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Microsoft Releases a Version of Windows 10 For the Chinese Government (techinasia.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the doing-more-for-the-Chinese-government dept.

Tech In Asia reports that Microsoft has completed their Windows 10 Chinese Government Edition, citing Caixin magazine's interview with Microsoft China's CEO. "Haupter told Caixin that it features fewer of Microsoft's consumer-targeted apps and services," the site reports, "while including more management and security controls, in accordance with the needs of China's government." It was back in December that Microsoft first announced their plans for this joint venture with the Chinese government. While Windows is popular in China's fast-growing market, "piracy of Microsoft's software runs rampant," reported PC World, adding that "in order to actually make money from Chinese consumers and businesses, Microsoft needs them to pay up." Update: 03/28 18:12 GMT by M : Slashdot understands that this supposed special edition of Windows 10 is not ready for the rollout yet.

45 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Lo and behold! by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interestingly, Microsoft is also producing a version of Windows 10 for the US Government featuring "fewer of Microsoft's consumer-targeted apps and services while including more management and security controls" in accordance with the needs of the US government (I know, I work for the DoD). I'm sure that they will, for a fee, do the same for large corporate clients.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Lo and behold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well I hope someone puts up a torrent of the damn thing. The only way I'd even remotely think about ever using Windows 10 is if I had the same copy DoD considers secure enough to use.

    2. Re:Lo and behold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The version of Windows 10 in the US allows data collection by Microsoft and the US Government. The Chinese version will appear to also include control by the Chinese Government.

    3. Re:Lo and behold! by mlts · · Score: 1

      Is that the same as Windows 10 LTSB (long term servicing branch), which has fewer gewgaws, and is intended for the enterprise, because it has fewer things that can break or be compromised?

    4. Re:Lo and behold! by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      The version of Windows 10 in the US allows data collection by Microsoft and the US Government.

      Of course there is no proof of the last part of your comment.

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      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    5. Re:Lo and behold! by zephvark · · Score: 2

      Is that the same as Windows 10 LTSB (long term servicing branch), which has fewer gewgaws, and is intended for the enterprise, because it has fewer things that can break or be compromised?

      Someone is really not getting the hang of what the governments want. Hint: it is not fewer things that can break or be compromised.

    6. Re:Lo and behold! by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that they will, for a fee, do the same for large corporate clients.

      If they're already developing an alternative version with fewer embedded apps and more management features, why can't they just make that available to people? Why should we need to pay a separate bribe to Microsoft, above and beyond the licensing costs, to get a product that's already been developed?

    7. Re:Lo and behold! by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      > It is when you're talking about the government's own use.

      I beg to differ. Different departments of the US government want complete access to the data of other departments, and to be able to recover even secure data from their own records if it is accidentally or deliberately locked away. There may or not be legal justification or appropriate court orders involved, but they certainly want the access to even confidential, internal documents.

    8. Re:Lo and behold! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      That's not how presenting a well-reasoned, fact-based, intellectually-honest viewpoint is done.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re:Lo and behold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Collusion between the US and Microsoft is well documented. If Microsoft is collecting anything, the only reasonable assumption is that the government has access to it, because historically that's always been the case.

      If you are claim otherwise your claims are extraordinary, and the burden of proof is on yourself.

    10. Re:Lo and behold! by Pikoro · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If Microsoft is collecting anything

      If? 1.2 million datapoints collected from a Windows 10 install with all the privacy settings turned off which had only been online for 6 days: https://init.sh/?p=331

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
    11. Re:Lo and behold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's just a simple modification really: change the ip address of the server that receives the telemetry to the DoD servers, and not disabling the telemetry itself. I don't really see how this would make You consider using it.

    12. Re:Lo and behold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Microsoft will be adding more and more advertisements to Windows 10 and the only way to get rid of them will be to pay a subscription.

    13. Re:Lo and behold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      it would be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to just strip all the bullshit out of windows 10 and make a true consumer-friendly version for all with none of the data-siphoning, cloud-focused, auto-installing nonsense.

      But W10 is the most consumer-friendly OS there is!
      It's all about consumer convenience: you, the consumer, don't have to trouble your (American) air-head with complicated things like what programs ... erm, apps, to run, what movies to see, what music to listen to and so on. We, your benevolent corporation, will keep you up to date with custom tailored apps and content so you just sit back and relax.
      We'll even protect you against your mistakes and delete/change/block any unwanted, non-approved programs you may try to install.

    14. Re:Lo and behold! by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 4, Funny

      Honestly, I will take one that reports telemetry to the Chinese govt, and not to microsoft or the DoD. Anyone got a torrent?

    15. Re: Lo and behold! by Pikoro · · Score: 2

      These are events received from my computer via telemetry by Microsoft. Speaking of reading comprehension, if you'd read the link you would understand that.

