Translated material
Freedom for software
The government is not against open source computer programs
Last week, the Ministry of Information and Communications hosted a meeting between First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and domestic companies - developers of free (i.e., freely distributed) software (software). They discussed, in particular, the use of the Linux operating system and the OpenOffice.org office application package in Russian schools. Based on the results of the event, we can conclude that the prospects for such software in Russia are quite good.There is every reason to call open source software a phenomenal phenomenon. Open source software is available to everyone, it is developed free of charge by programmers all over the world, spontaneously organized into working groups. These people are driven by a selfless desire for engineering creativity. The results of their work can be used without restrictions, including to create your own software products based on them. You can’t just assume the authorship of someone else’s program code. Companies that distribute free software make money from consulting, development and maintenance of software products.
The issue of using open source software has become relevant in our country this year, and not only and not so much for government agencies. Free software turned out to be the subject of interested discussion among the community of IT directors of companies. The bottom line of this discussion is this: Linux and OpenOffice provide protection from charges of copyright infringement for paid software, but those who use free software will have to spend time training users and prepare for the difficulties of maintaining software products.
The reason why IT directors turned to free software is primarily due to the sharp increase in law enforcement efforts against computer piracy. As soon as stealing Windows and Microsoft Office became truly dangerous, open source software (i.e., open source) turned out to be in demand.
Leonid Reiman, Minister of IT and Communications, when choosing software for schools and government agencies, behaved exactly like a cautious IT director. Our newspaper has already written that for the period until 2009, a package of paid software will be supplied to schools. Manufacturers, including Microsoft, Corel, Adobe, as well as domestic ABBYY, Kaspersky Lab, Dr. WEB and others went for big discounts. In the meantime, experimental operation of the free software package will be carried out in three volunteer regions (Tatarstan, Perm, Tomsk). Based on its results, in 2009 it is planned to finally create a package of open source programs intended for schools and government agencies. Mr. Reiman again outlined this plan at the mentioned meeting. What was new was the proposal to create a repository of freely distributed computer programs at the Center for the Development of the Information Society, of which the minister is a trustee.
Caution regarding free software is justified. It is known, for example, that in Volgograd they tried to use Linux, but then abandoned this idea and installed Windows. The experience of Brazil and China, as well as Munich, where free software is used in government agencies, is also contradictory and needs to be studied.
Domestic specialists successfully participate in the activities of the global open source community. Several successful companies were represented at the meeting - Infra-Resource LLC (participated in projects of the Turkish government), Linux Ink OJSC, Alt Linux, VNIINS OJSC (developer of special-purpose operating systems, including for the Ministry of Defense), Linux-online. Quite serious IT people spoke with Dmitry Medvedev. The meeting was not at all like last year’s illiterate speculations of a couple of deputies who advocated the abandonment of imported software in Russian government agencies. Still, the absence of paid software vendors affected the tone of the discussion; none of the speakers focused on the potential problems of using free software. However, they all spoke about the need to be gradual and voluntary when transferring schools and institutions to freely distributed open source software products. Dmitry Medvedev asked several times about the timing and received assurances that it was possible to develop a standard software package by 2009. The time required to create an infrastructure to support free software could not be estimated.
Alexander Tasev, head of the representative office of the American company Autodesk in the CIS, a person from the camp of paid software developers, whom we contacted for comment, believes that schoolchildren should study those software products that they will then have to use in their work. And you will most likely have to work with industrially developed programs. Mr. Tasev, however, has nothing against free software and even talks about the fact that Autodesk has open-sourced the codes of one of its products intended for creating web mapping applications. Moreover, he recognizes that free software is good in the sense that talented students can get involved in its development themselves by participating in the work of the open source community.