CHINA has ordered central government agencies and state-backed corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers with domestic alternatives within 2 years, marking one of Beijing’s most aggressive efforts so far to eradicate key overseas technology from within its most sensitive organs.

Staff were asked after the week-long May break to turn in foreign PCs for home-made alternatives that run on operating software developed domestically, people familiar with the plan said. The exercise, which was mandated by central government authorities, is likely to eventually replace at least 50 million PCs on a central-government level alone they said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a sensitive matter.

The latest central government directive is likely to cover only PC brands and software, and exclude hard-to-replace components such as processors from Intel and AMD, the people said. China will mostly encourage Linux-based operating systems to replace Microsoft’s Windows Shanghai-based Standard Software is one of the top providers of such tools, one person said.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/china-orders-government-state-firms-to-dump-foreign-pcs-sources

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-06/china-orders-government-state-firms-to-dump-foreign-pcs

wanna do some dunking? check the r/linux thread

  • Pirate [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    some good comments in that thread like this one

    If any of you had ever had a real job, you would know that it is common practice for employers to install a bunch of different monitoring daemons on any company computers, in the name of "information security". These programs can monitor your internet traffic (even encrypted traffic because they force you to use their own certs), read your files, take screenshots, or even use AI to detect if your mouse activity is abnormal.

    This article is about a new Chinese policy that effects government agencies and state-owned companies to change their computers. In America, virtually every government agency and contractor is using corporate Windows PCs with monitoring software pre-installed. Now, in China, virtually every government agency and contractor will use Linux PCs, presumably with monitoring software installed. What exactly is the difference here?

    I think that the moves by foreign countries to divest from American proprietary software are great news. It is a fact that the NSA knowingly hoards vulnerabilities in Windows and other software (note that the CIA has done similar things). It is also quite possible that these backdoors were intentional placed by Microsoft in collusion with the NSA. If non-Americans stopped using Windows, the power of these backdoors would decrease, and probably the NSA stop. Also, some of these new Linux users will make contributions upstream, which will improve free software for everyone. This already happens in China.

      • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That sounds like some high level 'free market' copium. There is more dedicated infrastructure involved in spying than not spying, even if it was better competively to stop spying, the NSA is operating on sunk cost logic at this point. Not only that, but these tech companies leverage those breachs in privacy to get huge tax breaks, meaning there is likely more of an incentive to maintain that infrastructure.

        Idk guys, maybe the libertarians will be right about how the market works this time.

          • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            When was the last time any of y’all had a ding dang computer virus? Web 2.0 and the centralization of the internet, in addition to torrents fading in popularity as streaming replaced it, has basically killed all wild viruses. Unless you are going on sketchy porn or ROM sites or something you probably won’t get a virus in 2022 even on windows

            • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
              ·
              2 years ago

              in addition to torrents fading in popularity as streaming replaced it

              isn't it incredibly hard to get a virus from a torrent?

              I only click the green skull guys on piratebay, never had any issues

              • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
                ·
                2 years ago

                The viruses I got back in the day from torrenting weren’t the files themselves, but the magnet link websites