Over 20,000 municipal authorities are ready for the switch

Feb 11, 2016 15:35 GMT  ·  By

In an unexpected turn of events, it would appear that the Russian government is planning on moving all of their computers and IT infrastructure to a Linux kernel-based operating system, also known as GNU/Linux distribution.

There's nothing wrong with that, but how it happened is more interesting. Bloomberg interviewed Russian government's first ever Internet tsar, German Klimenko, about American technology companies, such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

In the 90-minute interview, Mr. Klimenko shares his thoughts on why Google and Apple should pay more taxes, and why replacing Microsoft Windows with a GNU/Linux operating system on the government's computers is a necessary measure.

Now, we're not going to go into any political details with this, as you can read Bloomberg's interview to get all that juicy stuff; that, of course, if you're interested in such things. We're more curious to know which Linux OS Russia is planning to use.

22,000 municipal authorities will switch to Linux

While most of the country is known to use Microsoft's Windows operating system, it looks like there are 22,000 municipal Russian governments ready to ditch Windows and move to an open source alternative.

If memory recalls, this is not the first time Russia plans on moving away from proprietary software, as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered government agencies back in 2010 to plan their migration to open-source software and an open-source operating system based on Linux by 2015.

It's 2016, so they better move to Linux quickly. Now, what else is there to say about all this turn of events? Welcome to the world of free software, Russia! Oh, and we can't wait for more Russian users to join our Linux community, where everything is free and there's always someone ready to answer any Linux-related question.