The Russian government has threatened to nationalize or seize assets from several western companies that have halted operations in the country. Microsoft, Apple, BP, and McDonald's are among the companies that could be affected by the move.
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How is the government going to handle the use of public computers if Microsoft is getting out of Russia? I mean, I’m sure they already have a lot of pirated copies and old versions of Windows, as any (at least third world) country does, but at some point I don’t see any option to either pirate every copy of Windows or start using Linux.
I’m guessing Linux will end up being the long term solution, and they’ll just keep using old versions of windows before they can phase it out. Astra Linux is the main domestic distro there and I imagine it’ll be getting rolled out more aggressively now.
A while back Microsoft sent Russia the full Windows source code, per their government’s request. (I doubt they licensed them to do anything with said source code, but Putin won’t care).
https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts 🏴☠️
I know you can pirate it, I doubt a government will decide to launch a national scale campaign to pirate every machine with Windows, it would probably be easier to install Linux any way since you have a lot of older machines.
I think you’re right that government departments would use Linux in the long term… seems to me it could take months, if not years, for workers to learn all the new ways of doing things, virtualise / wrap / port any Windows-only software they’re using, replace or write drivers for any non-Linux-supporting hardware they use, and fill any holes in accessibility tech – I’ve heard that JAWS is a long way ahead of Linux equivalents.
Setting up a fake license server, or rolling out something like MAS using Group Policy might make a lot of sense in the meantime…
I agree there are cases where you need specific software and in that cases it might be hard, but also there are a shit ton of other cases where everything you need is simply a word processor and spreadsheet.
To be clear, I hope places just cut straight to Linux, I’m saying it seems likely there’ll be a transition period. It still takes time to retrain on a different word processor or spreadsheet software, especially if you’ve been using Microsoft’s 20+ hours a week.
Yeah, I know, I know, also people who are not tech savvy, you change the smallest thing to their GUI and they get lost, you need to do some training stuff.
Apple and windows have administrative access to all device right?
Coulnd’t they juste brick 99% of Russia PCs over night if they wanted?
Not sure if they could brick. But it’s possible for them to render the OS installation unusable.
The problem is this: what kind of message does it send to their international market? Not a good one I suppose.
A small part of me wants that to happen, just to really hammer in the fact that open source is the only reliable way to run your tech fleet. Especially if the US hates you.
Even open source is not 100% safe. I mean the other day I was checking out CMake licensing(because I was bored), and I was shocked to find that you can’t use CMake if US hates you. In what universe would such a tool threaten national security?? It’s just stupid
Then it’s not open source. Not by the definition.
Both the Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundation agree that you cannot put restrictions on what the software can be used for and still call it Open Source or Free/Libre Software, respectively. Not even conditions like no commercial use or no military use are allowed. This is why CC-BY-SA (do whatever you want as long as you cite the creator and re-license under the same or compatible license) is considered an Open Source/Libre license, but both CC-BY-NC-SA (no commercial use) and CC-BY-ND-SA (no derivative works) are not.
Thanks for the detailed explanation!
edit: also I’m just sad that a tool I used to trust and love is not really open source as I thought it was:(
I mean, they’re not supposed to be able to per the TOS. Not saying they actually can’t though.
removed by mod
Yeah exactly, if they were serious about leaving then what’s all the fuss about. Looks like a bluff got called.
…with a weaker bluff. It’s childish, like the toothless sanctioning of Biden and Hilary Clinton. Or threatening international volunteers for the Ukrainians with legal action, while inviting Syrian mercenaries at the time. The noises coming out of the Kremlin have become farcical.
Nationalizing stuff is most definitely not a bluff. There is absolutely no reason for them not to do this, what’s the west going to do in response exactly?
Never invest there again. This will hurt Russia long after Putin’s gone.
The west was never going to invest there again anyways. Russia’s future is going to be aligned with China and India, the two biggest growing economies in the world.
Yes, as a client state to China, as North Korea is now. And when China and India flare up, Russia will be forced to choose China. Their options only become more narrow, so long as Putin remains in control.
You continue to exhibit stunning lack of understanding of geopolitics or even basic geography. Comparing Russia to DPRK is beyond hilarious, but you go on further with the deranged notion that there’s going to be some China and India flare up when it’s becoming clear that India is patching things up with China right now seeing western insanity. India is currently exploring how to use yuan to pay Russia for energy and just had talks with China about resolving their border dispute.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1254958.shtml
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3170314/china-india-border-row-signs-thaw-fresh-round-talks-analyst
If you ever decide to look at a map, then it’ll become crystal clear to you that India’s interests lie with Russia and China.
India has ongoing ideological differences with China though, no? Modi doesn’t seem very friendly to China from what I’ve seen.
I expect that pragmatism will ultimately win over ideology. India increasingly sees US as an unstable partner, and US just threatened India with sanctions for continuing trade with Russia. India understands that China will likely be the biggest winner in all this and that BRI will become a huge market that they will want to be a part of.
Posturing on a local level. On the international stage, look at UN voting patterns. I know what Modi and BJP are made up of.
