07.21.10
Allegation: Organisation Close to Microsoft ‘Unlimited Potential’ (EDGI) Helps Derail GNU/Linux in Russian Schools
Summary: New anonymised paper is produced to make a case against GNU/Linux in schools and government corruption is said to influence decisions on operating systems
ON MANY occasions in the past we explained how Microsoft was preventing Russian schools from moving to GNU/Linux as planned. We last summarised this in March and one year ago we wrote about the "manuals" trick. Someone dropped some information and links for us last night. It concurs with what we learned before, but there is new evidence which is concrete. Below we have the raw logs. █
| mpak | hi all | Jul 21 03:22 |
|---|---|---|
| mpak | a couple of news from Russia | Jul 21 03:22 |
| mpak | Russian project of free software for school is endangered by a “group of experts” claiming that Linux and free software are not suitable for schools | Jul 21 03:23 |
| cubezzz3 | why unsuitable? | Jul 21 03:24 |
| mpak | they published a report where they claim that: | Jul 21 03:24 |
| mpak | - it is too difficult to install and setup | Jul 21 03:24 |
| mpak | - qualified techs needed to support and maintain it | Jul 21 03:25 |
| cubezzz3 | ridiculous | Jul 21 03:25 |
| mpak | - MFD and printers are not well supported | Jul 21 03:25 |
| mpak | - some software doesn’t work well | Jul 21 03:25 |
| cubezzz3 | my installs from 2004 are still fine | Jul 21 03:25 |
| cubezzz3 | MFD from HP are fine, others I’m not sure | Jul 21 03:26 |
| mpak | - no educational guides were made by the ministry of education | Jul 21 03:26 |
| cubezzz3 | anyways, I avoid MFD | Jul 21 03:26 |
| mpak | - existing educational guidelines are not aligned with the free software | Jul 21 03:26 |
| mpak | - MS office documents cannot be opened correctly | Jul 21 03:26 |
| cubezzz3 | it is a huge problem mpak | Jul 21 03:27 |
| cubezzz3 | so don’t use MS file formats  |
Jul 21 03:27 |
| cubezzz3 | very simple | Jul 21 03:27 |
| mpak | - teachers need additional training to use new software | Jul 21 03:27 |
| mpak | - etc | Jul 21 03:27 |
| cubezzz3 | how about some reasons on the other side? | Jul 21 03:27 |
| cubezzz3 | Microsoft -> Giving money to a U.S. company | Jul 21 03:27 |
| mpak | whole report is available here: http://www.infox.ru/infox/expert_judgement.pdf | Jul 21 03:27 |
| TechrightsBot | Title: Not a web page! Aborting application/pdf type .::. Size~: 0 KB | Jul 21 03:27 |
| cubezzz3 | that can’t really be too popular right? |
Jul 21 03:27 |
| cubezzz3 | OK | Jul 21 03:28 |
| mpak | can you see the link? Bot complains on me | Jul 21 03:28 |
| cubezzz3 | yes | Jul 21 03:28 |
| mpak | the report is in Russian, of course, it is 3mb pdf | Jul 21 03:28 |
| mpak | there is an article with a preliminary analysis of the report | Jul 21 03:28 |
| mpak | http://tiny.cc/v0a7f — Rus-to-Eng translation of the article | Jul 21 03:29 |
| TechrightsBot | Title: Google Translate .::. Size~: 1.01 KB | Jul 21 03:29 |
| cubezzz3 | ok, mpak first of all | Jul 21 03:29 |
| cubezzz3 | consider what the schools did _before_ MIcrosoft came along | Jul 21 03:29 |
| cubezzz3 | obviously they functioned OK right? | Jul 21 03:29 |
| cubezzz3 | so it’s definitely wrong to say you have to use MIcrosoft | Jul 21 03:29 |
| mpak | yep. | Jul 21 03:30 |
| mpak | so the article says that the report is largely “anonymous” | Jul 21 03:30 |
| mpak | people didn;t bother to put their names on it | Jul 21 03:30 |
| cubezzz3 | yeah |
Jul 21 03:30 |
| ender2070 | meaning they didnt want to | Jul 21 03:30 |
| cubezzz3 | they don’t want backlash | Jul 21 03:30 |
| cubezzz3 | we didn’t even use MIcrosoft when I was at school | Jul 21 03:31 |
| cubezzz3 | we used Commodore PETs | Jul 21 03:31 |
