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China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative

Posted by Soulskill on from the going-for-a-billion dept.

Bismillah (993337) writes "Once again, after the Red Flag Linux effort that petered out this year, China is considering Linux to sort out its pressing Windows XP issue. The Windows 8 ban by China's government procurement agency and promises of official support may help."

11 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    2014, the year of the Linux desktop!

    Wait ... what's a desktop?

    1. Re:Finally! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      A desktop is that thing you put your tablet on when you don't use it.

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    2. Re:Finally! by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That was point I made a while back.
      Linux for the desktop will only take over, after the desktop usage has declined out of the hands of average user.

      The days of the Personal Computer is gone, the Desktop is now a serious Business workstation, reserved for the likes of Engineers, Programmers, Architects, and Finance. Where you need to do a fair amount of processing, isolated from a server so you don't need to share.

      Not the end of the Desktop, but a cut in its usages and move towards more serious jobs.

      This trend is similar to the Mainframe. Desktop PCs and Desktop based servers took over a large chunk of the Mainframe, Mainframe operators touted simular arguments about how you need a Mainframe for real work and these PC are just toys for kids. However over time as the PC got more powerful, it proven itself to be a good replacement for most of the tasks.
      The Mainframe is still around, and it has been relegated to very particular type of work. The same thing will Happen to the Desktop, and in probably 20 year the same thing will happen to mobile devices.

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    3. Re:Finally! by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The days of the Personal Computer is gone, the Desktop is now a serious Business workstation, reserved for the likes of Engineers, Programmers, Architects, and Finance. Where you need to do a fair amount of processing, isolated from a server so you don't need to share.

      No, we still have the days of the PC.

      The difference is, we don't need one PC per family member anymore. One PC per family would satisfy most families around - techies will probably go with one PC per adult.

      And we're seeing it where PCs are basically stagnating, sitting in the corner unused while tablets and smartphones serve as the daily use model for most people. For the odd task that they don't satisfy, the PC is there.

      But I don't see the PC fading like the mainframe. First, mainframes were relegated to special data centers and owned by a few. Whereas most families (at least the ones that matter) have 2 or more PCs - one for mom, one for dad, one for the kids, etc. And that model will change to probably one for everyone to use when they need it - e.g., school work.

      The PC still has its uses, but the need for everyone to have their own "personal" one over sharing one has dropped significantly.

    4. Re:Finally! by mlts · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The "desktop PC" is sort of morphing into a server or a media hub. It won't go away because tablets, e-readers, and smartphones are great media consumption devices, but for media production, there isn't anything that is going to replace the role of a decent monitor, large desktop hard drive, keyboard, and pointing device. It might be a tablet in a dock, but the role of a desktop in a home isn't going to vanish anytime soon.

    5. Re:Finally! by dannys42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is also why the GNOME's insistence on designing for (what I call) "the mythical grandmother" was always flawed.

  2. Poor Linus.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Torvalds raging at Asian kernel patches in 3.. 2.. 1..

  3. Good. by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good. They should be considering Linux. We all should be.

    1. Re: Good. by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course I don't know, but I think it's likely that they will eventually honor the GPL to some extent because of the inherent non-legal punishment for not honoring the GPL: increased maintenance costs.

      If I take your code and build my own version, making changes, and then you make substantial improvements to your code, then I'm left with 4 choices:

      1) Ditch my changes and use your new code.
      2) Go back and re-impliment my old changes on your new code, possibly needing to rewrite my changes to account for changes in your code.
      3) Live without the improvements of your new version.
      4) Submit my code to your project so that they become part of the parent project, and then I can continue to get updates from you without additional work.

      Unless you have some reason to keep your changes secret, option number 4 is actually pretty attractive.

  4. Re:Time to change the terms of my licensing... by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Somehow, Nazis got a press so bad even Wolfenstein won't show a swastika, yet we have hammer&sickle proudly displayed on major government parades, Stalin and Lenin widely worshipped, and so on. It's scary how investing in some propaganda can whitewash even the most murderous ideology in world's history.

    --
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  5. Re:Sudden outbreak of common sense? by walterbyrd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Certainly not true in my case.

    I think windows, especially after XP, is a total POS. Linux desktop blows it away in terms of speed, security, reliability, and everything else.

    Although I hardly use it anymore, I constantly have to muck with win7 on my laptop. Badly behaved apps put crap in my start up - making the boot time even slower. Every time I boot up, or shut down, I have to wait for updates. Sound stopped working for no apparent reason, had to fix something in the registry. On and on, one thing after another.

    Linux just works, and work well. After using windows, linux is like a breath of fresh air.