Damnit Armenia! Azerbaijan Beat You Again!
Seriously, how long have I been talking about Linux in Armenia?
Since the mid-1990s?
No one ever listened to me.
Spitux aside, there isn’t much going on with Linux in Armenia, to be sure.
And look what smart Azerbaijan did:
President of Azerbaijan recently signed an order titled “ICT Implementation Programme in Azerbaijan High Schools (2005-2007)”. According to the document $20M in total is provisioned for this project. Project involves installation of new computers in 4521 high schools countrywide. Thus, by the end of the project one computer will be available for each 33 school students.
The Azerbaijan Internet Forum presented these reason for using Linux:
*Software cost saving - Lin.az is Free:
- Roughly 300$ saving on each workstation
- Saved funds can be spent for education of teachers, staff problems and inter-school infrastructure
* More Secure and Reliable:
- Almost virus free and better protected against viruses
- No need for regular critical updates
* More Flexible:
- Easily can be adopted for special needs of Ministry of Education.
- Local vendors will be given the chance to support their schools.
- In the future integrated infrastructure can be easily implemented among schools in order to manage and share resources.
* Azeri User Interface:
- Today, Lin.az/Linux is the only OS with the fully translated Azeri UI.
- 95% of applications (OpenOffice, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) also translated into Azeri
- Minorities can translate and use OS in their native languages in the future.
* Other Advantages:
- Distributive includes wide range of educational programs for mathematics, chemistry, geography, programming and foreign languages education.
- Existing Windows compatible application could be used from emulators if required.
- User interface can be switched into other languages in few seconds, which is very important for multilingual schools.
* International Practice:
- Nowadays, more and more schools all over the world are moving to OSS.
- All workstations in IOI’2006 (International Olympics of Informatics) will run Linux.
- 100$ (a.k.a. green) laptop is running Linux.
EXACTLY!!!!! ARGH!!!
Don’t blame me when Azeri kids have significantly better technology skills than their counterparts in Armenia. It isn’t just ArmenTel. It isn’t just the oil money. It is the fact that the MoE LISTENED to the experts and made a SMART decision.
I am SO frustrated now.
[source]
Again? Azerbaijan? hehe…
Comment by Joe — 12/28/2005 @ 9:01 am
http://www.opensourcearmenia.com/
anyone up for donating the $20M for the hardware?! I promiss you that such a thing can be put up and running in Armenia within weeks!
Comment by v — 12/28/2005 @ 9:30 am
by the way, does anyone have any information on this Linux.az, or links? All I could find was their (official?) azeri web site and other couple of azeri references.
Distrowatch has no information on it either in active distributions or in “to-be-included” distro list. It’d be interesting to know what package managment they use, though I would be very surprised if it turns out not to be based on Turkix, since the later already ships with native azeri support.
Comment by v — 12/28/2005 @ 10:22 am
Unfortunately, SpiTux is facing some problems and has been comatose for the last couple of months. I know the project and the people that run it well and I do hope that they’ll be able to get things going again soon. It’s a good project.
By the way, I love the way the list of reasons are numbered!
Comment by Myrthe — 12/28/2005 @ 10:31 am
Firs off, Damn You Katy.
Secondly, Linux sucks, use *BSD.
Comment by h a k o b — 12/28/2005 @ 11:12 am
Linux in Armenia and Azerbaijan
Katy over at Blogrel says that the adoption of Linux in Azerbaijan is making ground thanks to what might be a smart move by the government.
Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan Republic is expected to promote open source software in all high schools …
Trackback by Oneworld Multimedia — 12/28/2005 @ 1:40 pm
Armenia’s problem is not that it doesn’t run Linux on school computers. It’s rather that there are no school computers to run anything on.
Comment by nazarian — 12/28/2005 @ 4:16 pm
Nazarian, I actually worked for years on a program that brought computers to schools. There are loads of computers in AM all around the country.
Comment by Katy — 12/28/2005 @ 8:33 pm
Doh, thanks Myrthe… formatting error. Will fix.
Comment by Katy — 12/28/2005 @ 8:33 pm
Looks like right now there are 308 Project Harmony computer labs in Armenia - that’s a lot of computer Nazarian. 8-10 in each lab.
Comment by Katy — 12/28/2005 @ 8:38 pm
Hakob, are you working on a BSD in Armenian?
Comment by Katy — 12/28/2005 @ 11:35 pm
The local non-profit group Friends of Armenia here in Los Angeles sent a bunch of computers and supplies over to Karabakh this year.
Comment by Mr. E — 12/29/2005 @ 6:32 am
Are there any Armenian language Linux distributions out there?
