The cancellation of Windows in Russia in June 2022, which came as a sanction against Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine, has forced the country’s developers to give birth to a new “Made in Russia” operating system called MOS.
Moscow had already started a self-sufficiency plan at the hardware level to depend as little as possible on external incidents and not “fall into blackmail in the form of sanctions.” This is his first big result.
This is M OS, the new Russian operating system
The Russian software market has welcomed a new operating system called “M OS”, which is based on the Linux kernel . The operating system is specifically designed for use in educational institutions and is being developed by the Department of Information Technology of the city of Moscow. The team responsible for the development of electronic services and information technology systems in the capital has collaborated with Russian developers to create “M OS”.
A team of 25 developers has worked on the development of “M OS” and the distribution kit took six months to develop. The product is already supplied to Moscow schools as part of personal computers, laptops and digital whiteboards/interactive panels.
Among the advantages of the operating system are: a simple and intuitive interface, stable and reliable operation, as well as a high level of cybersecurity. M OS comes pre-installed with a Russian-language office software package (text editor and spreadsheets, etc.), as well as built-in applications and special programs for teachers and students. The idea is that it completely replaces the use of Microsoft Office for Students.
Betting on open source
In order to prevent the use of unlicensed software, although the so-called “Priority Action Plan to ensure the development of the Russian economy in conditions of pressure from external sanctions” allows the “cancellation of liability for the use of unlicensed software (SW) in the Russian Federation, owned by a copyright holder from countries that have supported the sanctions” , in this fairly clean design that looks like a hybrid between Windows and macOS , we find browsers like Chromium and Mozilla Firefox, as well as email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird and office suites like LibreOffice in addition to the Russian office suite.
Therefore, the open source application kit is already integrated and designed specifically for teachers and students. Moscow has already urged the country’s developers to find self-sufficiency measures in computing matters once sanctions began to arrive from different international companies such as Microsoft.
Now they are going a step further with the first stone of what is expected to be an evolution of this operating system destined to remain in Russia for a long time, even if the war ends and the sanctions are lifted, betting on the national operating system.
