The government-run Central Trust of China has mandated for the first time that all desktop computers purchased from now on must be Linux-compatible, demonstrating the government’s desire to widen the nation’s usage of open source software.
In the legislative session held late last year, legislators reached an additional consensus that there should be a 25 percent cut of procurement budget on Microsoft’s products across all government agencies, citing that the solutions — which monopolize the market — are too expensive. In response, Microsoft Taiwan Corp yesterday said that it respected the government’s decision for the Linux inclusion into desktops, as long as the market is competing on a fair ground.
I’m guessing this has something to do with Microsoft’s decision to create a proprietary BIOS to keep users from booting Linux and other third party OSes.
What goes around comes around.
Big Biz. meets big Gov., guess who wins…
Don’t wanna get political here.
China is People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan is Republic of China.
They are different.
Your title is misleading. When you said China, I’d think you mean People’s Republic of China (Mainland China), not Republic of China (Taiwan.)
I’m not 100 percent sure but the article seems to refer to the Taiwanese government and its purchasing policies. Still interesting but should be be confused with China.
As to Microsoft creating a bios that would not allow booting of other OS’s, good luck to them.
Every single widespread scheme to lock down use of a computer, or file (ie: DRM on songs), has been compromised and broken, usually by individual hackers.
And I applaud every organization (including China, in this case) that mandates the non-proprietary (open file formats, etc.), over the proprietary. Its just smarter in the long run, and companies like Microsoft will have to learn to prosper based upon merits, not obfuscation.
I am just waiting for Larry Ellison to throw a bunch of money into Linux development to come up with a windows killer gui for business.
It is going to happen. Only a matter of time.
Its interesting…
How Much Digital security COSTS the company, compared to lowering the price, so no one NEEDS to crack hardware/software.
do you think the new xbox could drop about $100 if it didn’t have all that security? probably…
Linux backers should see this as a mandate for creating a basic set of compatibility standards for a motherboard and BIOS to earn the designation “Linux Friendly.” I’m not sure what problems there are today, but as SN pointed out, BIOS collaboration between Microsoft and Phoenix may have a bearing on future compatibility.
Good for them! I just wish the U.S. Government would mandate something similar. I would like to see all government documents be OpenOffice compatible. I imagine the next version of Office will have Vista hooks that will prevent OpenOffice from reading new M$ Orifice documents. It would be nice to nip that in the bud.
If the U.S. Govt would go to Linux/OpenOffice, it would save the citizens hundreds of millions of dollars. And it would help break the stanglehold of M$ on American businesses.
Re: #5
Have you tried KDE 3.5? It’s almost a Windows killer now and KDE 4 has a planned features list a mile long.
China will never let Microsoft control their market.
Neal Saferstein
>rather go Open Source than allow cash flow to go back to the USA.
So we’re getting all those goods in exchange for pieces of green paper. Great deal!
You all are missing the real reason behind the ‘open source mandate’. With open source it is MUCH hard to track down, isolate, and prove international piracy and copyright infringment.
This is just China’s was of ensuring the long-standing and proud tradition of selling other companies intellectual property is expanded into the rapidly booming Chinese IT industry. Microsoft’s proprietary licenses make it much harder to get away with piracy, sense you must have an active license to receive the latest patch/update/hotfix.
Just a thought…consider it before you start applauding China’s suppossed support for the open-source philosophy.