“A major Chinese newspaper yesterday reported that Beijing will
ban Windows 2000 in government agencies, provoking an immediate
denial from Microsoft and stoking a growing movement in China
favoring the widespread adoption of Linux-based operating systems
that compete with Windows 2000….”
“Microsoft quickly went on the record denying the report. “We’ve
certainly heard nothing about this rumor and think it’s baseless,”
Erin Brewer, a Microsoft spokeswoman, told Reuters.”
“Ever since Wu Shihong, the former general manager of Microsoft
in China, resigned and last fall published a book severely
criticizing the company’s tactics in China, the question of what
operating system will become the most popular in China has drawn
great attention.”
“For many in China today, the question is a matter of
patriotism. Many Chinese writers, journalists, and high tech
industry spokespeople have all publicly criticized Microsoft
and suggested that ubiquity of Windows in China’s computers,
similar to that in the States, would constitute a new kind of
foreign invasion and exploitation of China.”