Way OT - Russian Sourced Hardware with UK Software

[TheScullster]

Hi all

The company I work for has a Russian sales office to which a new employee has been appointed.

He is considering buying a laptop in Moscow but then bringing it here to load UK Windows and MS Office. He claims that the OS and Office sold with the laptops in Russia cannot be modified to work in English.

Are there compatibility issues between hardware sourced elsewhere in the world (particularly Russia in this case obviously) and MS software supplied specifically for the UK market?

Thanks

Phil

[John Williamson]

The first gotcha is going to be Windows expecting a UK keyboard when it's being installed, but that's easily worked round.

[Martin Brown]

It would be interesting to see if the validation codes for a Russian version would be accepted on an English one. In the old days before intrusive validation registration procedures this wasn't an issue. Plenty of shovelware CDs with Office 2010 trial floating around...

Notably the keyboard may have Cyrillic characters (and extra keys for Korean or Chinese DBCS escapes) depending on the market. It is usually the miscellaneous characters like "£" that get gratuitously permuted/lost.

[Davey]

I'm not sure if applies to the UK, but there are restrictions, with severe penalties, for exporting US-sourced software to certain foreign countries. Since Windows is US-sourced, you might want to check up on this before doing anything that might eventually get you extradited to the US for trial, such as the three Natwest bankers, and the fellow currently awaiting trial in Texas. You have been warned.

[David WE Roberts]

Nobody has suggested using Linux and Open Office yet ;-)

[Fredxx]

I have no idea if this is or indeed ever was the case. But I understood that software or IP generated outside Russia was not protected and could be copied unabated, similar to India and Taiwan, although protective of home-grown software.

Can anyone confirm if this is true or not, it could have a bearing on importing any laptop/software into the UK?

[TheScullster]

"Davey" wrote

Thanks Davey

As the individual is an employee of a sub-company of the UK office, I doubt the use of the software in Moscow will classify as "export".

Phil

[TheScullster]

"John Williamson" wrote

Thanks John

Can you elaborate on the workaround for the non-UK keyboard please?

Phil

[Davey]

I would hope. But the Americans have strange ways of regarding these things. I lived there for thirty years, and never understood them!

I shall follow this with interest.

[John Williamson]

I'd try plugging a USB keyboard in. You may need to change the USB settings in the BIOS to enable legacy mode. You *may* be able to get away with just touch typing the key, ignoring what's on the keytops, but I've not tried that.

You'll also probably need to get at least the Professional versions of the OS and Office to allow you to add extra languages.

Or, as has been suggested, try Linux and Open Office, which will give you fairly good file compatibility with anything up to MS Office 2010.

[NT]

Pirated versions of windows are widepsread in Russia to an extent not seen here. Even banks use pirated windows, with authorities showing little interest in enforcing payments to America. I dont know what sort of trouble you might run into when carrying it between countries.

The safe option really is linux. You can take a few choice linux live cds when buying the laptopamibob, put them in and check it works ok. Just beware of patchy webcam support.

NT

[Michael Chare]

Who makes the laptop?

Laptops tend to have specialist hardware which needs corresponding drivers. As an English speaking person, I would not want to have to download drivers from a Russian language website. (Well there is Google translate.)

It appears that I could configure W7 on my Desktop PC to use a Russian Keyboard.

How easy would it be for the new employee to send a letter/email in English if he has a Russian Keyboard?

[The Other Mike]

North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Iran / Iraq (or was it both?) were on the banned lists for many decades.

I can't ever recall seeing USSR or any of the successor states appearing on the lists

[Martin Brown]

Even during the COCOM era it was possible to export some kit to Russia. Though the effects of corporate lobbying in the USA was clear. Selling IBM 4.7MHz PCs was good, Compaqs or Dells at 6 or 8MHz were prohibited.

ISTR in the same week in the early 1980's an IBM salesman won an export award for selling 2000 IBM PC/XTs (with hard disks) to Moscow State University and some hapless German businessman was jailed for selling

500 Beebons to an East German university. The latter had hires graphics that were just slightly too good for the COCOM rules at that time.

[TheScullster]

"Michael Chare" wrote

Thanks Michael

He has yet to buy the laptop in Russia, so manufacturer not yet known.

Having tried to make changes to a Russian language laptop, I am really not sure how he has been working in English with a Russian keyboard!

Phil

[Gary]

Are laptops cheap in Russia? Why not get one from Europe UK or USA

[The Natural Philosopher]

IF you are a touch typist simply load a UK keymap and forget what is written on the keys.

[Davey]

It probably depends on who you know.....

[John]

TheScullster explained on 25/04/2012 :

Aren't we all over-thinking this a bit? The whole reason computers came to the masses and the reason why we can walk into any computer shop from Land's End to John O'Groats and know what we are getting when we buy a computer is because of mass production and industry standards. Surely an ATX 2.0 PSU for example, complies to an industry-wide, world-wide standard?

I know we're talking about a laptop here but surely the same principle applies? It may be a russian laptop, maybe even manufactured (as well as purchased) in Russia, but surely it'll be a Dell or an HP or Sony or whatever, that will use (say) Nvidia graphics, Intel processor etc. The russians are hardly likely to have reinvented the wheel and made something of their own from scratch - IMHO of course :oÞ