The search for pirated versions of Windows and Excel is exploding in Russia, while government-related agencies and companies have been ordered to upgrade to a Russian version of Linux.
For Russians, it becomes very difficult to officially obtain a Microsoft product. Indeed, the publisher is gradually withdrawing from the Russian market and has just blocked the download of Windows 10 and Windows 11, for example. For those who want Microsoft software at all costs, there is only one solution: get a pirated version.
According to the website Kommersant, Google searches for pirated versions of Windows 10, or ways to illegally activate the system, have increased by 80% to 250% in the past 90 days. And searches for a free version of the Excel spreadsheet increased by 650% during the month of June.
Microsoft halted sales on March 4, as its president Brad Smith posted on Twitter, and blocked Windows 10 and Windows 11 downloads at the end of June.
We are taking several new steps in response to the war in Ukraine, including suspending new sales in Russia. https://t.co/BCHZ57TryO
—Brad Smith (@BradSmi) March 4, 2022
The only way to download the system is to use a virtual private network (VPN). The deliveries are stopped, but there are still stocks of the “boxed” version of Windows for a few months, but a particular Russian user can activate the system only if he indicates a country other than Russia or Belarus during the record. And this is not possible for Russian companies that are under sanctions. Note that it is still possible to buy computers with Windows preinstalled.
Microsoft has indicated that it will continue to honor its current contracts until they expire, and that it will continue to reduce its activity in Russia until there is nothing left.
Linux is making a comeback
For their part, Russian developers of operating systems based on Linux are taking advantage of the abandonment of Microsoft. They see an increase in their sales to private customers and estimate that the market will triple in the future. However, the deliveries concern for the moment a few hundreds of copies and the complexity of Linux is likely to prevent a massive deployment.
Russian government agencies and state-owned enterprises have been ordered to quickly switch from Windows to Astra Linux, a version of Debian Linux that has been developed in Russia since 2008. Publisher Rusbitech has received hundreds of orders to supply and install the operating system. Among its new customers are Gazprom, Rosatom, the Federal Treasury, the Federal Air Transport Agency, regional governments and even polyclinics.
But the passage from Windows to Linux remains to be very difficult in certain companies which use machines containing the operating system of Microsoft under an embedded form. Indeed, it is often impossible to access the computer code of these machines. But Russia wants to make every effort to no longer be dependent on Windows. One of the enforcers of the Russian state order told the Moscow Times: “In ten years, no one will remember Windows in Russia.”
Source :
Business Insider