China's Government Unveils 'China Operating System' To Great Skepticism

redletterdave writes "The government of China is not too fond of foreign mobile operating systems like iOS and Android, so the country cooked up its own homegrown solution: A Linux-based, open-source operating system called the COS, or China Operating System. But consumers have every right to be skeptical; China is using the recent NSA scandal in the U.S. to push its own product. A government-approved mobile operating system, especially in China of all places, reeks of its own backdoor exploits for governmental spying."

Comments

before you go there

[dlt074]

remember, people in glass houses should not throw rocks. or something...

at this point i trust our current mobile OS's as much as i trust theirs. at least with theirs i have no doubts i'm being watched.

Re:before you go there

[DigiShaman]

You're missing the entire point. How can the US be a "beacon of freedom" when we officially are a police state ourselves?! Effectively, our police state is now spreading (or legitimizing) totalitarianism around the world and not just from within. THAT is the problem!.

Re:before you go there

[mrchaotica]

I would trust theirs more. I may be watched by both, but at least China doesn't have police power over me.

Ahem!

[TheP4st]

"A government-approved mobile operating system, especially in China of all places, reeks of its own backdoor exploits for governmental spying"
As opposed to the reek of the daily NSA exploits published by Bruce Schneier?
In difference from for example the RSA back door this is open source , so the code is there to review for potential back doors for anyone with the necessary knowledge. I can imagine quite a few will do so only to be able and point fingers and say "see, see! they do it too!" and would be little surprised if there is a government sponsored team doing just that as I write with the hope there will be findings to detract attention from scandals closer to home.

Re:Ahem!

[Anonymous Coward]

"As opposed to the reek of the daily NSA exploits published by Bruce Schneier? "

No, as "in addition to" you twat. The US Govt being evil doesn't change the fact that the Chinese govt is a thousand times worse.

As opposed to

[JavaLord]

A government-approved mobile operating system, especially in China of all places, reeks of its own backdoor exploits for governmental spying."

As opposed to an operating system created by an American corporation, which reeks of its own backdoor exploits for governmental spying.

It's Open Source at least...

[Anonymous Coward]

When all the Shell Infrastructure Windows servers got shut down at Venezuela directly from Redmond after the compayy's subsidiary there got nationalized, we learned a valuable lesson: closed source software is an error, at least at any government instances.

At least the Chinese OS is open source, so it could be audited by the users. I'm not saying they can't place a piece of code in the mobile phones or computers after the community audited it, but to me it looks like a step in the right direction...

Re:Linux?

[amicusNYCL]

An entire nation of a billion people that actually manufacture essentially all electronics where this might conceivably be used, and they use Linux? The government of China can't come up with something of their own?

I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons that Linux exists is so that everyone who wants to develop an operating system doesn't need to start from scratch. Whether the government of China is going to contribute anything back to Linux is another question. Even so, Linux does not belong to any government or nation. It was started by a Finnish guy who now lives in America and has contributors all over the world. If there's ever been a single piece of software that more or less belongs to everyone, it's Linux.