Microsoft Says China Keeps The Windows Flag Flying

Reports that official Chinese state organizations could be banned from installing the new OS began to circulate last Thursday after a report in China's Yangcheng Evening News newspaper.



According to Reuters, the newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying that "the country's important government ministries will not permit the use of Microsoft Windows 2000 on their computers."



The officials suggested that government ministries were expected to switch to a new Chinese distribution of the Linux operating system.



The new distribution, Red Flag Linux, is being developed by the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a joint venture of Hong Kong's Founder Group.



Although China suffers some of the word's highest piracy rates, the report suggested that the government would save billions of dollars by choosing Linux instead of Microsoft products.



However, Reuters reported that officials in several ministries were unaware of the policy. The report also added that a Ministry of Information Industry official, who declined to be identified, said the government advocated the use of domestically-developed software. The official added that a ban on Microsoft was not very likely in the near term.



Microsoft has been accused by the mainland media of compromising the privacy and security of its users. According to the Yangchang Evening News report, the government hoped that it would get a higher standard of security from the Red Flag system.



Microsoft China denied the reports and added that a number of Chinese government departments were using beta versions of Windows 2000 in preparation for the system's official release next month.



"Microsoft has received a positive response from the Chinese government agencies testing Windows 2000," the Microsoft statement added.



"China is still all out for Windows," said the statement. "Microsoft would like to clarify that Microsoft China has not received any notification regarding such a decision. In fact, several Chinese government agencies are currently using beta versions of Windows 2000 in preparation for upgrading their systems."



However Red Flag is not the only Linux contender in China. In fact Linux software provider TurboLinux last week claimed that it outsold the upgrade version of Microsoft's Windows 98 in the last four months.



One of the reasons for this increase was government support for Linux. The other reasons were price and the exploding Internet economy. Li Ru Xiong, vice president of Federal Software Store, which has 256 outlets across China, said from mid-August to mid-December, TurboLinux outsold the Microsoft 98, NT Server and several locally developed versions of Linux.



Last July, in Japan, TurboLinux outsold Windows upgrade products for four weeks, according to a survey of 200 retail outlets by Business Computer News, a market research company.



Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.