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Chinese Authorities Enforce Switch from Microsoft

2008-12-02

Internet cafes in China are forced to switch to a Chinese-made operating system, with steep licensing fees.

AFP Photo

Chinese Web surfers at an Internet cafe in Hefei, in central China's Anhui province, Jan. 25, 2007.

UPDATED DEC. 3, 12:46 EST

HONG KONG—Authorities in the southeastern Chinese city of Nanchang are requiring all local Internet cafes to replace their Microsoft Windows XP operating systems with a Chinese-made system, Red Flag Linux, according to officials and Internet cafe owners.

An official with the Nanchang Cultural Discipline Team, which oversees the roughly 600 Internet cafes operating in Nanchang city, said the new operating systems were mandatory.

“We have already started installing the new software in all Internet cafes. All of them must have this new one,” the official said.

...the owners will likely reinstall Windows to make their customers happy."

Bill Xia, Dynamic Internet Technology

The switch was mandated by the Nanchang Cultural Management Bureau in what it said was an effort to crack down on pirated software, local sources said.

But cafe managers said the new system requires a licensing fee of 5,000 yuan (about U.S. $726), and that even legitimate, non-pirated copies of Windows XP were being replaced.

“Our district cultural management authorities came and installed the new Red Flag Linux in all of our 13 Internet cafes,” one cafe worker said.

“It happened around Nov. 20, and we all paid the 5,000 yuan installation fee, even though we used to use legally purchased Windows XP. But I don’t think this new system is as good as the old one.”

A new, legitimate copy of Windows XP costs around 899 yuan (about U.S. $130) in China, plus 15 yuan for shipping.

Similar moves touted in official press

Whether Nanchang authorities were enforcing an order from higher up, and whether the directive might apply elsewhere in China, wasn’t immediately clear.

But reports in China’s official media indicate that Internet cafes in other cities have also switched to Red Flag Linux, with positive coverage in the official press.

It mainly means [a] less secure and private communication environment for netizens in those Internet cafes."

Xiao Qiang, UC-Berkeley

On Aug. 11, 2006, China Computer Journal reported that, after a July 28, 2006 conference in Fuzhou, “relevant leaders from Fuzhou toured a Red Flag Linux promotion Internet cafe. More than 100 computers at this Internet cafe, which is located in the center of the city, have installed the Red Flag Linux software.”

It quoted the manager as saying that “the installation of the Red Flag Linux software has greatly enhanced the stability and security of his system, and that virus attacks, which had caused great damage in the past, have dropped to virtually zero.”

And on Dec. 11, 2007, an official Web site known as “It Experts” reported that Red Flag Linux “satisfactorily resolved many of the problems plaguing the more than 200 Internet cafes in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, in terms of security, cost-effectiveness, screen clarity, user-friendliness, etc.”

Unwelcome move

An Internet cafe owner surnamed Chen said the switch was unwelcome. “Every Internet cafe has to install the new software though none of us wants it. There’s no other choice,” he said.

“We’ve been facing a number of new charges. Not long ago, the police asked us to install personal ID scanners for 3,800 yuan (U.S. $550). Now we’re charged for this new software. We don’t know what we will be charged for next. So I wouldn’t pay, and I’m closing my business.”

Cafe owners complained online this week about paying licensing fees for an operating system that can be downloaded free for personal use.

“How much of the charge goes to the Red Flag Linux Co. and how much to the cultural management authorities in Nanchang?” one post read.

An employee at Red Flag Linux’s developer, Beijing Zhongke Red Flag Software Co., confirmed that the system is free for personal use but couldn’t comment on whether businesses are ever required to buy licenses.

Suspected censorship

Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley, said he sees the move to Linux as an effort to tighten censorship and step up surveillance online.

“It mainly means [a] less secure and private communication environment for netizens in those Internet cafes,” Xiao said. “The authorities are gaining more control.”

“China has a vast number of small Internet cafes, and a huge proportion of them are in a quasi-legal area. By forcing all Internet cafes to change operating systems, the authorities are making them register…and therefore all kinds of policing and surveillance software will be installed at all these large and small Internet cafes as well.”

Bill Xia, president of Dynamic Internet Technology, said he doubted Red Flag would provide a significant advantage in censorship and surveillance—though it requires an additional step for users to install Freegate, a popular anti-censorship utility that Xia’s firm developed.

