Russia to Ban Windows from Government PCs

The Russian government is famous for not being so open to foreign technologies. And now, Russia wants to take it a step further, as its government allegedly plans to ban Windows from government computers. In Addition, the country wants to increase taxes to foreign companies, like Google and Apple.

German Klimenko, Putin’s new number one adviser for Internet and technology, appointed six weeks ago, has started a new campaign which is looking to  increase taxes that American tech companies, like Google, Microsoft, and Apple, would have to pay. Companies would have to pay up to 18 percent more in taxes, if this campaign is accepted by the Russian government.

Reportedly, the purpose of this campaign is to support local companies, like Yandex and Mail.ru to be better accepted by the Russian people.

Replacing Windows on Government PCs

Another radical change that German Klimenko wants to achieve is replacing Windows on all government PCs with a Linux-based operating system developed by Russia. Klimenko also stated that there are already 22,000 municipal authorities ready to replace Windows with their own operating system.

It is still not clear why Russia wants to give up Windows on government PCs, but there’s a theory that the country wants to switch to its own operating system because of the rumors that Microsoft collects users’ data, therefore there’s a fear that Russia’s confidential information might get exposed to the US government.

“It’s like a wife seeing her husband with another woman – he can swear an oath afterward, but the trust is lost,” Klimenko said.

While the government prepares for the big move, Windows is still the dominant operating system on people’s computers, as 93 percent of desktop computers in the country still runs Microsoft’s operating system. We’ll see if the Russian government will even try to convince people to switch to another operating system, or it will stop at its own PCs.