Russia's new internet czar has given a crazy interview in which he has said it is "inevitable" that the country will switch all of the computers owned by the state over from Windows to Linux.
This comes as a reaction to US companies complying with the embargo against business in Crimea, following Russia's occupation of the peninsula. Over 22,000 local authorities will make the switch.
In Soviet Russia, Linux recompiles you
The Linux switch is perhaps the most interesting move though, as this has been mooted before by a number of countries unhappy with American technological dominance.
According to the Inquirer, China nearly made the switch until Microsoft was able to reach a deal with the government. North Korea also has its own version of Linux, which looks like a rip-off of MacOS.
It'll be interesting to see if Russia can manage it successfully, as such a move could set an interesting precedent though perhaps it could ultimately be a good move… for the West.
If the Russian experience with Linux is anything like everyone else's, trying to do something as simple as change screen resolution could mean that users are forced to recompile the kernel and reinstall the entire operating system. Which will probably slow down any Russian advance into the Baltics, at least a little bit.