| cubezzz3 | Russia has good programmers | Jul 21 03:31 |
| DaemonFC | hmmm, the latest Chrome dev build truncates downloads to the first 40 MB  |
Jul 21 03:32 |
| mpak | but the organization that made it works closely with Microsoft on their Unlimited Potential program | Jul 21 03:32 |
| mpak | it* == report | Jul 21 03:32 |
| DaemonFC | Chromium it is then | Jul 21 03:32 |
| cubezzz3 | so there should be a healthy GNU/Linux or FOSS community in Russia I think | Jul 21 03:32 |
| ender2070 | chromium > chrome | Jul 21 03:32 |
| cubezzz3 | yeah so it’s basically bullshit |
Jul 21 03:32 |
| DaemonFC | cubezzz3: their government doesn’t frown on unlicensed sharing of Windows | Jul 21 03:32 |
| ender2070 | think of it like this, chromium is debian, chrome is ubuntu | Jul 21 03:32 |
| DaemonFC | so they probably all have Pirate XP user groups |
Jul 21 03:32 |
| cubezzz3 | well don’t break copy right law | Jul 21 03:32 |
| DaemonFC | it’s Russia | Jul 21 03:33 |
| DaemonFC | |
Jul 21 03:33 |
| cubezzz3 | well maybe, I don’t know | Jul 21 03:33 |
| cubezzz3 | Lots of European Linux people | Jul 21 03:33 |
| ender2070 | you kidding? | Jul 21 03:33 |
| ender2070 | they almost threw a teacher into a gulag | Jul 21 03:33 |
| cubezzz3 | Russia is a big part of Europe | Jul 21 03:33 |
| ender2070 | for pirating microsoft products | Jul 21 03:33 |
| mpak | guys, please see it this way: government in Russia is very corrupted | Jul 21 03:34 |
| cubezzz3 | mpak, no text? Then I can use google translate | Jul 21 03:34 |
| DaemonFC | doesn’t Russia have that big MP3 site the government won’t shut down | Jul 21 03:34 |
| DaemonFC | that’s selling unlicensed music | Jul 21 03:34 |
| mpak | they will use any means to get more money | Jul 21 03:34 |
| ender2070 | thats gone | Jul 21 03:34 |
| cubezzz3 | ok, so why give money to Microsoft? Save your money | Jul 21 03:34 |
| cubezzz3 | easy |
Jul 21 03:34 |
| mpak | hah, it is a usual scheme | Jul 21 03:35 |
| cubezzz3 | Canada isn’t any better | Jul 21 03:35 |
| cubezzz3 | we are like Microsoft North here | Jul 21 03:35 |
| mpak | you’re government official, you pay money from budget to some company to buy their products, this company pays you back 30% in cash | Jul 21 03:35 |
| mpak | that’s how it works in Russia | Jul 21 03:36 |
| cubezzz3 | ok, but that is still 70% to Microsoft | Jul 21 03:36 |
| cubezzz3 | yeah, I get it | Jul 21 03:36 |
| mpak | if Microsoft wins this school project, Microsoft will receive just 70% of money, and 30% will be stolen | Jul 21 03:36 |
| cubezzz3 | we didn’t have that problem before | Jul 21 03:37 |
| mpak | 30% is just an example. in real life it could be 10% to company and 90% stolen | Jul 21 03:37 |
| cubezzz3 | yes, that is a problem | Jul 21 03:37 |
| cubezzz3 | many many systems better than Microsoft though | Jul 21 03:37 |
| mpak | if the organization that made the report will convince government to push MS-oriented program | Jul 21 03:37 |
| cubezzz3 | why pick the worst? | Jul 21 03:38 |
| mpak | they will receive more money and wil be able to steal a half | Jul 21 03:38 |
| cubezzz3 | see, that is not a philosophical problem like open source/ closed source | Jul 21 03:39 |
| cubezzz3 | it is a social problem | Jul 21 03:39 |
| cubezzz3 | a people problem | Jul 21 03:39 |
| cubezzz3 | well you can complain to the government I suppose | Jul 21 03:39 |
| DaemonFC | Microsoft even made it so that Windows 7 ultimate will accept any language pack | Jul 21 03:39 |
| DaemonFC | it’s practically gift wrapped for pirates |
Jul 21 03:40 |
| mpak | i will complain to the government that the government steals money? |
Jul 21 03:40 |
| cubezzz3 | I complained to CBC, government of Canada and my municipal government too |
