

Russia plans Linux-based mobile operating system to rival Android and iOS - prostoalex
http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2015/05/russia-plans-linux-based-mobile-operating-system-to-rival-android-and-ios/

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jorgecastillo
This seems kind of insane, Android is open source already. Just some
modifications and any organization with enough funding can have a viable
replacement to the Android that Google ships (if in doubt ask the Chinese). I
don't see this getting too far. And doesn't Yandex already have a mobile OS of
their own?[1] If they want to rival anything, they should try to rival Windows
and promote Linux use within Russia.

[1][https://kit.yandex.com/](https://kit.yandex.com/)

~~~
zurn
Don't buy the "Android is open source" whitewashing. They just do code drops
of some parts as open source where it suits them, but keep large parts as
closed source when profitable/convenient. And the open source parts aren't
useful on their own, because the proprietary parts are essential parts of the
system's value. And then of course come the services and the platform's tight
coupling to them. The services are even more closed - unnecessarily.

Real open source systems have outside contributors and stakeholders, and
developer communities. Android mostly just has app developers and a "hacking"
scene (xda etc).

Yes there's a small band of Quixotic guys trying to make an open source fork
limp along but it's comparable in size (and odds of success) to Amiga
users/developers. It's an unusable tech experiment that only runs on a couple
of antiquated phones and has no services, not the Android that people know.

The only openness-related reason to prefer Android over iOS is that they still
let you install what apps you like on it (sideloading) and the app store
policies are slightly less draconian than Apple's.

~~~
tokenizerrr
What about CyanogenMod?

~~~
seba_dos1
Nothing. Fully open CyanogenMod is called Replicant, and just take a look at
its support list. That's how open and free Android platforms really are.

[http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Replican...](http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ReplicantStatus)

~~~
tokenizerrr
Those look like it's just missing drivers? Android itself doesn't have much to
do with that.

~~~
seba_dos1
Notice that it's still based on 4.2, there are not so many of devices it can
run on and even with fully documented and open platforms like GTA04 it's still
a lot of work to make it run.

Plus there's absolutely no way to upstream their work, so it's a massive
maintenance burden (one of the reasons they're still on 4.2)

AOSP is just what zurn said above - a code drop. If Android was really an open
platform, Replicant either wouldn't be needed or Replicant devs would have
much less work to do. Openness of Android is great for Chinese vendors making
cheap tablets, so they have a ready system to put on them for almost free -
but it's not so good as an open _platform_.

------
icanhackit
If they want to take surveillance to the next level, leapfrogging the other
surveillance states, they could go with a text-based UI that leans heavily on
AI - like Wolfram Alpha as an OS. Would save on having to keep up with UI
trends and still be bleeding edge.

    
    
      User: "Open interwebs"
      Machine: "What internet site would you like to go to?"
      User: "One with email"
      Machine: "Opening email application...you have a message from Mary."
      User: "Say hello to Mary for me."
      Machine: "Reply sent."
      User: "What's on at the movies?"
      Machine: "Based on your location and love of Dear Leader, I recommend X."
      User: "Sounds expensive, how much money do I have?"
      Machine: "You have X in your account, however a Gazprom bill for X will be arriving soon."
      User: "What is the average velocity of an unladen swallow?"
    

That way your system is always acting as a layer between the user and the
content, ensuring you not only know what they're doing, but influence it as
well. It would also work on cheaper handsets.

------
dschiptsov
New tanks in the age of unmaned drones and high precision veapons, state
sponsored ressurection of dogmatic religions, as if last 3 hundted years of
philosophy and sciences never happened, rapid transformation of the ruins of
Soviet Union into an olygarhic Orwellian state.. We are still so deep in the
past century, ignoring and distorting the objective reality in which we are
losers who ma aged to ruin themselves due to greed and ignorance..

There are not a sigle chance of making a successful rival to Android, simply
because it requires much more than a huge pile of dumb money and based on
self-delusion arrogance.