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
    16. Re: Lo and behold! by Cederic · · Score: 2

      You misinterpret the article. The 1200000 events were collected by Microsoft and returned to the author of the article in response to a data access request.

      people who don't read or understand

      *cough*

    17. Re:Lo and behold! by buck-yar · · Score: 1

      "Today the National Security Agency is well known, and spends a lot of time leaning on software, switch and router vendors, pushing them to re-tool their products. The agency's goal: to ensure that the government has access to encrypted data.

      The industry is facing a year-end deadline to add a government-approved back door into network gear. Vendors that don't provide this access risk losing export privileges.

      --Hot line to the NSA--

      It's gotten to the point where no vendor hip to the NSA's power will even start building products without checking in with Fort Meade first. This includes even that supposed ruler of the software universe, Microsoft Corp. "It's inevitable that you design products with specific [encryption] algorithms and key lengths in mind," said Ira Rubenstein, Microsoft attorney and a top lieutenant to Bill Gates. By his own account, Rubenstein acts as a "filter" between the NSA and Microsoft's design teams in Redmond, Wash. "Any time that you're developing a new product, you will be working closely with the NSA," he noted "

      July 27, 1998 - cnn.com

      http://www.cnn.com/TECH/comput...

    18. Re:Lo and behold! by jbmartin6 · · Score: 2

      Modded funny, but I have said this seriously. I'd rather have the Chinese government spying on me than my own (USA). This isn't a moral comparison between the two, but is merely because I am much further off the target scope for PRC gov than the USA.

      --
      This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    19. Re:Lo and behold! by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      The industry is facing a year-end deadline to add a government-approved back door into network gear. Vendors that don't provide this access risk losing export privileges.

      Simply not the case. But do continue your paranoid pontification through your ass.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    20. Re:Lo and behold! by uassholes · · Score: 1

      Dear Piss, S/he provided the link to the CNN article being quoted "The long, strong arm of the NSA". Did you bother to take a look? Who are you referring to as a paranoid ass pontificator, CNN?

    21. Re:Lo and behold! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Chinese Government: Could you turn down the built-in government backdoor spying access? This much kind of disturbs us.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    22. Re:Lo and behold! by thejynxed · · Score: 1

      You do realize the telemetry data collected and sent back to the mothership in Windows 10 contains everything and the kitchen sink from your system, so to speak. This includes all memory dumps, a copy of your current registry, and a complete list of all files on the system (and any attached storage). I also suspect that there is a mechanism that waits for you to decrypt a filesystem if you're using Truecrypt or similar and capturing the file names from those data shares as well.

      I don't know if you've actually interacted with Win10 at all, but the data collection is extremely high, even on the "don't collect as much" settings.

      BTW, full settings on is, according to the message I got using the Feedback Tool, able to allow Microsoft Engineers to diagnose and analyze issues with Windows 10 in real time. You can't even do that with the majority of the Unix stack.

      --
      @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
    23. Re:Lo and behold! by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Of course CNN is always the Gospel Truth ...

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      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    24. Re:Lo and behold! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Which does not state what the person claimed - not even if you want it to state that. You're being presumptuous and assuming facts not in evidence. That's hardly a rational argument, now is it?

      In an effort to be intellectually honest, I think it's fair to say that Microsoft's collection of data may, or may not, be utilized by agencies other than themselves but there's no evidence asserting it is. Assuming that they are collecting data and sharing it with the NSA is silly. Realizing that they *could* be and acting accordingly is not silly.

      I don't suppose the nuance is enough for you to notice - even though it's quite glaring. There's nothing wrong with acting to protect your data. There's everything wrong with making affirmative statements that are not grounded in evidence. And yes, yes I read your link. It does not say what you think it says. It is not evidence that makes affirmative statements possible with regards to the specifics stated by the parent poster(s). Sorry but you'll need to bring proof, not speculation, to the table.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. MSDN availability? by Phil+Urich · · Score: 1

    I'm no fan of Windows myself, but the company I work for creates software for Windows and has clients in mainland China; I've checked my work MSDN account however and there's nothing there. Is this actually available yet?

    It'd be quite handy to be able to test against this, especially considering how wonky oldskool Windows software stacks can be sometimes with varying versions of Windows and character sets (the company I work for is only just now in the process of migrating away from depending on MediaView for our primary product, which is what Encarta was based on, and let me tell you there are some strange interactions sometimes . . .)

    --
    I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
    1. Re:MSDN availability? by swb · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What do you bet there's part of this agreement that requires Microsoft to NOT make it commercially available to anyone but PRC government-approved customers.

      This would provide whatever nominal security-through-obscurity value not having easy access to it would provide (admittedly small), but it would also give the Chinese government monopoly control over who could develop software for it. For all we know, it could have a built-in whitelist-only capability that only runs applications and drivers with signed with PRC keys.

