In December 2016, the Institute for Internet Development (IRI) announced the preparation of a training program for work under the GosLinux OS . The GosLinux operating system is specially created for state authorities of the Russian Federation (initially for the Federal Bailiffs Service), and in order to service it in the future, you will need a large staff of qualified specialists: system administrators, developers and competent users. Students learning Linux will be very helpful.

The GosLinux distribution ( ISO images , download statistics ) is based on the CentOS 6.4 package base. In turn, it is based on the commercial distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The desktop is based on GNOME 2.32.

As reported, a pilot project for the preparation of students will be implemented at Vladimir State University (Vladimir State University). If successful, the program will expand to other Russian universities throughout Russia.
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Lack of system administrators

According to Anna Meshcheryakova, Director of the Competence Center of the IRI IT + Sovereignty, first of all it is necessary to train system administrators and programmers to work with this OS: “In the course of our work we are faced with a number of problems, but the most acute problem is the lack of qualified personnel - developers , administrators and specialists in the implementation of Russian software and its professional support, ” said Anna Mescheryakova in a comment to the Izvestia newspaper. “We intend to involve software developers, integrators, and federal and regional authorities who are willing to share competencies and successful practice of software import substitution for cooperation with VlSU.”

The basic course at VlSU is designed for ordinary students who are taught to work at GosLinux. At the same time, on the basis of the university, it is planned to open advanced training courses for Windows users who want to learn how to work in the new exotic operating system for them.



The rector of VlSU, Anzor Saralidze, said that if the program allows to train qualified system administrators, they will find work without any problems after graduating from the university: “If we are now preparing students in joint programs with leading industrial and financial structures, such as Sberbank or ToHmash”, and we get about 20% of their “survival rate” (5 out of 25), then involving them in practical work on IT integration, where there are more opportunities and tasks, we expect a 100 percent distribution. ”

Plan for Russia's transition to open source software

The transition of the state bodies of Russia to the domestic software is going very slowly, although the budget funds are regularly mastered. Recall that in 2010 the task was set to fully transfer the federal authorities and federal budget institutions to the use of free software. The full transition to Linux was supposed to take place before 2015, but this did not happen.

Now the translation of regional bodies into domestic software is carried out by the Internet Development Institute (IRI).

Budget companies regularly purchased domestic software. For example, in 2015, Russian programs were purchased for 21.9 billion rubles (Western - for 72 billion rubles), but in terms of the introduction of Linux, the result is still close to zero, although there is some activity in this direction. For example, in 2016, “testing” of two certified domestic distributions began - GosLinux and ALT Linux in several regions of the Russian Federation.

According to the new “Plan of transition of federal authorities and federal budget institutions to the use of free software”, the transition of authorities to domestic software should be completed in 2019.

GosLinux and ALT Linux

Two Russian Linux distributions, GosLinux and ALT Linux, are considered as a domestic replacement for Windows in government agencies. Both of them are currently being tested in different regions of Russia: GosLinux - in the Vladimir region, and ALT Linux - in the Ulyanovsk region.

It is reported on the installation of GosLinux on 7 servers and 150 computers of officials in the municipalities of the region. After collecting feedback and eliminating flaws in GosLinux, it is planned to continue the installation of the domestic distribution in the Russian regions. In December, the administration of the Vladimir region reported on the progress of the pilot project, which started in the summer and will last until April 2017, and is currently implemented by more than 70%.

According to the administration, when using GosLinux, the savings on the configuration of each workplace is at least 20 thousand rubles. The total savings from installing a domestic software suite is estimated at about 60%.

The largest user of GosLinux, of course, is the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia (FSSP), which is formally considered to be the developer of GosLinux. According to Cnews , citing representatives of the FSSP, at the expense of centralized deliveries of GosLinux OS in 2016, about 7,500 means of technology were introduced in the FSSP, of which 448 are server hardware, at least 7,000 are automated workstations. Thus, at the beginning of 2017, GosLinux was installed on almost 28 thousand automated workplaces of bailiffs, which is about 60% of the total service computer fleet. In the new year, this figure is planned to increase to 70-80%.



FSSP tenders to implement GosLinux are consistently won by Red Soft . For example, in 2016 the contract for GosLinux (and other subsystems of the AIS FSSP) went to this company for 111.3 million rubles.