I love your certainty in your ignorance. Like, of course, I’m not sailing that way, because the earth is flat. It’s not like China and India aren’t skirmishing on their border, are they? China and Russia would be soon too, as well, for water. But current events are placing Russia firmly inside China’s orbit. So it won’t be much of a skirmish, but a capitulation.
Climate change has forced China to deplete the South China Sea and is now scouring the world. I would not want to share a border with China, at this point, no matter how much I needed the cash. Russia is definitely going to be a second class citizen in this exchange.
Ah yes my ignorance says the guy who thinks Russia is like North Korea and that India and China are going to have a flare up. Russia is certainly going to be no worth in that relationship than Canada is sharing a border with the US. You keep on living those fantasies while you can though.
Isn’t it, though? Both are failed states that fall back to cries of nuclear weapons when frustrated. Even India and Pakistan are acting more mature these days. And you better believe that if Canada couldn’t keep it’s shit together that border would be a liability, too. China is massively annoyed that their buffer, North Korea, is smuggling so much meth into China. Either China will begin to encroach on Russian resources, or Russian economic refugees will being flooding China. Probably both.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fractal_wrongness
I guess you can’t see it in yourself. Tell me more how Russia will grow stronger by imploding it’s economy. How they invaded out of the kindness of their hearts, to save the Ukrainians from themselves. How Duginism isn’t just Russian fascism. Please, go on.
If you can’t understand how becoming self sufficient is going to be good for Russia’s economy what else is there to say. You keep repeating that it’s imploding, but there’s literally no evidence to support this notion.
Then you straw man about them invading out of the kindness of their hearts. I certainly can’t remember saying anything of the sort.
You’ve consistently demonstrated that you have no clue regarding the subject you hold very strong opinions on. There’s absolutely no point trying to correct you. I can’t wait to see the mental gymnastics you’ll be doing next year when Russia’s economy is still doing fine, while the west starts unravelling.
You’ve failed to understand international trade. If you default on your loans, nationalize foreign capital, drive your currency into the ground… that’s not becoming self-sufficient. Go ahead and quit your job and go live in a tent your backyard, I guess. That’ll show them!
And yes, convenient memory of yours. Putin’s original rationale for the invasion (“special military operation”) was for the benefit of the two provinces that he’d instigated trouble in. But he proved that to be a lie by immediately by charging toward the capital, instead. And then running out of fuel.
I love how you constantly attempt to gas-light, but offer nothing but spinning of narratives in return. Is the west falling apart because #11 in the world’s GDP list decided to suicide? Hardly. The result so far has been to strengthen the rationale for NATO, clip the wings off Russia’s poorly kept military, and have Putin fire 1000 of his personal staff… because you know, the Russian people love him.
Russia is a huge industrial power that produces pretty much all the necessities domestically. This is more than pretty much any western nation can say. Thinking that Russia can’t survive without trade with western countries that don’t even produce anything of value is beyond hilarious.
Thing is that I never talked about Putin’s rationale. Also, not sure when the Russian army ran out of fuel.
The spinning narrative here is that you show consistent lack of understanding of the subject you keep attempting to debate.
Ah so prices for just about everything aren’t going up in the west then, and there is no panic about double digit inflation and a massive recession. Explain to me why Americans decided to let Russia use assets they “froze” to pay debt if everything is going so well.
We’ll just wait to see how that works out when people can’t afford basic necessities which will lead to people not spending money on consumer goods, which will lead businesses to start failing.
Keep doing your chest pumping while you can though.
It’s so egotistical to believe that inflation is related to Russia imploding. Covid-19 has been raging for three years and Putin only invaded three weeks ago. It’s this kind of thinking that is destroying Russia. Spooky Color Revolutions! They must be trying to unseat me, says Putin. I’ll just invade Ukraine so they’ll agree to demilitarize and give me a safety buffer. But having proved to be a dangerous and belligerent neighbor, he’s only strengthened NATO’s rationale. Bombing all the maternity wards isn’t going to convince the Ukrainians to lay down their arms.
I’m curious as to where you get your news. The main column of armor moving on Kyiv was 3 km long on the first day. Then 6 km. It’s a 40 km parking lot, dotted by drone strikes, today. Have you really not heard of that?
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fractal_wrongness
https://youtu.be/4e1BndTE6Lg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtOx6dW_0vU
Just saying, the Western sanctions that started this economic battle have already put Western companies off investing in Russia, for a long time even after the sanctions end. That was their intention
I recall what started the economic battle was Putin invading his neighbor, Ukraine. This has blown past whatever BS he said about the provinces he destabilized and led to a direct attack on the sovereignty of said country. Imagine the wealth that might have been preserved, if only Putin could keep his second-rate army within his borders.
Why do you think Microsoft not investing in a place would hurt people there?
The company has a history of monopolistic anti-consumer practices (as decided by the US supreme court in 2001 and by the european commission in 2004, and they’re facing another complaint now), anti-worker cartel behaviour (settled charges in 2010, more charges in 2013, and a lawsuit in 2015 was dropped because of timing), and directly attacking public interest technology like open source (a small selection of examples).
Those monopolistic practices have created a software ecosystem that’s dominated by their OS. They aren’t the only solution anymore, but they are still the largest.