Red Flag Linux: Real, and Reviewed

Over at NewsForge (NewsForge is part of OSDN, as is Slashdot), Roblimo has posted his impressions of the long-awaited, much-ridiculed Red Flag Linux (English version). It may not be a big seller outside of the Chinese-speaking world (despite the available English-language install), but it's not a hoax, and it's available as an ISO for download. Update from Roblimo: I did not write the NewsForge Red Flag review. Matt Michie deserves all credit for this excellent work.

ISO Mirror

[thecarson]

Looks like the site got swamped. There's a mirror at the ftp site linked from HolyISO [holymac.com].

ISO

[Ashcrow]

It looks like the rf24.iso is unreachable via the link provided. I belive that http://ftp.cqu.edu.cn/linux/iso/rf24.iso is the same release.

Re:So out of date? How very odd...

[cyberon22]

Presumably they were dealing with language/GUI issues. Anyone who has dealt with Mandarin (simplified or complex) knows that interface issues can be hellish.

Given that, it isn't surprising tho adapt an existing (reliable) distribution rather than build a completely new one. Given that the market for linux in China is NOT english-speaking computer nerds, another reason to build on top of an older version is to avoid the dependency issues that come with the most "cutting-edge" material.

Re:one thousand million Linux users, a cool billio

[Kaiwen]

"1000 million Chinese can't choose otherwise"

From where I currently sit in the capital of "Red China", there are at least a half dozen distros readily available at the local stores -- Red Flag, Linpus, Red Hat, Mandrake -- and Red Flag isn't even the most popular of them. And with CLE (Chinese Language Extensions, currently at version 1.0) nearly any distro can be converted to Chinese.

And back home (Taiwan) where Linpus reigns supreme, Red Flag barely registers. In fact, it wasn't till recently that it even appeared on store shelves, even though it's been available on the mainland for several years.

Nevertheless, the OS of choice in China, even in government circles, remains the Windows family, which is a readily available and as free-as-in-beer (read: widely pirated) as Linux.

Re:Red Flag Linux

[Conspire]

Man pages are in English only, in fact, this is the biggest gripe of our local sys admins about Linux, is that they have to read all man documentation in English, not Chinese. I just tell them that they need to improve thier English :)

The Chinese is mostly at the GUI level, however there are some terminal based Chinese applications and full support for Chinese locale in the terminal. I believe that there are Chinese man pages available, but translation quality, who knows?

I love man pages, but to tell you the truth, all of our "users" at the workstations would never go near them. Documentation in Linux from a beginner's point of view is still not good enough. But, with a little training most people get "used" to the whatever window manager and desktop they are given, and will get quite comfortable with it over time.

Black Cat Linux?

[dapic]

netcraft shows [netcraft.com] that the site redflag-linux.com is running Black Cat Linux, which was a Russian distro based on Red Hat but now joined ASP Linux [asp-linux.com]. Hell the redflag site even runs something called "rus/PL29.4" which I assume is Russian module for Apache.

Re:Old Battle: The Anarchists vs. the Communists

[Pentagram]

Wow, finally someone manages to explain on /. how Left != Authoritarian and doesn't get modded down.

For those of you who are interested in the Spanish Civil War (or even if you're not) tehn read Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. As well as an interesting first-person view of war, you get to see the differences between living in an anarchist and Communist society, and how the anarchists and socialists were eventually betrayed by the Communists.

or how I learned to stop thinking & love McCar

[SubtleNuance]

Its difficult for most North Americans (unfortunately I include my Canadian Countrymen) to see through simple Jingoist myopia and McCarthyism [webcorp.com] when talking about Socialism and Communism (and any Socialist/Communist States).

Most dont see any difference between Fascism (Totalitarianism) and Socialism. McCarthyism did a fine job in making the two synonymous -- when in fact Communism (Socialism) is more compatible with a Democratic (and rep.democratic (like Canada)) state, and Capitalism is more in line with Totalitarianism.

For everyone that cannot compile the concept of personal/individual Liberty and Freedom in a Socialist or Communist State please see Political Compass.org [politicalcompass.org] which illustrates the concept, they are in fact totally and completely separate.

Capitalism leads to Plutocracy...dont agree? Plutocracy is the Totalitarian rule by the Moneyed Class. Have you heard about the concentration of wealth in America? How about Enron literally choosing the heads of Federal Commissions. [guardian.co.uk]