How Microsoft Beat Linux In China 313
kripkenstein notes an analysis up on TechRepublic detailing how Microsoft beat Linux in China, and the consequences of that victory: "With the soon-to-be largest economy standardized on Windows desktops, desktop Linux does seem to have an uphill battle ahead of it." "Linux has turned out to be little more than a key bargaining chip in a high stakes game of commerce between the Chinese government and the world's largest software maker... The fact that... Linux failed to gain a major foothold in China is yet another blow to desktop Linux. After nearly eight years of being on the verge of a breakthrough, Linux seems more destined than ever to be a force in the server room but little more than a narrow niche and an anomaly on the desktop."
Re:It's always been like this (Score:5, Informative)
I'm still amazed at the crap my Windows friends put up with on a daily basis, but they just regard it as the cost of doing business with their OS, I guess...
Re:What battle? (Score:4, Informative)
The Chinese government has had access to the Windows source code since 2003.
Now when China uses Windows in President Hu's office, or for that matter in its missile systems, it can install its own cryptography. How Microsoft conquered China. [cnn.com]
Re:Big Picture (Score:2, Informative)
Who is this we? I can't remember the last time that voting Americans installed a government that really gave two shits about the American people. And as far as protecting the American consumer, shit, not in this republic. In this republic the slogan is "Cash rules everything around me." Like George W Bush gives 2 shits about the American consumer.
don't get me wrong, I totally agree. It would be nice to see a government of, by and for the people. But chances are slim and getting slimmer all the time. As long as cut-throat capitalism rules the day, its every person for themselves. As such, big corporate rules our lives and administration and there is not much we can do about it.
Hopefully in time things will change, but I doubt it will be as soon as November '08 and it is going to require the American people actually speaking up and taking charge of their nation. But that's doubtful.
There's also Canada...
Re:The Problems w/ Desktop Linux (Score:1, Informative)
I beg to differ - If your running as root and accessing files as root on another system routinely, YOU ARE THE SECURITY FLAW.
Re:The Problems w/ Desktop Linux (Score:1, Informative)
SE Linux and several commercial UNIX'es do have ACL's, what's your problem ? You need a sexy GUI for it ?
SAMBA woks well (incl. security) in a Windows domain, i belive it uses Kerberos...
NFS require proper setup for working security... but so does a Windows domain...
Cutting'n'Pasting ? I do it daily across several applications (including applications running under wine)...
Re:The Problems w/ Desktop Linux (Score:1, Informative)
Nice piece of FUD dude.
Re:Well, that's a slap in the face! (Score:3, Informative)
China GDP per capita = $5,453.31
Or put another way: $150 dollars in China would be the same as charging $1200 for a Vista license in the US
Mark you I wouldn't be too outraged, if I were you. Vista Basic is 150 GBP here. That's $300.
is this even legal? (Score:2, Informative)
Give Linux a good Chinese input method, first. (Score:5, Informative)
But they all came back to Windows, because there are Windows input methods and word processors for Simplified and Traditional Chinese that kick the pants off of anything available for Linux. The wife doesn't even care so much for Mac OSX compared to the one for Windows. And the fonts for Simplified Chinese in Fedora are mediocre at best, and awful at worst. Looking at a Google.cn search in Firefox on Ubuntu 7.04 is hideous even to my untrained eyes -- you see many characters missing, and the characters that are there look like a mish-mash of multiple fonts.
So, if you care about this issue, this is what needs to happen.
This is one of those times where we need to recognize that the better product won. And the only thing for us to do is to make ours better.
Re:It's always been like this (Score:3, Informative)
For the 80% of "easy" cases where browsing/e-mail/word-processing are the important functions, there are several reasons to migrate: