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Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#41

Post by whaevr »

kyllo wrote: post #38
outside1234 wrote: post #25

is it really named Kylin such that it would be pronounced "Killin'"? That's awesome.

I'm not exactly sure how it's supposed to be pronounced, but it's the romanized Cantonese name for this mythical beast (pronounced more like "chee-leen" in Mandarin): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin

From the wikipedia page; "The Qilin... is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a wise sage or an illustrious ruler." and by doing this, Canicol is bringing Linux to the masses of a country. Ironic.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#43

Post by fatjokes »

cs702 wrote: post #11

Leaving aside the normal concerns about collaboration with an authoritarian government, this looks like a really big deal: Ubuntu is now the "reference architecture for standard operating systems" in China. [1] If I understand correctly, this means a flavor of Ubuntu (and Unity, according to the press release) will be used by hundreds of millions of people within the next decade, far surpassing the worldwide market s…

Unlikely. Most people in China use pirated versions of Windows, so they'll keep doing that.

Maybe the governments will require the use of this brand of Ubuntu, but that's it.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#45

Post by deno »

tomrod wrote: post #32
javis wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asume the majority of people currently using Ubuntu are smart enough to avoid malware.

I'm not, and I use Ubuntu. I'd love a good tutorial to start learning about it.

1) Don’t install anything other than via official channels/Ubuntu store or whatever else you trust, like Steam. More importantly, don’t add random PPAs from some guy on the Internet.

2) Boycott Firefox until they get their sandboxing act together. Use Chromium/Webkit2 browsers. Disable Java applets/WS.

Alternatively, go full Stallman[1].

[1] http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#46

Post by fatjokes »

jstanley wrote: post #2

"Because the software is open source it's unlikely that any backdoors could be added into the Ubuntu OS without the global Linux community taking notice." Depending on the level of involvement China actually has, I don't think they would have any qualms with distributing binaries with backdoors, but keeping their changes secret.

I think they're referring to potential backdoors installed by the US to spy on China in Microsoft software. (Shocker: the US engages in cyber espionage too).

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#47

Post by kevincrane »

Strang wrote: post #39
coldtea wrote: post #37

I take offense with the following part of the article: "Other repressive nations that have developed local versions of Linux include North Korea, which built the KDE-based Red Star OS to help wean it as a nation off of an unfortunate dependence on Windows made by the capitalists over at Microsoft." China is a "repressive nation"? Says who? Britain, the leader in colonialist aggressions, mass slavery and blatant inter…

Yes, China is a "repressive nation." Especially when it comes to technology, e.g., "The Great Firewall." No, Britain is not a "repressive nation." The British government surely takes some repressive actions, but not to such a degree as to be labeled a repressive nation.

Yeah, Britain hasn't been repressive in this sense for at least the last ~250 years.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#48

Post by lifeisstillgood »

analyst74 wrote: post #35
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mechanisms of state control remain unchanged - and none of them are online. The big fears of the (non-activist) population are that someone will physically take them or their children to a dark hole, and that someone they know will inform on them so that happens. IP networks are not involved. East Germany is probably the most obvious example in recent times - and the fear mostly came from knowing someone could in…

I think you're over-estimating the amount of control the party has or tries to enforce in China. Inside Chinese border, the amount of people who fear the party is probably in line with those who trust it -- not many.

I will happily defer to those with real knowledge of China, however the basic issue seems true - the vast, "make mockery of all that has gone before" economic growth has been exclusively driven from democratic/free nations.

If you want some of that growth, it seems logical you need to allow freedom. How much? How soon? How to stop it descending into anarchy? With a billion + lives on the line ... well I have a lot of sympathy for Presidents who go to China and then don't jump up and down screaming "become a democracy NOW"

edit: I would be interested in knowing why the down votes. I tend to delete when I reach minus figures but I am interested with what opposing view to the above others have (if it was just random expressions of dislike I will live with it.)

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#49

Post by cheapsteak »

w1ntermute wrote: post #28
cheapsteak wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is incredibly popular among Chinese international university students, but the first thing everyone does when they get a new Macbook is to install bootcamp and never boot into OSX again. If even the brightest and more malleable of the people don't want to use anything except Windows, I don't see the average person switching to Ubuntu at all.

It has nothing to do with the Chinese international students being bright (which they generally are) or malleable (which they're not - they're just studying machines). It has to do with the fact that there are a ton of Chinese websites that only work in IE.

That is a good point, although I think it's more of Windows-only programs like PPS, a TV and movie streaming app that fills the Netflix void, except it's free so everyone and their mother uses it

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#50

Post by impendia »

coldtea wrote: post #37

I take offense with the following part of the article: "Other repressive nations that have developed local versions of Linux include North Korea, which built the KDE-based Red Star OS to help wean it as a nation off of an unfortunate dependence on Windows made by the capitalists over at Microsoft." China is a "repressive nation"? Says who? Britain, the leader in colonialist aggressions, mass slavery and blatant inter…

Britain certainly was extremely repressive, but China is today.
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