__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Thursday 01 June 2006 22:00 \__
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:37:21 +0100
> <7113072.9PGEoBmLLh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> Remember Mr. Gates' recent visit to China, as well as flirt with its
>> leaders?
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Many such vendors previously sold PCs with free operating systems such
>> | as Linux or none at all...
>> |
>> | Observers believe the Chinese vendors signed their deals with Microsoft
>> | in April under pressure from Beijing, which is trying to show it is
>> | making serious efforts to stamp out piracy -- a major complaint from
>> | many Western governments.
>> |
>> | In late March, the Chinese government went so far as to issue a
>> | decree requiring PC makers to install a licensed operating system on
>> | each machine before it left the factory.
>> `----
>>
>> What does a "licensed operating system" mean? Is this decree ethical, or
>> even legal? Is it against the law to buy just the hardware now???
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060601/bs_nm/china_microsoft_dc
>
> In what scope? Presumably, one could claim
> that a "licensed OS" restriction applies to all
> Chinese-manufactured hardware. Of course the US wouldn't
> really bother to enforce it, unless there's a treaty
> obligation and/or monetary gains to be had thereby.
With a large variety of (Chinese-enabled) Linux distributions in the wild,
delivering an empty box would seem a sensible thing to do. Give customers
the choice, as well as rid yourself from liabilities.
The figures in the article do not indicate a migration from Linux to Windows.
However, getting Linux boxes in China could become more difficult now. I
believe this was all along intended to force people to have no (apparent)
choice and pay more 'tax' for unwanted goods.
> I would assume the Chinese would define "licensed". It is
> far from clear whether Red Flag would be included thereon,
> or not -- or how vigorous their enforcement efforts will be.
>
> The Chinese government's ethics haven't impressed me in
> the past, though. Nor has their execution. There is a
> program 6/4 (or Six of Four; I don't know precisely which),
> commemorating 1989-06-04 (or 6/4/1989) -- if one can call
> an anonymizing communications port designed to punch through
> a firewall a commemoration for such a horrific event.
>
> Google coughed up
That's right. It did (cough out blood). Speaking of which, there are having
some technical problems nowadays. It's not only me who reports this and
degradation of search results appears to be part of the deal.
> http://www.uglychinese.org/june4th_massacre.htm
>
> which is a long piece thereon.
>
> But never mind all that; how are Pitt, Jolie, and baby
> Shiloh Nouvel doing? :-) (And will we be able to view
> the results using Linux?)
In Gentoo, possibly not. Well, I just kid...
Best wishes,
Roy
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