Putin's Computer Still Runs 18 Year-Old Windows XP
Everyone knows Windows XP is the pinnacle of Bill Gates' operating systems. It all worked intuitively without constantly forcing you to play "Mandatory Update Roulette", where you see if your computer crashes after being compelled to download some new patch.
Perhaps this is why 18 years after it was released, and long after it has stopped being supported, Windows XP is still Vladimir Putin's OS of choice.
Newsweek reports that official Kremlin press photos show XP running on Putin's office desktop computer, along with another computer at his Novo-Ogaryovo official residence west of Moscow. Windows XP is technically banned for use by the Russian government.
Per Newsweek: "The Moscow Times noted that Russian officials are supposedly not allowed to use foreign software. This is part of Moscow's push to decouple from foreign systems to strengthen state security and build a budding technological sector." Apparently though, Windows XP is so old that the rules don't apply.
Putin also recently decided to ditch Wikipedia and build his own version of the peoples' encyclopedia, in a move promising to rigorously maintain freedom of speech and sharing of information for Russian citizens.
Vladimir's Computin'
Considering Putin is a pretty calculated guy, it seems a bit out of character to run an outdated, highly vulnerable operating system on his personal computer. Maybe it's a ploy? Or maybe, that's just what governments do. After all, the US government just stopped using floppy disks for its nuclear defense system in October of 2019.
Despite leveraging technology to great success on the world stage, Putin is apparently quite technology-averse in real life, eschewing smartphones for more traditional forms of communication, like icy glares and knuckle-cracking.
The Russian government hasn't yet commented on the supercalifragilistic-XP allegations, but in 2015 it said it would "replace all Microsoft and Apple software with domestic systems by 2030, with the switchover beginning from 2025."
Here's to another decade of Windows XP.