      And it's probably only available in Chinese language editions, too.

    2. Re:MSDN availability? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      I'm no fan of Windows myself, but the company I work for creates software for Windows and has clients in mainland China; I've checked my work MSDN account however and there's nothing there. Is this actually available yet?

      This is for the Chinese government, not the Chinese consumer.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    3. Re:MSDN availability? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      So you are saying that the government of China will be quite content for their employees to use Windows anal probe 10 at home instead of WindowsSE 10 because they don't care if employees accidentally leak information at home, yep, uh huh. So if various governments say Windows anal probe 10 is not safe enough for them to use, why exactly do those governments think it is safe enough for their citizens to use, why is that allowed to happen. This is blowing up fast and will do a lot of damage to M$ and corrupt paid off governments.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:MSDN availability? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Did I say that? No I did not. But do pontificate on through your ass.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    5. Re:MSDN availability? by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      This is for the Chinese government, not the Chinese consumer.

      And no one is expected to develop software for the Chinese government?

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
  3. Slashdot gets Capitalism by mi · · Score: 1

    "in order to actually make money from Chinese consumers and businesses, Microsoft needs them to pay up."

    Wow... Hard to recall a truer statement on /. ... Congratulations, team!

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  4. Re: Meanwhile they pay kickbacks in the US... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My weekend in Vegas they paid for was great, then I felt bad when we instead decided to buy something that works.

  5. Download link please? by ebonum · · Score: 1

    Sounds like something closer to the version M$ should have made in the first place. If they won't sell it to me, I trust Chinese hackers will be offering a free version soon!

  6. I bet was quite easy to do by Z80a · · Score: 1

    All they needed to do is to change some ips to point the stuff to the chinese government servers rather than microsoft ones.

  7. Ha HA! by flopsquad · · Score: 1

    including more management and security controls

    EUPHEMISMS!

    --
    Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
  8. Microsoft Releasesnew Windows 10 For China by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now there are two versions of Windows 10.

    One watches everything your type and listens in on your conversations with the microphone, sending the information to a shadowy information gathering operation.
    The other ships with the UI already set to a two-byte character language.

  9. So when are they going to release by rossdee · · Score: 1, Interesting

    a decent version of Windows for desktops.

    1. Re:So when are they going to release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They did, it was called Windows XP. After that every version has been worse than its predecessor.

    2. Re:So when are they going to release by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      I'm running it now, it's called Windows 7.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  10. Microsoft control and security? by khz6955 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Haupter told Caixin that it features fewer of Microsoft's consumer-targeted apps and services .. while including more management and security controls, in accordance with the needs of China's government."

    If you don't want the Chinese Government or Microsoft telling you what to do with your own computer then move to Open Source Linux. Ubuntu

    1. Re:Microsoft control and security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ah, Ubuntu. The Linux Distro that has an Amazon widget that give you suggestion about what you 'might like to buy'

      Personally, Ubuntu is the last distro that I'd use. I much prefer CentOS. 10 years of patches...
      Other (and far better) non commercial Linux distros are available. I'd even go for Mint over Ubuntu.

      Unlike Microsoft, Canonical isn't completely tone deaf. Besides the fact that the Amazon stuff takes less than 2 minutes to completely and verifiably strip out, did you know that it's being dropped entirely for the 16.04 release coming out next month?

      (As a side note, I've tried CentOS. From version 7 on, you can tell they only really care about it as a headless server just by looking at the package repositories. I hope you enjoy compiling many of your desktop applications from source or rebuilding Fedora RPMS. Since Red Hat has long since abandoned the desktop, I'll stick with a Debian derived distro for anything running a GUI.)

  11. Perhaps Because : "You Can't Compete With Free" an by ytene · · Score: 2

    I am just guessing here... Firstly, we have been witnessing a slow but steady erosion of Microsoft's Windows in the marketplace. The once-dominant OS has had to compete against Linux, OS/X, tablets and so on, all of which provide the OS free of charge. Microsoft can no longer charge watvever they like and get away with it... Of course, the other aspect not widely discussed relates to Piracy, which we are told remains a major problem. This is an issue if Microsoft expect to be paid for every copy of Windows installed, but the problem goes away if the revenue is generated from the data that W10 "phones home" on and on-going basis...

  12. Which is superior? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The Chinese government spying version or the evil Megacorp spying version for a European?

  13. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Google Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB

    A special release that lacks a lot of the undesirable stuff and what remains can be disabled completely with Group Policy Objects(GPO) or registry changes. Hs controllable updates and is not part of teh bleeding edge feature roll out channel and has a stated 10 year support guarantee.

    It is the Windows 10 that you had hoped for, but It is by far the most expensive Windows version ever!