Russia to Embrace Linux in 2011

Vladimir Putin, Russia's current prime-minister, has just signed a new government order to regulate on the transition to open-source for the government institutions starting with the next year.

The document has been issued on December 17th and clearly stipulates that the Russian government will have to ditch Windows and embrace Linux as the operating system of choice for the next year. The transition will commence in 2011, but will continue until 2015, when the last Windows-based computers will be shut down and wiped clean.

According to a statement issued by the Russian CNews website, Linux will kick in during the second quarter of 2012.

"Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a plan for transition of power structures and the federal budget [to] free software. According to the document, the introduction of Linux in government should begin in II quarter 2012," reads the newsflash.

During the last years, more and more governments have started embracing open source software for their critical businesses. The adoption of free and open software not only that dramatically contributes to budget cuts, but also elliminates the probability of insecure, backdoored code and everything that is related to government espionage.

Windows and Windows-based systems have had a tough year in 2010, with lots of 0-day exploits as well as the advent of the Stuxnet e-threat used to sabotage critical industrial processes in nuclear facilities.