School children in Russia will be using exclusively Linux on computers by 2009.

The schools in Russia will avoid paying any licensing fees for software by going all-Linux. The software will be tested in three pilot regions. After the pilot, these regions can choose between either sticking with Linux or paying for an alternative software such as windows.

Before now, the schools tended to use illegal copies of windows or other software but laws have gotten stricter and a number of them have been prosecuted for this behavior.

Despite the fact that Russian schools claim to be going all Linux because it’s more cost effective some people believe that the country simply do not wish to be tied to any kind of western software.