the Russian government is now considering the adoption of Linux and open source alternatives to replace Microsoft and Oracle products

In a bid to give a befitting reply to the various sanctions slapped on it by the European Union and the United States, the Russian government is now considering the adoption of Linux and open source alternatives to replace Microsoft and Oracle products here. A new report published on the official website of the Russian government (gov.cnews.ru) clearly suggests that the country’s Ministry of Health is at least pondering over the decision to replace all the proprietary software provided by Oracle and Microsoft with open source software.

Meanwhile, a report by Softpedia quotes Deputy Director of the IT department of Ministry of Health, Roman Safronov as saying that discussions to replace proprietary products with open source software first began way back in 2011 when the federal services of the Unified State Health Information System (EGISZ) was first created. “Given the many transactions coming EGISZ scale and limited budget, we decided that we can not afford to pay for a license tens of millions of rubles a year,” Safronov was quoted as saying. According to Safronov, a major part of the EGISZ functions on open source technology. Further, the Health Ministry’s Situation Centre is also built on open source software, Safronov informed.

The Ministry of Health in Russia has set itself a deadline of 2015 to completely switch to open source alternatives from Microsoft and Oracle products. Meanwhile, it’s still uncertain if the move will be replicated in other departments of the Russian government.

Source-EFY