Developer RusBitTech Working state Current Update method APT | Available in Russian, English | |
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Astra Linux is a Russian Linux-based computer operating system developed to meet the needs of Russian army, other armed forces and intelligence agencies. It provides data protection up to the level of "top secret" in Russian classified information grade. It has been officially certified by Russian Defense Ministry, Federal Service for Technical and Export Control and Federal Security Service.
Contents
Specifications
The creator of the OS is the Scientific/Manufacturing Enterprise RusBitTech which is applying solutions according to Russian Government decree №2299-р of 17/10/2010 that orders federal authorities and budget institutions to implement Free Software usage.
The OS releases are named after Hero Cities in Russia and CIS. There is one release for "general purpose" codenamed "Oryol" aimed at "achieving small and mid-business goals". Other releases are marked "special purpose" — the "Smolensk" for x86-64 PCs, "Tula" for networking hardware, "Novorossiysk" for ARM mobile devices and "Murmansk" for IBM System z mainframes.
RusBitTech 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 2.6.x and 3.x.x, as well as several Microsoft Windows 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 system uses .deb packages.
Usage
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 usage of Astra Linux in numerous state institutions of the Republic of Crimea — legitimate usage of other popular OSes is questionable because of international sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis.
Also there are plans on cooperation of RusBitTech and Huawei.