I am become Tux, destroyer of warez
Opinion Indian mythology is rich beyond measure in tales of gods, demons, and humans doing battle. Deception, alliances, betrayal, supernatural weaponry, and devastating consequences tangle with morality and greed. If you think that sounds like today’s global technology maelstrom, that’s forgivable.
So when the Indian Ministry of Defence announced that it would be ditching Microsoft Windows in favor of “locally developed” open source Maya OS to increase security, it’s fair to see this as part of the great cycle of conflict between FOSS and proprietary systems. Such decisions are never purely pragmatic, even though that’s frequently the justification, and when policy rather than practicality has the upper hand, the results can be excitingly mixed.
Let’s stick to the practical for starters. We all know what Windows is, what it does, and why it has such a special place in our hearts – Maya OS is new. It is also “developed by government agencies within six months [and] is capable of preventing cyber threats and malware attacks,” according to reports. It’s actually Ubuntu with a Windows-like front end and some extra endpoint security.
That doesn’t seem so bad. Although the system is expected to roll out across the many parts of the Ministry of Defence and armed forces, the migration is staged, with each part going through its own evaluation process. Sane so far. If you look at the rolling news of new vulnerabilities and attacks, then yes, Linux on the desktop is far less malware-y than Redmond’s legacy-laden lash-up. If that’s because there are fewer targets to attack with a Linux desktop, it doesn’t make it not true. That’s not the point.
The history of migrating from Windows to Linux is not so great. Not so much demons in the details as entire circles of Hell vomiting up squadrons of the beasts.
