OS MES

2025

Market participants appreciated the creation of "MES OS"

At the end of February 2025 DIT Moscow , he announced the operating system for school computers "MES OS." The department explained the need to create its own platform by the lack of a product that would fully suit the tasks and diversity of the computer fleet of educational institutions. TAdviser talked with market participants to understand whether it really makes sense to develop a separate one. OS

The head of the development of OS ROSA"" Alexey Kiselev, in a conversation TAdviser with, said that OS MES was created on ABF the basis of the ROSA platform - the repository and assembly system, which the company has been developing for 10 years.

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Фото: Freepik

This allowed DIT Moscow and their subordinate organizations to quickly create their own operating system on the basis of our kernel and package base and develop it with the developer community using the Mos.Hub platform, "Kiselev said.

Roman Borisov, Director of the Department of Development and Sales in Education of Astra Group, is sure that schools do not need a separate operating system - they rather need separate software that will be installed to the standard OS that helps in learning. Vendors present on the market offer mainly the same standard operating system for users, but with a bias towards education, the interlocutor of TAdviser noted.

BASEALT also does not see the need to develop a special OS that is compatible with a wide range of application software and specialized equipment that works out of the box. The Alt Education OS has already been used in Moscow schools during the OGE in 2024, the BASEALT recalled.

Creating a separate operating system specifically for education is not rational. Today there are proven and effective solutions that are successfully used in schools and universities, "says Rustam Rustamov, Deputy General Director of Red Soft (developing the Red OS operating system for educational institutions). - The development of a new educational OS can lead to an excessive variety of platforms, which will create additional difficulties for schoolchildren and students who will have to get used to different interfaces. Adapting existing solutions would avoid market fragmentation and ensure continuity of the educational process.

Kirill Semion, General Director of the National Competence Center for Holding Information Management Systems (NCC ISU), said that several dozen operating systems are located in the register of domestic software, so it is not clear why Moscow needs a separate product.

Postgres Professional co-founder and deputy general director Ivan Panchenko said that MES is not a new operating system, but only another Linux distribution, which is tailored for school tasks.

There are several thousand distributions of the Linux operating system in the world, tailored for specific industry goals. Why not do your own for schools too? True, in Russia for some reason they are loudly called the "operating system," but there is only one root - Linux. This system is being developed by a wide international community with the participation of the largest companies: Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Huawei and others, "Panchenko added.

The operating system "OS MES" is included in the register of domestic software. At the same time, the product is not included in the class of operating systems - it belongs to the class "05.07 Specialized software of executive authorities of the Russian Federation, state corporations, companies and legal entities with the predominant participation of the Russian Federation for internal use." And the full name of the product looks like this: Service "Operating System" of the Moscow Electronic School.

In DIT, Moscow is still called the "OS MES" operating system. The department told TAdviser that the decision to develop its own OS was made back in 2022, since the register of domestic software did not have an operating system that fully meets all these needs of the city.

In addition to technical requirements, it was important for us that the transition from Windows to the new domestic operating system was as comfortable as possible for MES users and was characterized by ease of learning and effective support... The introduction of domestic software will ensure the safe and stable operation of the MES platform, the reliable functioning of digital services and data protection in educational institutions in Moscow, the Moscow Department of Information Technologies explained.

Transfer of all educational institutions of the capital to the domestic OS

On February 25, 2025, the Department of Information Technologies (DIT) of the city of Moscow announced the transfer of all educational institutions in the capital to a new operating system. We are talking about "OS MES," which is developed specifically for the "Moscow Electronic School." The platform has already been installed on thousands of teachers' laptops, all-in-ones in computer classrooms and interactive panels in Moscow schools .

According to the press service of DIT, the operating system "OS MES" is included in the register of domestic software. From 2025, it will be used to organize state final certification of schoolchildren, including conducting the main state exam and training OGEs both in computer and in writing.

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Фото: Freepik

For the first time in Russia, the capital's DIT developed and implemented its own educational operating system as part of the software import substitution policy. The transition to a domestic solution was an important step towards digital sovereignty and the security of these students and teachers of Moscow schools.

MES OS is based on the Linux kernel and open source software. The system is equipped with an intuitive interface that includes standard windows, menus and controls. The operating system is preinstalled with a full set of necessary programs: web browsers, office applications, multimedia editors and other tools for comfortable work of students and teachers.

With the help of the new operating system in 2025, the preparation and printing of examination materials will be provided, as well as the translation of the forms of the exam participants into electronic form directly in the classrooms of the examination points. This approach will ensure stability, transparency and convenience of examination processes for graduates and teachers.

As TAdviser was told in DIT Moscow, the decision to develop its own OS was made due to the fact that a huge fleet of various computer and peripheral equipment in the capital's educational institutions "did not support any of the operating systems on the market."

In addition, it was necessary to support a wide range of specific software solutions that are used in education (for example, to conduct robotics lessons in engineering classes and in preparation for GIA) and other urban systems. A solution was required that would ensure the independence of the capital from third-party solutions and developers, which is especially important for the continuity of the educational process, and would also allow combining the infrastructure into a single ecosystem compatible with digital MES services, so that it would be possible to centrally manage and update software on end-user computers to ensure a continuous educational process, - explained in DIT.