Astra Linux is a Russian

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based computer

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

(OS) that is being widely deployed in the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in order to replace

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. https://www.cnews.ru/news/top/2020-11-12_gosorgany_rossii_massovo https://rg.ru/2022/03/23/kakie-rossijskie-alternativy-est-u-zarubezhnogo-programmnogo-obespecheniia.html https://www.ferra.ru/news/apps/rossiyane-stalo-massovo-skachivat-otechestvennye-programmy-vmesto-zarubezhnykh-18-03-2022.htm Initially it was created and developed to meet the needs of the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...

, other

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and

intelligence agencies An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...

. It provides

data protection Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data pr ...

up to the level of "top secret" in Russian

classified information Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

grade by featuring

mandatory access control In computer security, mandatory access control (MAC) refers to a type of access control by which the operating system or database constrains the ability of a ''subject'' or ''initiator'' to access or generally perform some sort of operation on a ...

. It has been officially certified by Russian Defense Ministry, Federal Service for Technical and Export Control and

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...

. In the course of

2010s File:2010s collage v21.png, From top left, clockwise: Anti-government protests called the Arab Spring arose in 2010–2011, and as a result, many governments were overthrown, including when Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was Death of Muammar Gadd ...

, as Russian authorities and industry were trying to lower dependence on Western products ("

import substitution industrialization Import substitution industrialization (ISI) is a trade and economic policy that advocates replacing foreign imports with domestic production.''A Comprehensive Dictionary of Economics'' p.88, ed. Nelson Brian 2009. It is based on the premise that ...

"), Astra Linux became widely used by Russian civilians as a universal operating system for

personal computers A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...

. Aside from army and police, it is now being supplied to educational, healthcare and other state institutions, as well as in industry giants such as

RZD Russian Railways (russian: link=no, ОАО «Российские железные дороги» (ОАО «РЖД»), OAO Rossiyskie zheleznye dorogi (OAO RZhD)) is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both mana ...

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

Rosatom Rosatom, ( rus, Росатом, p=rɐsˈatəm}) also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that speciali ...

and others. Server versions of Astra Linux are certified to work with

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

equipment.

Specifications

The creator of the OS is the Scientific/Manufacturing Enterprise Rusbitech which is applying solutions according to

Russian Government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...

decree No.2299-р of 17/10/2010 that orders federal authorities and budget institutions to implement

Free Software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

use. The OS releases are named after Hero Cities in Russia and

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

(CIS). There is one release for ''general purpose'' code named ''

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, p=ɐˈrʲɵl, lit. ''eagle''), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast situated on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow. It is part of the Central Fed ...

'' aimed at "achieving small and mid-business goals". Other releases are marked "special purpose" – the ''

Smolensk Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...

'' for

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mod ...

PCs, '' Tula'' for

networking hardware Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices which are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission in ...

, ''

Novorossiysk Novorossiysk ( rus, Новоросси́йск, p=nəvərɐˈsʲijsk; ady, ЦIэмэз, translit=Chəməz, p=t͡sʼɜmɜz) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities hono ...

'' for

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...

mobile devices and ''

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') i ...

'' for

IBM System Z IBM Z is a family name used by IBM for all of its z/Architecture mainframe computers. In July 2017, with another generation of products, the official family was changed to IBM Z from IBM z Systems; the IBM Z family now includes the newest mod ...

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

s. Rusbitech also manufactures a "soft/hardware trusted boot control module" MAKSIM-M1 ("М643М1") with

PCI bus PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Prov ...

. It prevents

unauthorized access Authorization or authorisation (see spelling differences) is the function of specifying access rights/privileges to resources, which is related to general information security and computer security, and to access control in particular. More for ...

and offers some other raised

digital security Digital security refers to various ways of protecting a computer's internet account and files from intrusion by an outside user or a hacker. Computers and the Internet Internet security involves the protection of a computer's internet account a ...

features. The module, besides Astra Linux, also supports OSes with

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

2.6.x up to 5.x.x, as well as several

OSes. It is declared the Astra Linux licenses correspond with Russian and international laws and "don't contradict with the spirit and demands of

GPL license The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

". The system uses

.deb deb is the format, as well as extension of the software package format for the Debian Linux distribution and its derivatives. Design Debian packages are standard Unix ar archives that include two tar archives. One archive holds the cont ...

packages.

Astra Linux is a recognized

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...

derivative. Rusbitech has partnership relations with

The Linux Foundation ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. It was part of the advisory board of

The Document Foundation The Document Foundation (TDF) is a non-profit organization that promotes open-source document handling software. It was created by members of the OpenOffice.org community to manage and develop LibreOffice, a free and open-source office suite, an ...

, but was suspended at 26th Feb. 2022 because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Use

The Special Edition version (paid) is used in many Russian state-related organizations. Particularly, it is used in the Russian National Center for Defence Control. There are talks to deploy mass use of Astra Linux in many state institutions of the

Republic of Crimea The Republic of Crimea, translit. ''Respublika Krym'' ; uk, Республіка Крим, translit. ''Respublika Krym'' ; crh, , is an unrecognized federal subject (republic) of Russia, located in the Crimean Peninsula. Its territory cor ...

– legitimate use of other popular OSes is questionable because of

international sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War International sanctions have been imposed against Russia and Crimea during the Russo-Ukrainian War by a large number of countries, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, and international organisations following the Russi ...

. Also there were plans on cooperation of Rusbitech and

. In January 2018, it was announced that Astra Linux was going to be deployed to all Russian Army computers, and Microsoft Windows will be dropped. In February 2018, Rusbitech announced it has ported Astra Linux to Russian-made Elbrus microprocessors. In February 2019, Astra Linux was announced to be implemented at

Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province, China. It is located on the coast of the Yellow Sea approximately 30 kilometers east of Lianyungang proper. It is co-owned by Jiangs ...

in China. Since 2019 "super-protected"

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...

s branded ''MIG'' are available with Astra Linux, smartphones are expected. In 2019

national gas/oil holding announced Astra Linux implementation, in 2020 nuclear corporation

, in early 2021

Russian Railways Russian Railways (russian: link=no, ОАО «Российские железные дороги» (ОАО «РЖД»), OAO Rossiyskie zheleznye dorogi (OAO RZhD)) is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both manag ...

was reported to do so. In 2020, Astra Linux sold more than a million copies in licenses and generated 2 billion rubles in sales. In 2021, several Russian

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

s and subsidiaries of

are planned to switch to Astra Linux, with a total of 15000 users. Following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, and subsequent departure of Microsoft from the Russian market, Astra Linux announced that it was planning to be publicly listed on the

Moscow Exchange The Moscow Exchange (MOEX; rus, Московская биржа, r=Moskovskaya birzha, p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈbʲirʐə, a=) is the largest exchange in Russia, operating trading markets in equities, bonds, derivatives, the foreign exchange market, ...

, although it has not yet given a planned timeline.

Version history

References

{{Russian operating systems X86-64 Linux distributions Debian-based distributions Linux distributions Russian-language Linux distributions State-sponsored Linux distributions

Specifications

Use

Version history

See also

References