Comment by nazarian — 12/29/2005 @ 6:34 am
Mr. E, did they send the monitors as well or just the box?
Comment by nazarian — 12/29/2005 @ 6:35 am
I think an older version of Red Hat I installed once had an Armenian language option. The Fedora Core 2 I have (I think) doesn’t.
Incidently, in addition to http://www.opensourcearmenia.org there’s http://www.debian.am as well.
As for computers, Project Harmony has opened up a few labs in some schools, although ironically, whenever I’ve glanced in, they’re empty.
This could just be timing and is in now way reflects the situation. On the other hand, village schools lack even notebooks.
BTW: a question, why do organizations like PH not supply computers with Linux on, as well as open source applications (which are good enough to learn on and use in a profession setting — some apps like Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc are obviously better on the PC)?
Seems to me like international organizations specializing in IT are also not jumping on the Linux bandwagon. Of course, I suppose if you want kids to learn applications and an OS they’ll use in a work setting, the proliferation of pirated software in int orgs, NGOs and the workplace makes it necessary they know Windows.
Ultimately, it does need a commitment from the government.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 12/29/2005 @ 12:17 pm
As has been shown time and time again, sending old computers does NOTHING. Don’t donate your old computers to another country - give them to a local non-profit.
Onnik, have you ever tried the alternatives to Photoshop and DW on Linux? They are actually pretty good for the average user.
Also, it’s been shown that people trained on Linux do fine switching to Windows. Most apps - Open Office, for example, have the same menus anyways.
I would assume that PH et. al. haven’t gotten on the Linux bandwagon because it is too hard.
Comment by Katy — 12/29/2005 @ 9:15 pm
Same thing happens in the Caribbean. Maybe we should just ignore the bureaucrats and do stuff ourselves.
Nice post, btw.
Comment by Taran — 12/29/2005 @ 11:15 pm
Congratulations to the people and leaders of Armenia. This is what we have to aspire for, all along since exposed youths are the ones best prepare to face the challenges of the globalized world.
Thanks to Katy Pearce, in sharing the information.
Mrs. Swai, I. F.
Comment by Mrs. Swai, I. F. — 12/30/2005 @ 12:59 am
Sure, I agree for the average user, but not for, say, a professional designer working in a web development or graphic design house. same is true for other proffesional use software. Gimp is really nothing to be compared to photoshop, for example, for the proffessional user, which is hardly surprising given the fact that adobe pumps millions into its development.
As I said, I wasn’t referring to the average user. I was referring to those who have to use software in a proffessional environment.
The one other issue is that it is still cumbersome to install hardware and software. Some installs quite nicely, but it is still nothing compared to plug and play. Not surprisingly, most Linux users have a high level of computer literacy, are prepared to confront a unix command line interface occasionally, or if they aren’t, have a systems administrator somewhere on call.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 12/30/2005 @ 2:56 am
The designer types would be on a mac anyway!
Comment by Katy — 12/30/2005 @ 4:17 am
Not at all, as there are no Mac distributors in Armenia. There is also no software being sold here, bootleg or not. All design studios use PCs, although I did see one G4 being used in a company that run in excess of 20 PCs all running pirated PC software.
However, you raise another interesting point. In a professional design environment, would a designer use Photoshop on a PC or a Mac, or GIMP on a Linux-box?
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 1/1/2006 @ 6:37 pm
Okay, most professional designers would be using a Mac outside of Armenia. They wouldn’t even think about touch a PC.
Comment by Katy — 1/2/2006 @ 12:32 am
I thought we were talking about inside Armenia, and not outside. Besides, my argument still stands. A professional designer would not consider Linux because the software isn’t there.
Anyway, that said, I would like to see Linux take off here. However, it is still too difficult to set up, install software and hardware, and support all possible configurations of PC.
As an example, I tried to install Fedora Core 2 on a separate partition of my laptop. It didn’t support the screen, the graphics chip, the modem and the wi-fi. A search on the internet didn’t bring up any solutions or drivers.
This was the same situation with my desktop PC. With both I had to reluctantly delete Fedora and rebuild the boot loader. However, I do think Linux should be considered, and will be in the future. Until then, however, most companies are going to want people used to XP and Windows software which is why training programs concentrate on that.
Besides, if international NGOs such as Project Harmony don’t attempt to support the adoption of PCs running Linux, why should the average user, including a new generation in schools using PH labs? What we need is commitment from both international organizations as well as the government to develop a Linux distribution for Armenia which supports most normal computer configurations.
