In the scheme of things, especially considering how much any legal appeals will likely gut antitrust remedies against Microsoft, this piece of news is probably a far worse blow to Bill Gates than Judge Jackson's decision this week.
Although having the PRC join the open source world promises far more focus on security and surveillance code.
--Nathan Newman
Source: Yahoo - UK Published: 11/10/99 Posted on 11/11/1999 10:14:41 PST by frankm
Linux to become official OS of communist China
There is a strong identification between communist China and the open-source free OS The Chinese government is so enthusiastic about the community ethos behind the open source community that it is making Linux the official operating system of the Peoples Republic of China, thanks to a deal struck with US server side computing firm GraphOn.
The deal will allow a variety of server side applications to be run on cost efficient Linux boxes in Chinese universities, military installations and even within the government.
According to GraphOn there is a strong identification between communist China and the open-source free operating system that is taking the western world by storm. "Enthusiasm for Linux is coming from the very highest level of the Government in China," says Robin Ford executive vice president of GraphOn. "There are cultural reasons why they are so interested in Linux in China, because it is open source."
GraphOn concedes however that the Chinese government is probably enthused by its server technology because it provides a simple way of keeping an eye on users' computer activity. "It is all about control but it's not an ugly or a bad control, it's not a big brother sort of thing," says Ford. "It's about cost control and they've looked at the problems that other markets have had with desktop based application and want to avoid them."