Astra Linux is a Russian

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

-based computer

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

(OS) that is being widely deployed in the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to replace

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. Initially it was created and developed to meet the needs of the Russian army, other armed forces and intelligence agencies. It provides data protection up to the level of "top secret" in Russian

classified information Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or ...

grade by featuring mandatory access control. 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 �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

. In the course of 2010s, as Russian authorities and industry were trying to lower dependence on Western products ("

import substitution industrialization Import substitution industrialization (ISI) is a protectionist trade and economics, economic policy that advocates replacing foreign imports with domestic production. It is based on the premise that a country should attempt to reduce its foreign ...

"). 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,

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (commonly referred to as Rosatom rus, Росатом, p=rosˈatəm}), also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, (), or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), sta ...

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

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

equipment.

Specifications

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

Russian Government The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...

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

Free Software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

use. There are two available editions of the OS: the main one is called "Special Edition" and the other one is called "Common Edition". The main differences between the two are the fact that the former is paid, while the latter is free; the former is available for x86-64 architecture, ARM architecture and Elbrus architecture, while the latter is only available for x86-64 architecture; the former has a security certification and provides 3 levels of OS security (which are named after Russian cities and which from the lowest to the highest are: ''

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

'', '' Voronezh'' and ''

Smolensk Smolensk 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 cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

''), while the latter doesn't have the security certification and only provides the lowest level of OS security (''Oryol''). Rusbitech also manufactures a "soft/hardware trusted boot control module" MAKSIM-M1 ("М643М1") with PCI bus. It prevents unauthorized access and offers some other raised digital security features. The module, besides Astra Linux, also supports OSes with

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

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 Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

". The system uses .deb packages. Astralinux minoborony

Astra Linux is a recognized

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

derivative. Rusbitech has partnership relations with The Linux Foundation. It was part of the advisory board of The Document Foundation, but was suspended on 26 February 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 – 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 Russia ...

. 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 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 computers ...

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 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), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

s and subsidiaries of

are planned to switch to Astra Linux, with a total of 15000 users. In July 2022 after

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

had decided to exit the Russian market, Astra Linux announced that it was planning to be publicly listed on the Moscow Exchange, although it did not supply a date for the planned listing at the time.

Repository

Starting with the x.7 update, the ''Astra Linux Special Edition'' operating system uses a nested package repository structure – and this structure comprises the main repository, the base repository, and the extended repository. The main x.7 repository is generally identical to version 1.6 – and the base repository encompasses all core packages, as well as packages related to development tools. The extended repository houses versions of software packages that are not found in the primary and base repositories. Such software operates within the Astra Linux environment, remains unaltered to incorporate security features with CSS, may not be compatible with packages from the base and main repositories, and does not undergo certification tests. The extended repository offers more functionality than a basic and core repository, with extended repository packages capable of modifying basic packages but not core packages. Additionally, the extended repository includes a backport's component that supplies the latest versions of packages that might not be compatible with packages from the basic and extended repositories, and an "''Astra-ce'' component" that furnishes packages to ensure maximum compatibility with third-party software. Using an extended repository enables users to install and run software originally designed for other Linux systems, develop their own software, and adapt Astra-Linux to various hardware platforms. The primary categories of extended repository software packages are packages not included in the base repository, packages that update the base repository (i.e., newer versions of the basic repository packages – if incompatible, they are integrated into the backports component), and packages that substitute packages from the main repository. The latter are consolidated in the ''Astra-ce'' component, which includes:

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL ( ) also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source software, free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL features transaction processing, transactions ...

DBMS, Exim (''Exim4'') email service,

MariaDB MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported Fork (software development), fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Developm ...

DBMS packages,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

OpenJDK OpenJDK (Open Java Development Kit) is a free and open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). It is the result of an effort Sun Microsystems began in 2006, four years before the company was acquired by Oracle Corp ...

tools, and

LibreOffice LibreOffice () is a free and open-source office productivity software suite developed by The Document Foundation (TDF). It was created in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice.org, itself a successor to StarOffice. The suite includes applications ...

office suites.

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

Repository

Version history

See also

References