One of the market participants told RBC that the Ministry of Digital Industry, together with ANO Digital Economy, developed a project of measures to support the development of open software and open architecture (OS and OA). Among the proposals:
- equate OS and OA solutions with domestic software and microelectronics in a limited list of agreed areas. Now state-owned companies and government agencies are obliged to give preference to products from the registers of domestic software and microelectronics in public procurement. At the same time, even in those areas where there are no domestic products, government agencies cannot always use OS and OA-based products (pay for implementation, technical support, etc.). It is proposed to create a legal mechanism that would allow the use of such solutions, including in the framework of public procurement.
- identify anchor OS and OA customers with mass demand and prepare projects for them using similar products. For this, it is proposed to issue a directive for state-owned companies on the use of such products, and to provide grants for other market players. It is also proposed to establish the obligation to place in the open access the custom software that was created with the involvement of public funds.
- to provide support to companies providing technical support, service and finalization of products based on OS and OA.
- to provide preferential loans for the production of hardware and software systems based on OS and OA.
Proposals in such formulations were discussed at the end of July at a meeting of the working group in the area of “Open source software and microelectronics” under the leadership of Alexander Galitsky, a member of the board of directors of Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies LLC, confirmed several interlocutors of RBC close to the members of this group.
Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maxim Parshin told RBC that the expert community is now developing a strategy for the development of Open Source in Russia. “Soon the draft strategy will be available for wide discussion, and then it will be presented at the Russia Open Source Summit, which will be held on October 1 as part of the finals of the ICPC (International Student Programming Olympiad – RBC ),” Parshin said. RBC sent a request to the representative of ANO Digital Economy.
What is OS and OA
Free software is called software that is distributed under the terms of a free license agreement, when the user gets the right to use the program for any purpose not prohibited by law; has access to the source code of the program for its study or revision, making changes (as opposed to proprietary, that is, non-free software belonging to the copyright holder). The open architecture is designed to easily add, upgrade or replace computer components, peripherals, and other equipment.
According to Research and Markets, in the coming years, the volume of the open source software market in the world will grow by an average of 21.75% per year and will reach $ 66.84 billion by 2026.
What other support measures are offered
According to the interlocutors of RBC, at the same meeting of the working group, VEB.RF and the development institutions under its management presented their proposals for the development of OS and OA. Among their proposals:
- introduce subsidies for developers and buyers of the final OA and OS products, if these products are registered in the registers of domestic software and microelectronics.
- create an independent commercial Foundation for the Support and Development of Free Software (FSF) with a budget of up to 500 million rubles. for the technological part and about 150 million rubles. for organizational events. It is assumed that the fund will allow for group development of open source software and its subsequent reuse by various companies; solve the problems of compatibility of this software with Russian microelectronics and computers; maintain automatic registration in the register of Russian software.
- VEB Ventures proposed to stimulate the contribution of Russian companies to international open source projects, as well as to involve foreign programmers in the development of their own open source platforms. The representative of VEB Ventures confirmed to RBC that the fund came up with the idea “to develop cooperation with international projects to develop solutions based on open source.”
The representative of VEB.RF said that together with the relevant ministries and ANO Tsifrovaya ekonomika, they are working out various proposals, but no final decisions have been made yet.
Why support free products
Ilya Massukh, director of the competence center for import substitution in the field of ICT, noted that increased attention to open source software began a long time ago, and “the entire industry is working on the strategy now.” “The provisions discussed at the end of July are early drafts. In my opinion, we are not talking about equating open source software with Russian. We are a center of competence, and I think the entire industry will be against such a decision, ”he says. Massukh recalled that often free software is located in foreign repositories (repositories), the question of the rights to this software arises. “Of course, in niche zones where there are no domestic analogues, you can use both free and even proprietary software,” said Massukh. “But to get the same rights as Russian software, free software must be developed by a Russian company, based in a domestic repository, not have forced updates from abroad, have technical support here, etc.”.
Alexey Smirnov, chairman of the board of directors of Basalt SPO (a developer of domestic Linux-based operating systems), believes that it would be more correct to support the strengthening of the role of Russian developers in key international free software projects. In his opinion, if you choose between a domestic proprietary solution and domestic free software, then the second option allows you to reduce dependence on the supplier, to attract third-party companies to the development and support of the product.
At the same time, Aleksey Smirnov pointed out that in the register of domestic software there are already several solutions created on the basis of open source software, which are criticized by developers of both free and proprietary software, who incurred high costs to create their own solution, but received the same opportunities, as companies, limited only to a change in the design of other people's products. In mid-June, the Association of Software Developers (ARPP) “Otechestvenny Soft” asked the Ministry of Digital Industry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Import Substitution Competence Center to tighten the procedure for including software in the domestic register, Kommersant wrote. The organization pointed to the example of inclusion in the register of products of the company “Almi Partner”, which, according to the representative of ARPP, are minimally revised open solutions OpenSuse and LibreOffice, “in which icons and names of applications have been replaced.” Almi Partner itself said that the association's appeal was initiated by the developer of a competing product that had been included in the register earlier.
