China follows Europe in switching to Linux with Windows being shown the door earlier than planned
https://www.notebookcheck.net/China-follows-Europe-in-switching-to-Linux-with-Windows-being-shown-the-door-earlier-than-planned.1375616.0.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.ca
48 replies
The only problem is the "follows Europe". China is ditching windows since 2019.
There's an old Bill Gates quote about whether he was worried Windows software piracy in foreign countries was hurting the Microsoft bottom line. He responded, "I'd rather they pirate copies today so we can sell them copies tomorrow."
Similar logic behind distributing Student copies of windows software on high school / college campuses.
good movement!
Honestly just shocked to hear they're still on Windows.
China's tech boom is relatively recent so they had to rely on western tech in the mean time. Now they probably also have the same issues as other non US countries in that it is hard to retrain all staff to use a "new" OS and related software.
They should all switch to thr Hanna Montana distro
That logic does not follow.
How so?
It's essentially saying: "I only recently got a computer, so I had to install Windows."
Pardon my ignorance, but did they have other options during the 90s and early 2000s? Did they have big software houses that could produce their own OS or tailor Linux to what I assume was then foreign hardware, and also have the ability to interact with standard file formats like Microsoft Office documents so that they could interact with foreign companies?
(Since tone can be hard to convey in text, and comment threads often lean aggressive, I want to say that these are genuine questions, not an attempt to be snarky)
They didn't care about thins in the 90s, but the plan the article is covering is ongoing since 2019. They are only updating the timeline.
Why do you think they need tailored Linux?
Open source word processors usually support Windows file formats.
where do you think all the hacked versions you can download online have come from all these years?
Micrasoft.com?
I don't have any reason to believe it's solely China or mostly China.
the majority of hacked software comes from China or Russia.
this isn't a bad thing per se, it's just a matter of both countries lack laws that prosecute citizens for IP theft of western software.
North Korea did it before it was cool 🤣🤣
All hail our glorious Red Star OS
Distinct, high-pitched voice from the 1970s:
"Hold the Red Star proudly high in hand!"
All kidding aside, I'm glad to hear this news.
Fascinating.
China already had their own operating system OpenKylin but low adaptation yet. There is a directive that for all government offices and public institutions, all foreign software has to be removed and replaced by local open source. China government have been using their own local office suit WPS.
One of my favorite stories from last year was that during one of the biggest spats with the US, China banned the export of rare earth materials to the US. They released the document in WPS, which is completely incompatible with MS Word. It took the US state department days to work out how to open the document.
https://www.chinastrategy.org/2025/10/13/sending-a-message-beijing-issues-documents-without-word-format-amid-us-tensions/
My nieces school sent her mother (my sister) a WPS document "share" link. The website does not offer a download, but the link can be opened in the installed free version and from there the file can be obtained.
It wasn't difficult or complicated, so I think this says something about the IT skills of the US state department...
For what should be fairly obvious reasons, officials at the US State Department aren't able to easily download and install software from foreign governments. This is doubly true in file-formats that the security system isn't equipped to screen and vet.
If you were working at a corporate office, you'd have likely run into the same set of hurdles.
Well, yes, but I would expect something time-senstive to be solved quickly be the State Department's IT department.
They should have been able to do something like this in less time than "days".
For what it's worth, I think our State Department equivalent (I'm German) would have also struggled with something like this, but I am quite certain that they are extremely lacking in skilled IT workers lol
I can't imagine why. It's a slow-moving ship with numerous levels of authorization between The Guy Hitting The Buttons and The Guy Making The Decisions.
Again, I can't imagine why. This information isn't so time-sensitive that they need to respond to it in hours, much less minutes. And the cost of reacting swiftly but clumsily far exceeds the reward for opening a document in a weird format on a State Department computer.
I haven't seen any evidence of this. Unskilled IT workers will just blindly click and install shit without any gatekeeping or cybersecurity. It's the skilled ones that go slow and steady, verify within sandbox environments before taking any big risks, and deliver a product that isn't going to blow up in your face after it's been configured.
Kylin is Linux based. Guess they are just doubling down on it now.
And DPRK has their own OS, it doesn't mean it isn't shit. Just because the CCP released a branch of Linux off open source software doesn't mean it's good or even innovative.
North Korea's OS is Red Star, and I get the distinct impression you've never used it
I've used Red Star 2 and 3. It's a perfectly adequate OS, and just comes off as any old Linux distro with slightly odd settings. Despite technically bring It's own OS, I was able to use run pretty much anything built for Linux without issue
Calling it shit is reductive and inaccurate
Anything North Korea does is default assumed incompetently executed, maliciously intentioned, and/or the result of stolen work from a more skilled (western) developer/designer. The American Brain cannot comprehend the existence of a Soviet computer science expert. Certainly not one from a country where the prevailing wisdom is "These stupid foreigners all believe the President has a perfect golf score and never poops. Everyone eats grass because they're always starving. And their army feeds their Olympic Soccer Team to wild dogs every time a player misses a goal in a qualifying match".
Interesting, how come you've used it enough to have experience of two versions?
Curious if there is anything proprietary in it or if an audit has been run on the code.
given it marks every file and does a whole other bunch of tracking stuff it definitly has some proprietary additions
I kind of can't believe that China doesn't have its very own operating system already.
China does as mentioned in the article. It sounds like they may have retained windows for compatibility reasons, but are no longer interested or there is no longer a need.
That makes more sense.
Good. And when China says they're axing something that means the entire population isn't going to be using it anymore.
Hope microslop feels that right in the pocketbook.
Losing China and money hand over first on copilot? I'm gonna have to call my doctor for this erection problem that just popped up.
It's finally happening
Who knew, the year of the Linux desktop. I guess we can pack up that joke.
The definition has narrowed from year of Linux, to desktop specifically, because it has mostly taken over every other computing application already
Can you imagine running Windows Server? Like… for what? 😂
I can cries in powershell
I can. I know a company that runs dozens if not hundreds. They also use MySQL - not even MariaDB, actual MySQL, on all those servers in addition to their own software. I sometimes wonder if they pay the license fees on that. If I ever do end up starting a competing business, I could just tip off Oracle about that and they'd lose millions. Wouldn't even lose any sleep for it, they got bought out by private equity in a rather tragic story (founder didn't want to ever sell it).
Linux桌面之年
MSFT will soon bribe our regime to compel us to use Windows, I presume.
Please china give me MaoOS
MaOS was right there
Really a missed opportunity