Is it possible to be a little pregnant, or the Russian curse of Open Source

Exactly two years ago, in April 2019, a significant event took place for all supporters of free and open source software who follow Russian news. JSC "MCST" " published " OS Elbrus for free download. And despite some difficulties at the very beginning due to the excitement that arose, this distribution remains freely available to this day and even continues to be periodically updated.



Currently available for download are Elbrus Linux 6.0.0 based on Linux 5.4 kernel and 5.0-rc3 and 4.0.4 based on Linux 4.9 kernel.







I deliberately wrote the word "published" in quotation marks, since at that time, the source code of the Elbrus Linux distribution was not available for free. Two years ago, in a conversation with CNews, MCST Marketing Director Konstantin Trushkin said that

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So where can you get the Elbrus Linux source code?



In short, nowhere. "Promising does not mean getting married" and after two years, the source code for Elbrus Linux has not been published and is not provided upon first request, as required by the terms of use of the code under the GPL license.



As they wrote in the comments to one of the news about the new version of "Elbrus Linux",

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Of course, it's good that at least some developers realize that these actions violate the terms of the GPL license, but they can't do anything about it either, because it's one thing - someone's rights are there, but you yourself and your family are here.



Therefore, this is how it turns out, the violation of the GPL license seems to be a little bit, but it is pointless to shame MCST JSC for this under such circumstances, because the violation occurs not of their own free will and is explained by the severity of the protection of state secrets.



True, they say that not the Elbrus Linux source code itself is classified as secrecy, but only a set of instructions for the Elbrus microprocessor, but this does not at all simplify the publication of OS source codes, which are still transferred only to legal entities with licenses from regulators and under a non-disclosure subscription.







And the most interesting thing is that you can produce as many hardware as you like for the defense industry, but if the manufacturer still wants to enter the civilian market ( Russia has released a “civilian” domestic tablet on the Elbrus processor ), then failure to comply with the terms of the GPL license not only minuses his karma in the eyes of the open source community, but it is also a violation of the law.



However, recently selfless people were found who, by reverse engineering the processor instruction system and using the available documentation, were able to prepare a set of patches for QEMU and published an early version of the unofficial emulator of the Elbrus 2000 architecture .

At the moment the emulator only supports 64-bit programs compiled for Linux. Almost 80% of the Elbrus-8S instruction set have been implemented.

It may seem that this is a small step forward towards the disclosure of the secret instruction set of the Elbrus processor. But it seems to me that in this situation it is very good luck that the guys are not charged with divulging state secrets or with any illegal access to protected information. And moreover, not any information, but on which the country's defense depends!



But in this situation, a little bit different is strange. More recently, there was an article on Habré that the Chinese company Loongson Technology has developed a new processor architecture from scratch.



In fact, the Chinese processor Loongson is an analogue of the Russian Elbrus. Of course, the architecture and command system of these processors differ, but they are analogous in their intended purpose - to ensure the country's technological independence from the technologies of a potential adversary.



Only in China they don't make a state secret out of it! As they wrote in the comments to that article:

An alliance of "Autonomous Command Systems" is already being formed in China. Alliance members will be able to use the LoongArch instruction set for free. Alliance members can get Loongson processor core designs for free. And the manual for the Loongson 3A4000 processor in Chinese is in the public domain.

Checked, really lie: www.loongson.cn/product/cpu/3/3A3000.html . Microprocessor technical specification and user manual in two parts (though in Chinese).



Doesn't China really understand that they are opening up the command system for a potential adversary as well? Or maybe there are administrative restrictions for obtaining technical specifications of a microprocessor and the transfer of source codes under the NDA is required not to protect the country's defense, but for some other purpose?



After all, any coin has two sides. The consequences of Elbrus being closed for developers are very well described on Habré about Russian import substitution in practice... This is a kind of cry of Yaroslavna, the meaning of which is conveyed in just two paragraphs:

I will not repeat for the thousandth time what domestic production of microprocessors is, why Elbrus and not Baikal, etc. Kilometers of text have already been written about this. It will be about something else - why it is so difficult to switch to "Elbrus" and what are these difficulties. Well, besides the cost ...

Summing up, I can say the following: until the cycle “there will be sales - there will be software, there will be software - there will be orders”, nothing will move from the dead center . Companies with a share of the state capital will buy Elbrus, but this will only lead to the fact that PAKs will act as supports for tables and nightstands, as is the case now. They just gather dust in warehouses, because the companies that bought them simply do not understand what to do with them.

You can refer to various reasons for a long time that prevent you from fulfilling the terms of the GPL license. Or you can at least try to cut this Gordian knot. Is it really impossible to raise the issue to the very top with the help of specialized IT associations? What if a miracle happens and digitalization of the economy will bring real benefits in this case?