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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

#51

Post by pekk »

kevincrane wrote: post #47
Strang wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How long ago was African independence? (As in, independence in a large number of countries formed by the colonial powers in Africa)

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#52

Post by blisterpeanuts »

kyllo wrote: post #22

This is a great idea. Now one and a half billion Chinese can get their free OS'es completely legally instead of using pirated, possibly malware-tainted copies of Windows XP. And Microsoft can stop crying about the hypothetical lost revenue due to piracy when everyone switches to a better, free product. Not that they couldn't switch before, but perhaps the official government endorsement of Ubuntu will jump-start the…

This assumes that the new OS will be better than WinXP/Win7/Win8. (Well, let's just not talk about Win8.) If "better" means more compatible with existing apps, more stable, easier to use, more standard... not sure you can make an argument for that. Maybe in a few years when the desktop is just a portal for web apps.

Plus... China's currently only 1.34 billion. They've got a ways to go to get to 1.5B.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#53

Post by coldtea »

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.

>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.

Are we talking about the same "CCTV everywhere" nation?

The same "lackeys of the united states --GW Bush etc-- policy and partners in war crimes" nation?

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#54

Post by mtgx »

staticfish wrote: post #40
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…

Absolutely. * Tiananmen square. Murders against any form of civil disobedience. * Secret and non-secret alliances with North Korea. * Occasional acts of aggression on Japan. * Great firewall, general suppression of information from citizens. * Massive amounts of political corruption. * Human rights violations aplenty. * Causing an environmental catastrophe. Fucking up the entire planet in the process. * Tibet, Taiwan…

Unfortunately, I think most Chinese living there have bought the government's argument that if any of the stuff you mentioned above would not exist, it would "disrupt" the "unity" of their society. So everyone must stay in line for the "greater good", even if violent action is necessary against some individuals.

What's the scariest thing in such situations is not one tyrant or another. If only that was the case, it wouldn't be too hard to replace him. The scariest part is when a culture forms around that tyrant's ideals. Because that will be very hard to "kill" or replace. It can take generations, depending on how deep that culture goes.

Look even at US. Let's say the TSA was a complete and total mistake, and history will prove that to be right. But how long will it take to kill the TSA? It's already been a decade, and I can easily see it last another decade. So is it just Bush or Obama at fault for keeping TSA? No. It's country's culture right now that TSA and plenty of other "counter-terrorist" measures (including the stamping of the 4th amendment) are "needed".

When you look at it from that point of view, you begin to understand why most Chinese may not necessarily see what their government is doing as a bad thing, because they themselves think their measures are good and necessary.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#55

Post by amac »

kevincrane wrote: post #47
Strang wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But in absolute terms, has been a far more repressive nation than China. Among the world's larger nations in world history, China's probably been among the least repressive.

Read about the Opium Wars for some context.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#56

Post by coldtea »

kevincrane wrote: post #47
Strang wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

250 years? They had colonies all over the world until merely 50 years ago. Doing stuff from direct slavery to mass executions, to fighting natives asking for freedom with submachine guns. And they still interfere in their ex-colonies politics (not to mention being the US lackeys and partners in all kinds of invasions). They even cheered when their "prince" did his first killings of their "enemies" in Afghanistan, like they had any reason for being there in the first place.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#57

Post by jdc »

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…

IMO, the phrase "repressive nation" is redundant in most cases anyway.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#58

Post by jimmaswell »

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.

You really don't need to boycott Firefox like the other commenter suggested. Just disable java and set plugins to click_to_play in about:config.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#59

Post by staticfish »

mtgx wrote: post #54
staticfish wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. * Tiananmen square. Murders against any form of civil disobedience. * Secret and non-secret alliances with North Korea. * Occasional acts of aggression on Japan. * Great firewall, general suppression of information from citizens. * Massive amounts of political corruption. * Human rights violations aplenty. * Causing an environmental catastrophe. Fucking up the entire planet in the process. * Tibet, Taiwan…

Unfortunately, I think most Chinese living there have bought the government's argument that if any of the stuff you mentioned above would not exist, it would "disrupt" the "unity" of their society. So everyone must stay in line for the "greater good", even if violent action is necessary against some individuals. What's the scariest thing in such situations is not one tyrant or another. If only that was the case, it w…

That's an interesting point, but it's really difficult when you talk to a Chinese person and they flatly deny tiananmen square, or that their government is suppressing their own freedom.

When you go to prove it on the internet, it still seems like they just do not want to believe. I find that very difficult to deal with.

I'm not going to win friends here, but it's much like talking with an Israeli.

Re: Ubuntu tapped by China for national operating system

#60

Post by coldtea »

staticfish wrote: post #40
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…

Absolutely. * Tiananmen square. Murders against any form of civil disobedience. * Secret and non-secret alliances with North Korea. * Occasional acts of aggression on Japan. * Great firewall, general suppression of information from citizens. * Massive amounts of political corruption. * Human rights violations aplenty. * Causing an environmental catastrophe. Fucking up the entire planet in the process. * Tibet, Taiwan…

>Tiananmen square. Murders against any form of civil disobedience.

Kent state shootings. And lots of similar actions, from the Wounded Knee incident to the Wako siege.

>Secret and non-secret alliances with North Korea.

Secret and non-secret alliances with Pinochet, Videla, Saudi Arabia and pretty much every corrupted government and dictatorship on earth.

>Occasional acts of aggression on Japan.

Constant acts of aggression towards any country that doesn't bend down backwards for their interests, from Vietnam to Iraq etc. The only nation to drop nuclear bombs on civilian towns.

>Great firewall, general suppression of information from citizens.

Patriot Act, data retention, DMCA, general suppression of information from citizens, J.E Hoover, McCarthy

>Massive amounts of political corruption.

Haliburton, Wall Street ties, paid-for senators, gun lobby, etc etc

>Human rights violations aplenty.

Death penalty for teenagers (one of the only 5-6 countries in the world to do that), Guantanamo, waterboarding and other torture, medical experiments on unsuspecting humans (by the US in Guatemala), sponsoring the Death Squads and other favorable dictatorship practices, seggregation (until 1970), disproportionate percentage of the black population in jail, ...

>Causing an environmental catastrophe. Fucking up the entire planet in the process.

The same. Refusing to sign world treaties on the matter. Dumping their waste on poorer third world countries. Leading the "la-la-la-no-global-warming-la-la" paid-experts denial.

>Tibet, Taiwan, etc etc

Vietnam, Korea, (...) Iraq, Afghanistan, (...)

See how it looks from the other side of the looking glass?

Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.

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