Taiwan Asks Microsoft To Open Windows Source

Andy Tai writes "According to this China Times article (in Chinese), the Republic of China government has asked Microsoft to open Windows source code. The official, Lin Jua-Cheng, in charge of the 'e-government' initiative, says many other countries have also sent similar requests to Microsoft. Lin explains that without Windows source code, the government cannot add custom firewall functionalities to Windows based systems in wide use, and that is very bad for the information security of Taiwan. Microsoft refused to publicly release the source in the past using reasons of copyright protection, but Lin emphasizes this request is reasonable since it is based on (government users') necessity." Read on for a bit more, too. (Can anyone suggest an online Chinese English translation engine that produces other than gibberish?) Andy continues "Lin points out that GNU/Linux systems, because of their freeness and high security (due to the availability of the source code, which can be modified to add firewalls and other security measures), have become widely used in government computer systems (especially in militaries and intelligence agencies) of many nations and the Pentagon, the FAA, and the air force of the U.S. Lin says the government cannot rely on a single vendor, and to promote the alternatives, the government has set up a 'Free (libre) Software Steering Committee' directing government efforts. The two aims of the ROC government's current software policy is making Windows source code openly available and the development of Free (libre) Software in Taiwan."

Comments

Days of Yore...

[Cap'n Canuck]

I don't see why don't the Chinese just do what the Communist countries (USSR, China) used to do in the good old days of the Cold War - reverse engineer any sufficiently advanced Western technology.

OB Simpsons ref - the Space shuttle on the 'Homer In Space' episode was an exact copy of the Russian Shuttle, which was a copy of NASA's.

Re:Translation

[SirSlud]

- wed also like to suggest that all car hoods be soddered shut so that Ford cant find out how GM builds an internal combustion engine; because if that happened, jesus christ, Ford might start selling cars! and thats bad for business!