Linux Continues March On China

elucidus writes: "A government-sponsored software development group in China unveiled a version of the Linux operating system it has developed that it said will eventually replace Windows and Unix on all of its government PCs and servers. Called Yangfan Linux, which means 'raise the sail' in Chinese, the open source operating system is being pieced together by the Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center, a group established by the government to organize Linux development in China." Update: 08/14 22:34 GMT by T : Note that the story from which this text is drawn originally appeared in InfoWorld; thanks to writer Matt Berger for pointing this out. Read on below for a bit more, and some interesting links.

"The source code for Yangfan was made available last week under the GNU General Public License. The group is now collecting feedback and will continue improving the operating system.

The group has also done significant work localizing the operating system to support Chinese-language characters, which will be contributed back into the Linux community, according to Jon 'Maddog' Hall, director of Linux International.

Yangfan is based on two distributions of the Linux operating system. One is the distribution developed by Chinese Linux vendor Red Flag Software. The second is a version of the operating system called Cosix Linux, developed by China Computer Software Corp."

Reader kchris59 points to these articles at The Screen Savers and at chinadaily.com.cn which provide some more insight on what's going on behind that firewall.

Comments

This is great for China

[Zemran]

I really do think this is great for China BUT I cannot see this effecting me. I do not think I am going to rush out and get a copy to play with... I think any tools etc. that they develop will be specific to thier needs and unlikely to be of use to me. Good luck to them and I wish them well.

Re:This is great for China

[pr0nbot]

Much of the work to localise to Chinese (e.g. broadening UNICODE support) will benefit other localisation efforts. This in turn could mean broader adoption of Linux, since language is a big barrier to adoption - one that MS recognizes.

Oh darn

[Datasage]

... Thats one billion windows licences microsoft wont sell... i wonder if the calculate that as a loss?

Is there any chinese slashdotters?

[t0qer]

That could provide a cultural insight as to why china would be so open to open source?

As an american slashdotter, i'd like to point out why the US doesn't more readily adopt linux.

1. Microsoft lobbyist
2. Microsoft license sweeps
3. Microsoft Strongarm tactics
4. [insert your own M$ reason]

Technically from what I know of Bill Gates (throwing a fit at ppl pirating his altair basic) and what I know of chinese copyright laws (nearly non-existant) I guess the only conclusion is it's quality that is winning out in china.

I have heard about the open markets in china where you can purchase bootlegs of any software for near the cost of the CD. If the choice is between M$ at .5 dollars and Linux at .5 dollars linux wins.

Sorry, I was just kinda scrapin for some insightfullness there.

Ironic isn't it?

[I Love this Company!]

That China, a country with draconian human-rights laws has open, flourishing Linux use and development? It doesn't quite seem to work so well (at least on a government and regular user level) in the west.

There aren't a billion people there...

[RedBear]

but they are also doing this in the Philippines. The Advanced Science and Technology Institute has put together a somewhat simplified single-cd distro on which they've included such things as OpenOffice. They've been showing it off to the public and getting great response to it. It seems to be targetted toward home users and educational environments. According to the FAQ it's based on Red Hat 7.2. Anyone interested in trying it out can download an ISO here. A snippet from the website (the distro is named Bayanihan Linux):

BAYANIHAN is a Filipino tradition where people in a community help their neighbor in physically moving their house to a different place.

BAYANIHAN embodies the spirit of the Open Source movement. BAYANIHAN connotes people joining in and helping those in need. It also implies a movement from one place to a hopefully better place.

LINUX was added to the final name since the software's basic framework is LINUX. It was built on top of a Red Hat Linux operating system.

Re:Heh...

[Corporate Troll]

if we had replicator technology

It would surely be banned by companies. Made illegal, you know. The whole economy as we know would collapse. Besides, I don't think humankind would be ready for it, I'm pretty sure everyone would start to replicate Ferrari's, BMW and caviar and Champagne. It would be a neverending decadent party (think "Roman Empire"), not a strict military-like society like Star Trek where knowlegde and research goes above all.

the Chinese government no longer considers itself to be "Communist".
Not meant to flame: but how does it consider itself now? Socialist? I don't know... I know that there are more economical liberties in China now, but that doesn't really make it less communist.

To stay on topic: *if* China pulls this through, it means a whole continent converted to our beloved Penguin. This can have major impact worldwide, because (even if they wished so) China is no island, and bussiness (in the US and Europe) will be confronted with Chinese people using Linux...on the desktop! Word documents? Not anymore for our Chinese friends ;-)

Re:So, was Steve Ballmer right?

[FooBarWidget]

China is only communist by name. Their economy is, in fact, a mix between communism and capitalism. There are lots of capitalist companies in China. When you walk over the street, you'll be flooded with ads.

Actually, the US' economy is also a mix between capitalism and socialism, no matter how much people deny it. Think Social Security and that kind of things.

Re:I am, for one. (Re: Are there any Chinese slash

[Khalid]

I believe many of the traits (maybe not all) you are depicting are not specific to the Chinese society, but are rather those of traditional societies. Many African and Islamic societies function the same way. I am from Morocco (An Islamic, African, Arabic and Berber country, yes all that in the same time :) ) and this is the way many moroccans do business too.