Microsoft and linux in China

[zuoheng]

we are talking about linux and microsoft, even some information industry.
while you drove so far to those political issues. I know there are many
problems in China now, but on the other hand, I know it is NOT a easy task
to raise the bar for 1.5B people.

It is not a good way to judge others by all the information from TV or
internet and the situation you live in.

/zuoheng


On 7/16/07, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> On 7/12/07, zuoheng <zh.huang-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > I am from China. I have to say that the pirate software, Windows,
> Office,
> > and Photoshop, PC games do help this country to be more open and catch
> up
> > the information revolution. I can not
> > image if without pirated software, the
> > Internet would
> > grow so fast during the past 10 years in China. Though I love
> > Linux, but it is obvious Linux was not
> > good enough for desktop back to late of 90's.
> >
> > Maybe MS took it as a strategy to dominate a
> > under-developed market at the beginning
> > time and gave big tolerance to pirated software, now MS is
> > making money in China.
> > I would like to say, it is a win-win for MS and China, while sad for
> Linux.
> >
> > /zuoheng
>
> I don't think this represents a "win-win" for China, nor is it one for
> Microsoft.
>
> For Microsoft, there may be a similar "win" to that of the crack
> dealer who starts out in a "loss" position, but who later "wins" once
> he has a set of addicted customers.  I could go along with a
> "lose-win" assessment, there.
>
> For China, I don't see *any* win here.
>
> They may have a temporary evasion of payments; unfortunately, that
> does amount to thievery, and we're seeing wide-spread problems in the
> Chinese economic system that seems characteristic of banditry.
> Stealing software, bribing inspectors, enslaving workers, on the
> manufacturers' side.
>
> On the government's side, the willingness of government officials to
> be bribed reflects the mirror of that.  In the not-forgotten past,
> they found it a "win-win" situation to have the army drive tanks over
> protestors.  And the legal system has the "convenience" factor that
> they don't bother permitting the accused to mount any meaningful
> defense.
>
> I'm no fan of Microsoft, but that doesn't mean, to me, that it's AOK
> to use their software "if it's convenient."  Likewise, I'm no fan of
> the RIAA or MPAA, but just because they're being bozos does not make
> it AOK for factories in China to stamp out CDs and DVDs by the
> millions just because it's convenient to leave this as a "legal
> limbo."
>
>
> I expect that there will be some significant economic injury as a
> result of the recent poisonous toothpaste problem.  Based on all
> indicators, that injury seems entirely well-deserved.  The thievery
> that is taking place makes them rightly look like thieves.
>
> It's not so much "sad for Linux;" it's probably a better thing that
> Linux isn't associated with this.
> --
> http://linuxfinances.info/info/linuxdistributions.html
> "...  memory leaks  are  quite acceptable  in  many applications  ..."
> (Bjarne Stroustrup, The Design and Evolution of C++, page 220)
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