“You would have pretty much the same censoring power for either Windows or Linux,” Xia said. “It seems like a disadvantage for Internet cafes because Linux tends to have more limited support for different software.”

“Maybe the local Public Security office can make some new money from the Internet cafe owners because they will have to buy it, but the owners will likely reinstall Windows to make their customers happy,” Xia said, calling the 5,000-yuan licensing fee “crazy.”

Chinese who access the Web at Internet cafes are already required to register with their identification cards. Online monitors patrol the Web inside China for content deemed politically subversive or related to gambling, pornography, or illegal business dealings.

Large numbers of Web sites are blocked and dozens of Chinese citizens have been arrested for accessing or sending politically sensitive information over the Web.

Home-grown system

Red Flag Linux was created by the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. Financial backing came from a government-owned firm, ShangHai NewMargin Venture Capital.

An employee at Beijing Red Flag Software Co. Ltd who asked not to be named said most users of the operating system were government offices and businesses, which must pay licensing fees to use Windows.

“We custom designed the software according to most Chinese users’ habits by eliminating the English language,” the employee said.

Notebook: Cell Phones

A new study shows that 18% on Americans only use cell phones and 13% still own a landline but rarely use it. Katie Couric has more on how 1/3 of us get most of our calls on cell phones.

December 23, 2008

Wikipedia pulls in flood of cash from users

MATT HARTLEY

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

December 30, 2008 at 11:27 PM EST

Someone forgot to tell Wikipedia there's an economic crisis afoot.

Conventional thinking says that in times of economic turmoil, consumers sit on their wallets and spend cash only on essentials.

Free online encyclopedias don't generally enter the conversation.

This year, the Wikimedia Foundation – a non-profit organization that operates the Wikipedia family of websites – set a goal of $6-million in donations, enough to cover its 2009 expenses, while hoping to buck the global financial slowdown.

At first, it appeared the fundraising drive that began on Nov. 3 would fall short of its goal, even though the group was running banner ads soliciting donations at the top of each of Wikipedia's 11 million pages.

Then, on Dec. 23, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wrote an impassioned plea to the site's users, imploring them to put their faith in the foundation and to “imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.”

In the next 24 hours, the number of donations rose 892 per cent, from about 800 the day before Mr. Wales's letter went public to 8,186 the day it began appearing on Wikipedia pages.

Before his appeal to users, the foundation was receiving about $30,000 (U.S.) a day in donations. Now the foundation is averaging more than $215,000 in donations every day.

The explosion of support is further proof of how important Wikipedia has become to the 275 million people who visit it every month, and it underscores the power of the Internet to quickly raise money through small increments and grassroots initiatives.

“We're really thrilled that people have come out in force and made a clear statement that they care about this cause and they care about Wikipedia, even though we were kind of nervous after the economic news became really clear,” said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation.

Last year the site brought in just over $1.5-million in its yearend fundraising drive. As of Tuesday, Wikimedia had already collected more than $5.5-million, placing it on track to reach its goal two weeks before the end of the campaign, Jan. 15, the site's eighth birthday.

The foundation – which has only 23 paid staff members – relies on an army of 150,000 volunteers to keep the site running and as accurate as possible.

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that can be edited and updated by anyone, is the eighth most popular website in the world and is also the most visited non-profit site on the Web.

Unlike other high-flying Web 2.0 success stories such as Facebook and MySpace, Wikipedia has eschewed the millions of dollars in advertising revenue pouring onto the Internet, instead relying on the financial support of its ever-expanding user base.

Although the foundation has received a handful of “major gifts” of between $5,000 and $10,000, most of the donations coming in are from individuals pledging an average of just $30.

“You multiply that effect thousands of times you see the pattern that emerges. It's really fitting because it echoes the framework of Wikipedia; lots of people all over the world making small contributions, which is what created Wikipedia.”

The result is remarkably similar to the online fundraising efforts of U.S. president-elect Barack Obama, who raised an unprecedented campaign war chest by collecting thousands of small contributions from supporters over the Internet.

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/Technology/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

Scientists develop mobile phone battery that can be charged in just 10 seconds

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 7:31 PM on 11th March 2009

The new device charges 100 times as fast as a conventional battery and could also
be used in phones, laptops, iPods and digital cameras within just two or three years, they say.

Article Here-
http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=6