Jul 21 03:40 |
| cubezzz3 | heh | Jul 21 03:40 |
| cubezzz3 | sure complain to the newspapers | Jul 21 03:41 |
| cubezzz3 | complain to the radio stations | Jul 21 03:41 |
| cubezzz3 | I fixed my councilman’s computer one time so he had to listen to me | Jul 21 03:41 |
| cubezzz3 | at least they used pdf | Jul 21 03:41 |
| mpak | oh, i need to fix someone’s computer then ) |
Jul 21 03:42 |
| mpak | it is not them, it is a newspaper that get the report | Jul 21 03:42 |
| mpak | the report was in paper form | Jul 21 03:42 |
| DaemonFC | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtHiut6hzTg | Jul 21 03:42 |
| TechrightsBot | Title: YouTube- KEEP YOUR STUPID KIDS OFF THE INTERNET .::. Size~: 105.16 KB | Jul 21 03:42 |
| DaemonFC | Windows 7 Ultimate with Canadian language pack | Jul 21 03:42 |
| *DaemonFC hands one to cubezzz3 | Jul 21 03:42 | |
| DaemonFC | eh? | Jul 21 03:42 |
| *cubezzz3 sits on it | Jul 21 03:43 | |
| *mpak puts a cup of coffee on it | Jul 21 03:43 | |
| cubezzz3 | dude, I’m the last person on the planet to use windows 7 | Jul 21 03:43 |
| DaemonFC | cubezzz3: You love Windows 7 | Jul 21 03:43 |
| DaemonFC | and you know it | Jul 21 03:43 |
| cubezzz3 | I’ll tell you what | Jul 21 03:43 |
| mpak | yeah, hypnotize him | Jul 21 03:43 |
| cubezzz3 | you make it work on my 486 and I’ll use it | Jul 21 03:44 |
| cubezzz3 | no cdrom drive |
Jul 21 03:44 |
| DaemonFC | but it DOES work on a 486 | Jul 21 03:44 |
| *DaemonFC waves his hand in front of cubezzz3 | Jul 21 03:44 | |
| ender2070 | overclock it to 800mhz | Jul 21 03:44 |
| ender2070 | give it 512 mb ram | Jul 21 03:44 |
| DaemonFC | This is the operating system you’re looking for | Jul 21 03:44 |
| ender2070 | it’ll work then | Jul 21 03:44 |
| cubezzz3 | even windows 2 sucked | Jul 21 03:44 |
| DaemonFC | you WILL buy new hardware | Jul 21 03:44 |
| cubezzz3 | and every version after that | Jul 21 03:44 |
| cubezzz3 | jedi tricks don’t work on me, only money! | Jul 21 03:44 |
| DaemonFC | you HAVE money | Jul 21 03:45 |
| ender2070 | what if you received a free legit copy? | Jul 21 03:45 |
| cubezzz3 | yeah but I don’t spend it on Microsoft products | Jul 21 03:45 |
| mpak | http://tiny.cc/j8uwb | Jul 21 03:45 |
| *DaemonFC dumps out his monopoly box set and hands the money to cubezzz3 | Jul 21 03:45 | |
| DaemonFC | you guys use that stuff up there, right? | Jul 21 03:45 |
| mpak | sorry about the previous link | Jul 21 03:46 |
| cubezzz3 | lol | Jul 21 03:46 |
| mpak | it was http://tinyurl.com/2arjpgf | Jul 21 03:46 |
| TechrightsBot | Title: korobkin: Forefront Security for what it is worth .::. Size~: 31.52 KB | Jul 21 03:47 |
| *DaemonFC wonders if the Canadian serial killers are polite | Jul 21 03:47 | |
| DaemonFC | shame this isn’t 1990, I could get a Canadian hitman for half price | Jul 21 03:47 |
| DaemonFC | have him whack the neighbors | Jul 21 03:47 |
| DaemonFC | with a hockey stick | Jul 21 03:47 |
| DaemonFC | or maybe let his hockey hair devour them whole | Jul 21 03:47 |
| DaemonFC | bones and all | Jul 21 03:47 |
| DaemonFC |  |
Jul 21 03:47 |
| mpak | ok, have a good day guys | Jul 21 03:48 |
Needs Sunlight said,
July 21, 2010 at 8:09 am
Even the most cynical of you would not believe the effort made to prevent skilled people from even getting near the project and the tricks used to delay and undermine the feeble efforts that were allowed. It’s a lot like the OOXML scandals used to fight ODF and not limited to Russia.
The original plan was that by 2009, all computers in Russian schools are to be run on Linux
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
July 21st, 2010 at 8:18 am
They didn’t know what they were up against (Microsoft, not Windows).