Basealt Gives Schools Alt Education for Free—But There’s a Catch
Russian IT firm Basealt is handing out its Alt Education OS to schools at no cost. It’s framed as a gift to save the nation’s tech future, but behind the altruism lies a mandatory integration into a very specific state-controlled ecosystem.
Basealt just announced that their Alt Education 11 operating system is now permanently free for all Russian state and private schools. This isn't just a basic OS; it comes pre-packaged with a digital survival kit for teachers, including tools like Veyon for spying on student screens, OpenBoard for interactive teaching, and Moodle for those endless remote learning sessions. The company claims this move is a massive act of social responsibility, intended to shield schools from the terrifying unpredictability of global software.
The system is currently the only one fully baked into the Unified Register of Russian Programs and certified to run the national standardized testing software. Schools can now legally conduct their state exams entirely on this platform, which includes all the necessary security certificates required by the Ministry of Digital Development to keep everything in the government-approved lane. While the software itself costs nothing, the company is still pushing a "standard" support contract that costs 25,000 rubles for a batch of 20 installs, because nothing in life is truly free when it comes to enterprise-grade bureaucracy.
This is a classic "walled garden" strategy disguised as a charitable act. By hooking students on a proprietary national OS from childhood, the state ensures that the next generation of IT workers won't even know how to navigate an environment that isn't pre-approved by a government regulatory body. It’s not just an OS; it’s a lifetime subscription to a specific digital reality.
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