Import substitution of software in schools



Education has always been an integral part of human life. People constantly passed on their knowledge to the growing generation and tried in every possible way to systematize it. This is how techniques, manuals and books describing specific events and actions were gradually born. In addition, an important addition was the conduct of a lesson or training. Previously, humanity simply told us what happened before us, how to live and what it did and showed everything in practical application. Later, with the intellectual development and improvement of knowledge, people moved from practical sciences to technical and humanitarian sciences, thereby creating theoretical disciplines. The teacher was a professional in his field and guided young people in the right direction. Thus, it was important not only to convey the material, but also to present it qualitatively. Agree that every teacher has their own unique range of emotions, knowledge and ways of teaching a lesson. It is through our reactions and actions that we find one teacher as a master of his craft, and the other uninteresting. Human charisma also plays an important role here.

In the modern world, it is not enough to open a textbook and explain the material to teach a lesson. Modern education shows us the need to introduce a variety of methods of presenting information. And now it is important to apply information technology in this case.

In general, information and communication technologies (ICT) They have been used in schools for a long time and have become an integral part of education. It is important to note that information technology will never replace traditional learning systems, but will be used in addition. However, it is important not just to create and buy a computer. It is important to find the use of these devices in the lesson, including using software. The topic of software is particularly acute for the whole country at the moment. After all, right now the country is facing colossal pressure, and the influence of other countries and foreign companies, and is forced to get out of unpleasant situations in every possible way. That is why the Ministry of Education has been developing and implementing new, domestic software solutions in the educational sphere for many years now instead of foreign programs. Let's look at the main import-substituted programs:

1. The operating system. For many years, the administration has been transferring schools to work in its own operating system, which allows you to be confident not only in the operation of programs, but also in the safety of data. Now laptops being introduced to the school are already being brought with working software for its introduction into the educational sphere and use in lessons. However, this import substitution also has a disadvantage: not all external devices are happy with this change. For example, some printers are very difficult to put into operation on these operating systems. Because of this, teachers are forced to suffer and find various ways to solve the problem.

At the same time, more than one version of the operating system is being developed. Thus, the most popular Linux-based operating systems as import substitution have become:

— Astra Linux is a Russian high — security OS created by Astra based on Debian GNU/Linux.

— The Astra Linux operating system, among other protected Russian software products, turned out to be the most in demand, since it became the base for the Ministry of Defense. The first changes occurred back in 2018, when the military departments decided to abandon Windows in favor of Astra, and later separate versions of tablets began to appear, designed for use in particularly demanding tasks.

— The system is optimized for all platforms used, including distributions for the following devices:

1) Desktop computers and laptops x86 and x64 (Smolensk and Orel).

2) Advanced RISC Machine, that is, an advanced RISC machine in the form of ARM platforms (Novorossiysk).

3) Processors «Elbrus».

4) Fault-tolerant servers with IBM System z architecture (Murmansk).

5) MIPS systems (Sevastopol).

6) POWER systems (Kerch). That is, a single environment can be provided for the development and operation of the same software packages on different computer equipment, and even integrated solutions can be provided. In addition, during the implementation of the partnership agreement with Huawei, in 2019, an optimized version of the distribution was implemented at the Tianwan NPP in the server systems of the Chinese partner.

— This operating system has penetrated software devices on the territory of the Russian Federation on the largest scale. Moreover, starting from 2025, large companies in the country and government agencies are obliged to switch to domestic operating systems and programs, thereby eradicating foreign software products.

— Aurora is a Russian mobile OS created by OSP for use in the corporate sector on smartphones, tablets and other gadgets.

— ROSA is a line of desktop, server and cloud operating systems developed by the Russian company STC IT ROSA.

— Elbrus Linux is a free OS developed by MCST to work with domestic Elbrus and SPARC processors.

— Lotus is a commercial corporate OS of the Russian company Enstream, included in the register of domestic software.

— Calculate Linux is an operating system distribution based on the Linux Gentoo kernel, developed by the Russian IT community.

— ALT Linux is a family of Linux distributions, which is a separate branch of Linux distributions. It is based on the Mandrake distribution, which, in turn, is based on the Red Hat distribution. Distributions are mainly produced by Basalt SPO and Alt Linux, but there are no restrictions on the release of distributions based on ALT repositories. The repositories are maintained by the ALT Linux Team, a predominantly Russian-speaking development team. Most ALT Linux distributions are available for free use.

There are several versions of the operating system at once, for example, Alt Education. Alt Education is a distribution package focused on use in educational institutions. Alt Education is a set of integrated software products based on the Linux operating system. Alt Education is available for the following hardware platforms: x86 (Intel 32/64 bit), AArch64 (Baikal-M, Huawei Kunpeng Desktop, Raspberry Pi 4 and others), e2k («Elbrus»).

