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

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