“Kick and scream all you want, lovers of free peoples and
free software, but the Chinese really like their Linux.“
“So much that China has allegedly banned the use of Windows 2000
in its government offices in deference to their own Linux
distribution, Red Flag Linux, according to a story from the South
China Morning Post. In a later story from Reuters, Chinese
officials denied that Windows had been “banned” per se, although
the story did note several points of contention between China and
Microsoft, ranging from accusations of computer piracy to
counter-accusations of monopolism and economic imperialism.”
“The story about China, Red Flag Linux and Microsoft originally
appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the Yangcheng Evening News. The
report quoted an unnamed Ministry of Information official, who
claimed that the Chinese government was actively encouraging
computer users to buy domestic software, in particular Red Flag
Linux, a distribution of Linux being developed by Chinese
programmers. Red Flag Linux is reportedly geared toward personal
computers and will be available in mid-2000.”