Retraction of "China Banning W2K"

??? writes "It would appear that the Mercury is retracting its earlier story posted here. In a recently posted story, both the Chinese government and Microsoft deny the veracity of the story. The interviewed Chinese government spokesperson did however indicate that they are encouraging the use of domestically produced software. " Some of the Reuters stories seem to indicate that China has banned Win2k in critical government/infrastructure situations - but I can't find confirmation.

Comments

"Red Flag" Linux is Real, but ...

[Anonymous Coward]

...some of the "commie"-centered posts on this thread are laughable. Maybe the reasons why the Chinese government is interest in Linux include: 1. China is poor 2. Linux is free (even if China isn't) 3. They want to develop indigenous software development so they can stop sending billions to Redmond 4. They are under pressure to curtail software piracy...GPL software makes this moot. 5. They are tired of finding BackOrifice, Netbus and 48,000 viruses on their systems 6. The mostly have old hardware (486s and P54C/Pentiums) and Linux is friendly to old iron; can you imagine the hardware cost to them of buying machines capable of running Win2K!? (you same jerks praised Mexico for using Linux in their education system; China's motivations are not much different) and, finally: The are getting ready for the CHICOM IPO (NSDQ: CHCM) and are hoping to boost the share values and by linking the offering to Linux. p.s., get over the "commie" label--they have evolved into a run-of-the-mill authoritarian regime, no worse than some of the US' friends like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore. The fact that they are Chinese has a lot more explanatory power for their actions than any lingering Marx/Lenin/Stalin/Mao Zedong/Robert Reich stench.

Going out on a limb, here

[Markvs]

Okay... China's a Communist country. (One of the last in the world, but hey.) OF COURSE they're going to promote "home grown" software over Microsoft!

Theoretically (or is it ideologically in this sense?), Communists don't believe in the acquisition of personal wealth. So why would they want to pay licensing fees? Or for that matter for any software at all? In the ideal utopian society, each member produces to his or her ability and takes only what he or she needs. Linux is therefore the OS of the people!

Needless to say, it won't be easy. It's not like even simplified Chinese is easy to code for/with (just guessing here), at least with the relative preponderence of English/Spanish/French/German compilers. (For example, I've never seen a Polish version of C++, even in Poland. If anyone knows otherwise, lemme know). They'd have to come up with an entire microcomputer industry more or less from scratch...

Sooner or later.

[Black Parrot]

Newspapers crying "wolf" aside, I expect it's only a matter of time before this happens for real. Not just in China, but in most of the world's nations.

I'd like to say my prediction is based on the the many intrinsic benefits of logicels libre, but in fact I think it boils down to a single issue: proof against trojan horses.

Plenty of nations have reason to be wary of snooping by the USA, and there have been enough corporations caught uploading unauthorized data lately that it doesn't take an excess of paranoia to want to play things on the safe side.

Hell, I'm wary of closed source software just because I don't want unauthorized snooping on my home system, where I don't have anything remotely worth stealing. How much more wary would I be if it was a matter of national security in the face of software possibly harboring hooks from a somewhat unfriendly rival government?

--
It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?

China and Linux

[SYS2066]

Well, I wouldn't expect the Chineese to ban W2000 than I'd expect USA to ban all forms of Linux. Still, if the adoption of Linux would be true - despite the rumours about W200 - it would certainly be rather interesting politically.

The government in China is certainly not a nice government, and to have Linux associated with it would be somewhat unpleasant. There is a more than a little socialist (NOT in the chinese sense, mind you) touch to Linux, mostly because it strives due to the "communal ownership of code". But at the same time, free software is highly libertarian too, which does not go well with communism.

Had linux been a political system, this mixture of libertarian and socialist ideas would be rather interesting. But I think one should see Linux as essentially non-political (in the general sense) because it deals with technology and not society. The ideas embraced by Linux has been around for a long time in the political system, and Linux has merely transferred it to the technological arena - and proven to be a big success.

Still - the growth of Linux would be tremendous if it was introduced on a government scale in china...

// Simon Kågström

Its a conspiracy, damn it!

[Fruan]

Now, the big question is, which conspircy? Take your pick:

-Mircrosoft payed off China
-Microsoft threatend China
-Microsoft traded nucular secrets to China
-China was actually trying to hide the fact that Microsoft had boycotted them, but managed to cut a deal (once again either money, violence or nuclar secrets)
-The Red Hat prototype mind control laser had the Chinese govt. in its thrall until Microsoft Stormtroopers managed to destroy it