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China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

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Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#81
post #51

Git and other resources are subject to US sanctions just like anyone else. They are the logical next step since the started making a fuss over mobile phone makers, networks providers, chip makers etc.

IANAL, but my understanding is that this is not true. Free software is not sanctioned. Commercial contracts that revolve around it are however. For example I think Huawei can still use AOSP, but cannot licence play services because they require a commercial agreement.

I think Trump just proved that America can do whatever the f*ck it wants, and the rest of the world must comply, or risk facing sanctions or gunboats.

They can even force GNU open source to declare that this code is open source, except for non-democratic countries, such as China.

You, as an American citizen, are still under the legal jurisdiction of the long arm of federal laws.

They can probably even declare that all programs written in C or C++, are in effect, under American jurisdiction. Or even code that is encoded into x86 assembly, will be under American jurisdiction. And we know that all code written in China, uses the C programming language, as they have never developed their own technology stack.

In order to avoid this fate, then China must rip out everything from their country that has American technology, and develop their own technology stack, down to the ISA (Instruction Set Architecture). They cannot even use ARM or RISC-V, they must develop their own ISA, and call it CNA-1.

Then, they would have to develop their own programming language on top of this. Then their own operating system, and application software, to replace all American technology.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#82

They want to block Github entirely because Github allows for the free flow of information (politically sensitive information, not just code) and they don't have a way of doing currently without just blocking all of Github... Which would be bad for business, and China also seems to be entering the software business in a bigger way. Actually, if you want to send large amounts of text information to users in China right…

The idea of China wanting an open source platform like GitHub is akin to Adolf Hitler starting The Nazi Center for Jewish Appreciation & Cultural Enrichment.

Please don't do this here.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah agreed, i don't think they are connecting the dots. they are missing large sections of knowledge that would protect them and the lives of those around them. but for some odd reason they have mental blocks when trying to help them out flawed framework

I mean look how fast they flagged my comment. I guess they wanted to prove my point badly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Could you please stop creating multiple accounts like this? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

That applies 10x when said accounts are breaking the rules, as you've unfortunately been doing. If you want to pick one account and want to commit to following the rules, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and let us know which username you want to use.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#84

They want to block Github entirely because Github allows for the free flow of information (politically sensitive information, not just code) and they don't have a way of doing currently without just blocking all of Github... Which would be bad for business, and China also seems to be entering the software business in a bigger way. Actually, if you want to send large amounts of text information to users in China right…

Github is hardly a bastion of free flowing information. Back in 2018 they removed a repository which listed names of ICE agents, based on data from LinkedIn - https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/ice-employee-list-github-l...

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long before this strategy backfires? When does the CCP hurt itself because it stifled innovation? When does it have political problems because it suppressed the wrong thing? I can't tell if this style of governing is super robust or a house of cards.

They seem to be doing pretty well, economically-speaking. I suspect, so long as they can continue to provide good lives for their professional class, the country will continue to grow in world influence. The professionals that drive growth and innovation probably desire to live in a less authoritarian society, but life is generally good enough for them to remain complacent, and turn a blind-eye to injustice.

> They seem to be doing pretty well, economically-speaking.

This is all relative. In an absolute sense, China's level of economic development on Bulgaria, Mexico or Kazakstan. They've had a long period of high growth, but that's only because of the abject poverty the Maoists left the country in. Before Deng's reforms, the country was essentially North Korea.

China's prosperity is much more of a "most-improved award" rather than a gold medal. Their current system has certainly proved better than Stalinism, but that's a pretty low bar. There's no reason to believe that Xi Jinping thought can produce an economy that in any way is competitive with liberal capitalist democracy.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long before this strategy backfires? When does the CCP hurt itself because it stifled innovation? When does it have political problems because it suppressed the wrong thing? I can't tell if this style of governing is super robust or a house of cards.

They seem to be doing pretty well, economically-speaking. I suspect, so long as they can continue to provide good lives for their professional class, the country will continue to grow in world influence. The professionals that drive growth and innovation probably desire to live in a less authoritarian society, but life is generally good enough for them to remain complacent, and turn a blind-eye to injustice.

Reading the second part out of context is funny since it can really be applied to any society.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#87
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes and no. If they are open to the rest of the world a lot of money would end up in Silicon Valley. If Facebook and Google ran ads all over China, a nice big cut of that revenue goes to the IRS instead of China's government.

The money would only flow there if the services Silicon Valley is producing is worth the money to the purchasers. None of these transactions are zero-sum and tech isn't the only thing in the world that matters.

Silicon Valley is infamous at this point for running loss leaders to lock people into their ecosystem with the expectation of being able to milk people dry later. The fact that the services are "worth the money" doesn't mean it's economically in China's interests to allow for easy access to them.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#88

They want to block Github entirely because Github allows for the free flow of information (politically sensitive information, not just code) and they don't have a way of doing currently without just blocking all of Github... Which would be bad for business, and China also seems to be entering the software business in a bigger way. Actually, if you want to send large amounts of text information to users in China right…

How long before this strategy backfires? When does the CCP hurt itself because it stifled innovation? When does it have political problems because it suppressed the wrong thing? I can't tell if this style of governing is super robust or a house of cards.

Probably very long. Given the success of the Chinese ecosystem compared to other regions on the globe, including a lot of democratic countries without significant limits on expression, it doesn't seem to be very important.

The first answer is that innovation can be channelled towards military or surveillance technology instead. The government has no problem with research into facial recognition, enterprise software, drones, and whatnot. Under the so called 'military-civil fusion' strategy its if anything encouraged and heavily bolstered.

Another point that has become fairly popular among the more conservative or nationalist Chinese intellectuals is that free expression in the workplace is if anything, harming the US because it's seen as divisive and hindering research. There were a lot of comments with negative overtones when it came to BLM, and stuff like the internal Google Maven protests. For a lot of nationalist Chinese commentators free expression in the West is seen as damaging state capacity and the ability of large firms to work effectively.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#89
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the CCP cares about an obscure American social network. They know they have a dependency on American software & software distribution mechanisms, & have known far longer than Parler has been around.

The obscure American social network is not the interesting bit of information. It's that the infrastructure and delivery corporations decided overnight not to support a customer for not aligning with their values.

I don't think that the CCP had this sudden realization recently the same way many HN posters seem to have.

Re: China wants to build an open source ecosystem to rival GitHub

#90
post #60
post #5

I've heard the phrase that "Competition is good for business" but never in the context "Competition is good for open source"

Linux vs FreeBsd? Open vs Star Office? kde vs gnome python 2 vs 3?

Python 2 & 3 are developed/maintained by the same people. It's not really a competition.
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