Russian MoD ditches MS Windows

Very sensible!

Russian Ministry of Defense ditches Microsoft Windows system

Fort Russ,

13 January, 2018

The Russian Ministry of Defense will be transferring all office computers to the operating system Astra Linux. This is a completely domestic development, its creator - the Moscow company "RusBITEkh". The new OS will also be loaded on all special service smartphones and tablets.

Currently, licensed Microsoft products are installed on Russian military computers.

"A key feature of Astra Linux Special Edition is a unique system for protecting information," said Dmitry Donskoy, deputy director of the company.

The OS suite also includes an office application LibreOffice. For the secure exchange of information, the electronic document management system "Pergament" is used. Popular in Russia software products, such as the "1C" accounting system, Kaspersky Antivirus and Dr.Web. are fully compatible with the OS.

"In connection with sanctions in all federal bodies, it was decided to switch to domestic software at an accelerated pace. Without exaggeration, this is a matter of national security." said Alexei Smirnov, the developer.

The Russian office of Microsoft declined to comment.

Earlier, the Pentagon also announced plans to switch to an operating system based on Linux. This was also explained by security considerations.