Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

13 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 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.

    3. 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"
    4. 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?

    5. 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"
    6. 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*

    7. 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.
  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.)

  5. 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...