Ironically, this is your point, but for professional use, as there is no sign of any Mac distribution or support in Armenia, Windows PCs are going to be the choice for the power user until someone ports Photoshop to run under Linux, or polishes up Gimp. Still, it’s possible. After all, that’s what open source software is all about.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 1/2/2006 @ 1:16 am
Why does Linux matter? Really, what difference does it make that an Armenian version of Linux is not available? The fact that Linux is available for people in Armenia who want to use it on their PCs or servers is what counts. So why are Armenians the loosers here? The fact that Armenia is becoming an IT hot bed in the region tells me otherwise.
The title of this blog entry, “Damnit Armenia! Azerbaijan Beat You Again!” is really not called for. Sorry, but since the “again” could be interpreted as relating to something on a more geopolitical scale, you shouldn’t use this kind of language. Especially if you were working and living in Armenia and should understand the still-tense situation that exists between the two countries. Quite frankly, the use of this title is careless and insensitive.
If you want to keep a blog discussing Armenian life, issues and so forth, do so. This site really has little to do with that it seems these days. And it’s really too bad.
Comment by Christian Garbis — 1/3/2006 @ 11:46 pm
I think the reasons for Linux mattering were nicely summed up in the original post:
As for an IT hotbed in the region, well, okay. Thank the Soviet Union for that. However, there’s a difference between a relatively small IT industry and a computer literate population working in other areas of the economy.
Yes, perhaps the title is a little provocative for most Armenians (although they never dislike titles if the country names were interchanged), but anyway, complacency never gets anybody anywhere.
There are two points to this post, I think, that should be mentioned. Firstly, the Azerbaijani government has yet to make an official statement (and as Microsoft has been mentioned in the source material, I wonder if it will).
Secondly, that there is a growing momentum towards open source software worldwide, it’s interesting to compare the situation in both countries. Personally speaking, if Linux were able to support the configuration on my computer, I’d probably switch for most tasks except for Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
That’s it can’t shows that much more work needs to be done. One day Armenia is going to get hammered for software piracy given that all the CD/DVD shops in Yerevan stock material mainly imported from Russia where organized crime uses proceeds to finance other “activities.”
On a simpler level, pirated software also means that computers are less secure and functional. I know this from my computer. The XP registry is even more f-ed than it should be. However, someone needs to push for Linuk to be available in a more user friendly package.
This is slowly coming, but in the meantime, while progress is registered in a small section of the IT industry where some are fortunate to work albeit on salaries lower than their Indian equivalents, in other areas, IT is not so evolved. Education is an example of that.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 1/4/2006 @ 10:55 am
In the meantime, just to say that I’m still pissed off by the fact that in Tbilisi, DSL is available for $35/month instead of the $100/200 a month in Yerevan. Also, I’d like to get to that free public wifi point in Tbilisi until I discover one in Yerevan.
Incidently, the internet connection has been lousy for over a week in Armenia. Mainly this is because if the one connection coming through Georgia goes down, we all suffer. This alone makes me say that as a whole, Armenia is no hotbed of technology.
In the meantime, with news like this, can we afford to always be complacent?
http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2005/08/1251C947-EFB8-49D8-AAE3-A31EB49E72E1.ASP
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 1/4/2006 @ 11:00 am
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 1/4/2006 @ 11:05 am
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> Onnik: However, someone needs to push for Linuk to be available in a more user friendly package.
Have you tried SUSE Linux or Ubuntu? The latter is the fastest growing distro on personal computers.
I use SUSE Linux 10.1, and so far I’ve found every application on Linux that I’ve needed except for Microsoft Streets and Trips. (The closes thing I found was GPSDrive, but it doesn’t provide driving directions, since that level of mapping data is [as yet] only proprietary… but, of course, it’s just a matter of time…)
Personally, I have mixed feelings of having *every* single application and the OS itself using the Armenian language. We would have to come up with *a lot* of new words, and *fast*, for the Armenian language to support such computing-related words (that didn’t even exist for the English language only 20 years ago!). I wonder if we should first start a sort of Wiki/open dictionary for such technical words (as Internet - whose accepted name in Armenian by now is “hamatsants”).
I would vote for getting fast, cheap, reliable Internet access for Armenia as the higher priority over Linux translations, because once users have *access* to linux, then you’ll automatically start seeing the translations popping up… I think there is a big correlation between availability of Internet to a population group and the availability of a translation of Linux for that group’s language.
Why can’t Armenia purchase a geosynchronous satellite to cover all of its communication needs? At least a ground-based tracking satellite dish should be acquired, because it sounds like the Internet link is going through Georgia according to a post above.
Comment by Serouj — 9/20/2006 @ 8:27 am