2. «LibreOffice». Moyoffice and OpenOffice are also analogues. These programs perfectly replace the popular Microsoft Office and solve all the everyday tasks assigned to the teacher. The domestic equivalent is no worse than the foreign Microsoft Office, which has been developing application programs for more than 40 years. For comparison, MoyOfis has been developing its software products for only 10 years, which already speaks both about the complexity of the work and the speed of overcoming various packages to simplify computational calculations, and the colossal feat of Russian developers who in a short time were able to come so close to a foreign product.

However, there are still differences. In most cases, they are associated with simplifying some part of the editing and structure of the text. For example, it is more difficult to use formulas. In MyOffice, you need to use LaTeX for this. Most of the characters are also missing. Thus, in order to write a power fraction, you will have to copy it from the Internet, which is undoubtedly inconvenient.

Working with shapes and text is also simplified, and there is no SmartArt at all. Exporting a text document may also come as a surprise to a teacher. For example, there is no possibility of exporting to.pdf format, there are no popular formats.doc and. rft, which leads to a reduced distribution of documents.

A huge disadvantage for companies will be the lack of their own DBMS, which leads to a reduction in the functionality of tables when tables are summarized. However, the basic functionality is still there. Therefore, this software product is used in the school curriculum and perfectly replaces a foreign competitor.

Presentations are less likely to demonstrate their similarity. In this case, MoyOfis allows you to view, rather than fully create new presentations.

At the same time, do not forget that MoyOfis is the only Russian office software, the security of which is confirmed by certificates from the FSTEC of Russia, the FSB and the Ministry of Defense [1]. It is this advantage that ensures a huge demand for the product among the Russian segment, providing both functionality and data security.

3. «Spherum». Videoconferencing has become an integral part of anyone's life in 2021. It was then, due to the high degree of spread of the virus, that many enterprises stopped their work and switched to a remote format. Schools are no exception. The Spherum platform allows you to hold joint (group) video conferences, within which you can not only demonstrate the operation of the camera, but also communicate, discuss the topic of the lesson, upload videos and photos, and demonstrate the work of the desktop. At the moment, they are also transferring all school chats to the work of the Spherum application. All these actions make it possible to ensure safety for children, both at school and in the Internet environment.
4. In addition, the Russian FGIS «My School» systems have recently been developed. These actions contribute to the electronic document management of curricula and the journal, which saves not only time, but also paper.
5. The idol. This program is used in computer science lessons and serves to teach the basics of algorithmization. Moreover, the use of its own language based on the Russian alphabet is also a feature of this program. Thus, this program completely replaces foreign software.
6. «Blender» is a free software for creating three-dimensional computer graphics. It is important to note that this program is completely free and is not inferior to foreign analogues in its functionality. Thus, the teacher and the student will not notice the difference when working with the program and will easily master the material.
7. Postgres Pro DBMS is a DBMS of the Russian company Postgres Professional. However, in this category, as well as full-fledged information systems, it is problematic for Russian companies to compete with their foreign counterparts.
8. Kaspersky Lab is an excellent analogue for device security. And not only computers, but also servers, mobile devices and office equipment. Thus, in this category, domestic programs not only replace foreign analogues, but even surpass them.

In fact, these are not all programs that are used at school when working with children. However, these programs are the basis for conducting a lesson and performing basic actions.

Today, child safety is more important than ever for schools and society as a whole. It is especially necessary now to provide a platform for teaching children that will not be able to be subjected to malicious attacks. The use of domestic software is a priority for the Ministry of Education and covers more and more school space every year. Thus, very soon developers will be able not only to complete the creation of programs, but also to create additional (auxiliary) resources to maintain effective work in the lesson.

It is worth noting that the described programs are only common and are not a complete list of the program. Going deeper into the software, you can find an analogue to a foreign application in every field. Thus, every year the domestic software feels more and more confident in the market and demonstrates competitiveness, price-quality ratio. At this rate, very soon Russian software developers will be able to completely replace foreign programs and thereby provide the country with completely independent software.

References:

1. IT market: results 2021 // Cnews. — [Electronic resource]. — Access mode: https://cnews.ru/reviews/rynok_it_itogi_2021 (date of application: 02/20/2024).
2. Federal project «Development of human resources in the IT industry» of the national program «Digital Economy of the Russian Federation» // Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation. — [Electronic resource]. — Access mode: https://digital.gov.ru/ru/activity/directions/1085 (date of access: 02/28/2024).
3. Catalog of digital educational content. — [Electronic resource]. — Access mode: https://educont.ru / (date of access: 03/04/2024).