In 2015, the tender was won by the enterprise FSUE Scientific Research Institute "Voskhod" in the amount of 102 million rubles, which still hired Red Soft as a subcontractor in the amount of 81.6 million rubles. Accordingly, Red Soft itself did not participate in that tender. A similar situation is expected in 2017, since this year the tender for 110.5 million rubles. again won the FSUE scientific research institute "Sunrise" .

In theory, any government or commercial organization can use GosLinux freely and for free. Officially, all rights to it belong to the Russian Federation. At the end of August 2015, the FSSP together with the Ministry of Communications placed GosLinux in the National Fund of algorithms and programs, which implies its free and free use by any government agencies of Russia.

But in practice, the introduction of a free OS is always accompanied by tenders and remuneration of system integrators, which are played by the same firms.

To participate in the tender on a priority basis, GosLinux must be included in the Register of domestic software, but problems have arisen here. The opinion of the members of the Expert Council on the Russian software is divided. Some of them said that this OS cannot be considered Russian software, because “the CentOS processing level in it is less than 5%”. In addition, some experts expressed the view that “in principle, it is not clear why the state agency product, which can be taken free of charge from the Algorithms and Programs Fund, should be included in the Register, which defines guidelines for other government agencies when they conduct public procurement - that is, indicates that it is preferable to spend money ".

The FSSP, in response to the criticism of a small amount of its own code, provided information about the “differences in the CentOS package base and the GosLinux OS”. It states that the CentOS distribution used to have 2559 software packages, and GosLinux included 2337. For GosLinux, 172 packages were added that relate to replacing OpenLDAP with reOpenLDAP (a system catalog with a declared increased stability of operation), the implementation of the secure CryptoFox browser of the company "Cryptopro" and other Russian developments. In addition, 92 packages have been updated in GosLinux, and 24 have been developed. An example of an “exclusive package” is TokenManager, a graphical utility for managing digital signature certificates and working with key information carriers. These are also the compatibility packages for the DrWeb anti-virus tools, the OS configuration management packages. According to the FSSP certificate, the source code was updated in 85 packages, including those related to PAM-modules for user authentication using the certificate of the electronic signature verification key.

Why, in fact, GosLinux is not allowed into the Russian software registry if other open source programs based on well-known open source projects manage to get there without difficulty? Moreover, some high-ranking Russian officials practically do not see the difference between the concepts of “native” and “free” software . At least, he was not seen by some speakers in April 2016 at a working meeting in the presidential administration of the Russian Federation.

For example, Basealt ("Basalt SPO"), also specially created by competent persons to meet the state order for free software, deals with the ALT Linux distribution kit. The company's operating systems for servers ("Alt Server") and workstations ("Alt Workstation") are included in the Unified Register of Russian programs for electronic computers and databases, which gives them privileged status in state tenders, in accordance with Federal Law No. 44- “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services for state and municipal needs”.

The company Red Soft (which invariably receives tenders for the installation of GosLinux) at the same time promotes its operating system Red OS . As stated on the website, this operating system is based on "RHEL source codes, specially adapted to Russian requirements." In particular, the system uses GOST 34.10-94 algorithms in ssh and NX protocols, meets the requirements for information security for EAL3 and 4 level of control over the absence of NDV, supports domestic crypto-providers and encryption algorithms.

In addition to "Red OS", the company offers a DBMS called the "Red Database" (RDB) and the RPD workflow platform.

There is an opinion that “Red Soft” and “Basalt SPO” can expect to receive a large number of government orders, and not only from the authorities and budget organizations, but also from state-owned enterprises. For example, in December 2016, Basalt SPO announced the launch of “the first domestic OS line of enterprise level with a single guaranteed quality of technical support throughout the Russian Federation”. Basalt SPO products rely on "one of the largest free software repositories in the world, created as part of the Russian project Sisyphus (Sisyphus) and independent of any other repositories."

So, it was Alexei Smirnov, General Director of Bazalt SPO, who was appointed as the responsible expert of the Expert Council for the Russian Software on the inclusion of GosLinux in the Russian Software Registry. The expert made a negative assessment, expressing the opinion that the original Russian code was too small in this distribution on the CentOS 6.4 package base. What is most interesting, the expert may be quite right.

Saving?

Of course, the introduction of free software in government and government agencies is welcome. Theoretically, this should save budget money, that is, taxpayer funds. For example, in the FSSP, the specific cost of GosLinux at 50% implementation is only 800 rubles . According to the FSSP experience, the implementation of GosLinux turned out to be 37 times cheaper than Windows licenses .

Let's see what kind of savings will come out in practice, taking into account tenders and the traditional section of public funds.