[ Thanks to George
Mitchell and Karsten M.
Self for this link. ]
“Janet Reno is not the only one worried about Bill Gates’
software monopoly: China’s leaders are, too. They are
concerned that the country is growing overly dependent on Microsoft
Corp.’s Windows operating system, which controls
microcomputers running everything from banks to President Jiang
Zemin’s e-mail box.”
“But the Chinese government, itself a master at
monopoly, is taking its case against Microsoft not to the
courtroom, but to the marketplace, albeit with a bit of
administrative fiat. It is backing the Linux operating
system… “We don’t want one company to monopolize the
software market,” said Chen Chong, a deputy minister of information
industries who oversees the computer industry in China. With Linux,
“we can control the security,” he added, so “we can control our own
destiny.”
“A growing number of Chinese have likened dependence on
Microsoft to leaving the keys to the country’s increasingly
computerized economy in the hands of a potential enemy. Some warn
that secret holes in Microsoft’s computer code might allow the
United States access to Chinese networks or even enable it, in time
of war, to shut those networks down.”