~~~
x0054
> self-delusion arrogance

What else do you expect from a country lead by a guy who rides bare chested on
a horse in his campaign promos? I might be biased and all, being originally
from Ukraine, but this effort is clearly grandstanding and nothing else.
Remember, this is the same country where one of the main news anchors goes on
TV regularly, and announces how Russia is the only country in the world with
with will and the technology to wipe the United States off the face of the
planet. Even the politburo back in the USSR days wasn't stupid enough to say
something like that, not because it isn't true, but because they understood
how mutually assured destruction works. The scary part is, it's possible that
the leadership in Russia really is stupid enough to do it.

~~~
mercurial
> The scary part is, it's possible that the leadership in Russia really is
> stupid enough to do it.

Putin is many things, but stupid is not one of them.

~~~
x0054
You are right, he is far from stupid, but he is rather self delusional and who
knows if he is all there. Stalin wasn't stupid either, but the man was
certifiably insane.

Overall, it makes me so sad, because I think Russia could be such a grate
country if it wasn't for their leadership. There many people inside Russia who
think the same way, unfortunately they are oppressed and exterminated on
regular bases. It's ironic that a country that requires bloggers to register
with the government of face jail time is trying to make an open alternative
phone operating system to safeguard the users data.

------
trhway
it will pair nicely with the fastest CPU in the world (Elbrus XXX) and the
bridge to Crimea... Everything (including the bridge) will be developed in the
innovation center slash nano-City - Skolkovo (built by the nano-President
Medvedev (Putin's "mini-me" built using Russian nanotechnologies)) ... All
while space missions continue to fall from the sky like summer night meteor
shower - second in mere weeks failure - this time it was Mexican satellite -
after the recent International Station cargo delivery fiasko... Russia is
rising... and falling again flat on the face drunk almost to death on
corruption money (and there is no other money there by the way)

~~~
ijontichy57
the listing of your submissions is remarkable
([https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=trhway](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=trhway)):

\- Failed body armour test by pro-Russian rebels

\- Rebels using RC drone for fire correction in the fight for Donetsk airport

\- “Sea Launch” mothballed due to termination of “Zenit” launches

\- “Wikipedia” refused to delete the article on cocaine at request by
Roskomnadzor

\- The Fish Matrix: this gigantic deep ocean sphere will raise 1,000 tons of
tuna

What exactly are trying to achieve here?

~~~
trhway
com'n, man! I never even disclosed the top secret Russian program of special
ops and combat crane training in response to western drone programs :
[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/06/vladimir-
putin-...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/06/vladimir-putin-cranes-
hang-glider)

------
wildchild
They are just wanna steal government money like always.

~~~
unbeli
Can't agree more. This has nothing to do with "reducing Russian reliance on
foreign technology," but rather with plain old corruption and theft.

------
walterbell
Maemo/Meego/Jolla rises for the umpteenth time. It would be cool to see Jolla
on the dual-screen Yota 2, which has raised over $100K in less than a day, for
the North American version,
[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/yotaphone-2-world-s-
first...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/yotaphone-2-world-s-first-dual-
screen-smartphone)

------
peteretep
So the USP is that it'll contain Russian backdoors instead of 5EYES ones...

------
Animats
China has tried this twice. There was Red Flag Linux [1](2000-2014) and the
China Operating System.(2014-?)[2]. Neither appeared on mass produced devices.
Still, I expect that eventually Shentzen will dump US-based OSs for something
else.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flag_Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flag_Linux)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COS_%28operating_system%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COS_%28operating_system%29)

~~~
martin1975
Tizen, since Samsung's all over it like a cheap suit. And South Korea is a lot
closer than the USA and far more easily controllable/nuke-able if they
misbehave and put backdoors into Tizen. I could definitely see Tizen becoming
China's next mobile OS.

