as spying on their citizens etc. (it only makes business sense since these guys control market access and Microsoft has never been a company to quibble over morals) - so I'm sure Microsoft and Mr. Putin's Russia were great partners up till now.

      Now Putin may be wary that Microsoft gives preferential treatment to the NSA (since we know they worked closely with them before thanks to Snowden) etc. or he may just be doing this for domestic consumption (he appears to do alot of this) since their economy is in a tailspin.

  • Let me foresee what will happen... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LostMonk ( 1839248 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:17AM (#52975797)

    Let me foresee what will happen... Putin will replace Microsoft programs with ripped off open-source software with minor UI and major back-doors updates;
    Then, with great patriotic pride, will pronounce the motherland's major step towards cleansing itself from western spying and corruption.

    • Re:Let me foresee what will happen... (Score:4, Informative)

      by guestapoo ( 4136621 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @10:23AM (#52976151)
      Base on RT's article [rt.com], the replacement is MyOffice [ncloudtech.com], a cloud-based, similar to Office 365 [merlion.com], running on browsers or as standalone applications for Window, Android, iOS.

    • Re:Let me foresee what will happen... (Score:5, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @10:27AM (#52976177) Homepage Journal

      It may surprise you to know that the Russians can and do write their own original software, some of it quite good. It's actually quite common, because even today support for non-Latin languages in western software can be quite poor. Japan and China also produce their own high quality office software and input translation utilities (for entering their languages using slightly modified QWERTY keyboards).

      • Re:Let me foresee what will happen... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @10:41AM (#52976261)

        And that a good part of the software sold by western companies is written by russian programmers. Seriously I am ashamed to be part of the tech community, because of the incredible stupidity and ignorance so-called "intelligent people" on forums like this show everytime in relation to Russia. And it is no surprise a lot of them live in "brainwashed" America.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          I am ashamed to be part of the tech community...

          I interpreted the original post as claiming Russia will slap a new facade on OSS and claim they "made it" without giving OSS credit. It may not be a dig against Russian programmers, but against Russian politicians who lie, or perhaps politicians in general, who, as we all well know in the USA, often take credit for what's not theirs and blame others for what is theirs. It's not just a Russian thing.

        • a good part of the software running in western companies is written by russian programmers.

          FTFY.

          Of course, most of them don't know it's there...

      • Oh, that's well known! ReactOS is an admirable project - too bad they haven't had more dedicated resources and goals devoted to it

    • Who knows... maybe they already have all the Microsoft source code.
      There are state sponsored hackers, right?

      • A country level agreement is often met with a request to provide source code for "their safety". CHina demands it when they purchase Citrix Licensing, Russia can demand it when they use it for government purposes. I doubt they would need to hack MS to get their code made available. enough zeros in the order price is more than enough to get what you want. This change besides being a thumbing of the nose to MS also supports alternatives which boost their local economy. This is a move to hurt the US financial

    • So, in Russia, software spies on YOU?

      Uh... where exactly is the reversal?

    • The GPL allows you to create modified version of the program without releasing the source, so long as you don't distribute. If they keep all the software inside the Russian government, they haven't distributed. So I don't think this can be called a rip-off.

    • And what exactly is the problem with that? Any sane and competent national government will want to run their operations with software that they fully control, and that has backdoors that only they have the key to.

      Of course, you can argue that any backdoors are dangerous because the wrong people could learn about them and exploit them, but we're talking about replacing Microsoft software here: that stuff is already known to have backdoors. Substituting software that you've audited to not have backdoors, an

  • Took them long to start building something of for (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dr.Flake ( 601029 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:18AM (#52975805)

    themselves,

    Would you feel comfortable if the White House, Wallstreet, DOD, DOJ, Police, Universities and Congress ran a complete Chinese software stack? Chinese routers, OS, Firewalls, Office, Mail, antivirus, etc etc.?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What if they ran on a set of hardware manufactured in China? That would be even worse!

    • From a hardware perspective (which can easily hide/mask mal intent) almost all of the hardware we purchase is difficult to trust. Add in the firmware added by the NSA for things like phones etc, and the saying only trust a source if you see the code. The same applies for hardware. I wish we could have open source hardware in more abundance.

  • This is called investing in your country and people. America, its government, and its corporations should take note.

  • Understanding the Vulnerabilities (Score:3)

    by lazarus ( 2879 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:28AM (#52975845) Journal

    It makes perfect sense to remove the same systems you target in other countries from your own server farms and run proprietary systems that are less widely known and understood.

  • I mean, really.

  • Absolute common sense (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:44AM (#52975919)

    All countries should do this. Use open standards to exchange information with other countries/businesses and develop their own software. Having local operating systems/programs helps expand local computing knowledge and lessens the likelihood of data theft via back doors etc.

    As an added benefit people would be forced to start exchanging data in open formats or their partners/customers simply won't be able to read the data.

    I's a healthy idea.

  • Hello, my name is Vladimir Putin. You may have seen my face, usually on the evening news, but not to worry; most of what you hear is true. Especially from that Snowden. I was shocked when I found out that your government does a lot of --how you say it, "dirty work" or "dirty laundry"? -- without asking for any of our help in these matters; your government firmly believes they are experts in these matters. Personally I have this to say: In Soviet Russia, Snowden is welcome to stay and ski. And here in Soviet

  • Come on Putin, as long as we're rebuilding the Soviet Union, bring ternary computing back for a second go-round!
  • Just saying... reinventing the wheel is hard and bug-prone.

  • Why not invade Redmond? It seems customary practice in Russia to take what you want by force.

    I'm sure some jerk could argue that Alaska was once Russian. That Washington isn't hat far away from Alaska. That Russia never sold Washington to the US. And that therefore...

    What a bunch of idiots. Regardless of the technology (I don't particularly like MS') you should know that coming up with an operating system, a desktop and usable applications is not an easy task. What's the Russian version be like? A ripo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JustNiz ( 692889 )

      >> you should know that coming up with an operating system, a desktop and usable applications is not an easy task.

      Thats why you just know they will be using Linux.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JustNiz ( 692889 )

      Because there's nothing in Redmond that the Russians want?

    • Regardless of the technology (I don't particularly like MS') you should know that coming up with an operating system, a desktop and usable applications is not an easy task.

      I find it very, very easy. I just go to linuxmint.com and look for the "download" link. Installing takes about 20 minutes tops. Much simpler, faster, and easier than messing with Windows. Updating my work computer to Win10 (not my choice) took ages.

      What's the Russian version be like?

      Probably some Linux distro with a new theme? What's

  • It seems only fair to me. Since Linux is named after Linus, the Russian version should be named after Putin.
    • Except that Linus is the first name, while Putin is the family name. So it should be more like Vlad the Compiler.

  • The Russian government should develop their own distro and should call Vladimix.

    Joke aside, it makes sense that that Russian government would want to, and should, switch away from Microsoft Windows; ensuring one's data security is important.

  • To be fair, in my 30 coding career, some of the top programmers I've ever studied and worked with were Russian. Their skill was just vastly, disproportionately better than any other peers and colleagues. No idea why. I'd actually look forward to Russian made software! Except for all the pesky back doors.

  • ....oh..wait...darn...they are in...Redmond, WA!

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