------
hhsnopek
Haha, by new operating system I'm guessing they'll be taking jolla and forking
it. If not forking it they'll definitely adopt the same way jolla is
controlling its hardware. If the honestly attempt to build a new OS, with s
manufacture it will probably fail. I'm excited to see if they do create a new
OS. It could be the next breakthrough we've been waiting for in mobile
technology.

------
beagle3
According to this article and others I found on the subject, it is going to be
Sailfish based (thus, heritage includes Linux, Mer, MeeGo, Maemo, Moblin, and
whatever other names it had before; And still shares a lot with Tizen.

------
__Joker
This is a non starter. Unless device makers push the OS and there is a minimum
viable eco system of application, OS doesn't have much legs to travel. See, it
is not so easy pushing the Windows OS on Mircorsoft devices.

~~~
blumkvist
Or... you can simply mandate all phones in the country be sold with this OS on
them.

------
kika
They're also planning to get to Mars before US or anyone else does.

~~~
jacquesm
Plans are like ideas, they're worth next to nothing, execution is king.

------
mmrasheed
The key idea behind deciding whether to fork or not comes from the licenses,
patents, and legal bindings. Although android is open source, there are so
many patent and licensing issues. Only way to avert it is to go "China",
ignore patents inside your own territory. Or, be a good dog and pay for all
the claims. Samsung is the only exception who are playing push back and forth
all along.

~~~
jedmeyers
USSR was very famous for reverse engineering western tech and not paying
anything for that.

~~~
mmrasheed
Surely they were famous for reverse engineering key technologies from the
West. Unfortunately it seems, they have lost that edge with digital
technology. China on the other hand is making huge fotune out of its cloning
and reverse engineering business. Their policy? "First make money by cloning
and copying, then buy the original product maker once you are ready to expand
internationally." Example- copycat company Geely bought one of the most
creative automakers Volvo.

------
sam_lowry_
Back in Nokia times, there were lots of Russian engineers working on Maemo and
other Linux-based OSes for Nokia phones.

It's natural that Jolla kept some of these people on board and that they used
their cultural ties to look for Russian state money.

------
pplcf
They actually considered four projects (AOSP, FirefoxOS, Tizen and
SailfishOS), but first two are maintained by US-based corporations and
apparently Samsung is also not reliable partner in their eyes.

------
mmrasheed
When public data is sensitive for each country, every country should have
their own system, as long as they can afford it. At least that's what I have
learned in post Snowden era. It's much secured for each government, people
bound by their own country's law, and even if they are monitored, they will be
monitored by their own government. After all, nobody is ever trying to stop
NSA from spying on rest of the world! It's only US citizens they are altering
policies for. So, why shouldn't Russia or any EU country should have their own
OS?

~~~
rimantas
Why do you assume that if country has it's own OS other it will be more secure
and safe from spying by other countries?

~~~
mmrasheed
When each country will have their own OS, 1\. NSA won't be able to ask
Microsoft to use their master key to spy on people of other countries. They
will have to find a way to do that.

2\. Policy wise people of each country will enjoy their own privacy and
security. Their security won't have to rely on the US senate approval.

3\. OS build by each country will work like virtual regional borders for their
people. It will be the responsibility of the developers of respective
countries on how they manage the security and privacy of their own OS. So,
their would be a competitive advantage for public in general.

4\. Economically, a lot of required technical work will create more job
opportunities. Governments and local businesses will get to bite the share of
big, centralized companies.

~~~
mercurial
> Policy wise people of each country will enjoy their own privacy and
> security.

By "privacy" you mean that only their own government and the foreign
intelligence services they have agreement with will be privy to their
communications?

~~~
mmrasheed
Right. We can't stop government agencies in any country snooping and sniffing
around. So, why not make that tranparent instead? Once a government actively
participates in digital policy making for their own people, people will have
their say in it based on how much democratic that country is.

It may not affect the authoritarian regimes much, but will significantly
empower netizens of the well developed democracies.

------
jms703
FirefoxOS?

