Linux guy in China Microsoft protest
p2pnet.net news:- News of a putative Microsoft upgrade of China was marred when a protestor waving a “Free Software, Open Source” banner showed up during a cermemony at Beijing’s Peking University featuring Bill Gates.
“Mac Users would never do that,” says David Feng [right] on the BLUG blog (Beijing Linux Users’ Group), going on, “but also they have often accepted the proprietary systems so they can’t be that radical. I mean the RMS spirit doesn’t really exists among mac users.”
The protestor, wearing a black suit and tie, “has been identified in newspapers as Wang Yang, also known as WangKaiyuan, chief China representative of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI),” says state news agency Xinhua.
The “free software” protester, “has triggered a vigorous debate among China’s Internet users on his motives and cause,” says People’s Daily Online.
“We respect everyone’s right of free speech and the incident did not damage Microsoft’s innovation event in Peking University,” the story has Microsoft’s Chen Ranfeng declaring, ” in a news bulletin carried by Sina.com” the bulleting adds, “Gates, who controls the majority of the market for personal computer operating systems, is believed to be accustomed to these complaints”.
Wang stormed the stage, “and began yelling as Bill Gates was handing awards to students who had won prizes for innovation after making a speech on Friday,” says Xinhua.
“We are initiating new campuses in Beijing and Shanghai,” said Gates at the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia on southern Hainan Island. “We see us and other major players doing this expansion throughout Asia.”
Microsoft is, “stepping up research operations in a market where about 80 percent of business software is pirated, and more than 90 percent of 1.3 billion people don’t own computers,” says the story, relying on Bloomberg News for the statistics.
“I was surprised at Wang’s act because we met a couple of times before and he seemed to be a cautious man,” Xinhua has Zhao Xiaoliang, acting executive of Red Flag Software Co, stating in a comment posted on the popular Sohu.com.
“But I think Wang might have acted for the benefit of China’s software buyers,” said Zhao, “whose company aims to provide high quality Linux related products and services in China”.
He went on:
“Everybody knows Microsoft’s Windows operating system has been monopolizing the market. The price of the system is very high, pushing users who cannot afford it to buy pirated software. Maybe it is time that Microsoft start to think about the problems.”
The Chinese government has been, “encouraging the use of open-source software to generate the growth of the domestic IT industry and to minimize dependence on expensive software, and companies which supply them, such as Microsoft,” says Xinhua.
“To me – as a Mac guy who runs zero MS software on his laptops – this is, as Air Canada says it so well, a breath of fresh air,” states Feng on BLUG, going on:
Doing this smack in the face of the boss of the “MS imperialists” is quite a feat. It kind of takes courage, I guess. You can discuss the validity or the underlying message of the move until you’re blue (or in Mac speak, Aqua) in the face, but I have to let my inner me out on this…
…this is quite something… in front of the biggest “imperialist” on the planet.
Yeah… I’m quite an odd Mac guy (or penguin at that), but hey… Microsoft… David Feng
And in another post:
Mac Users would never do that, but also they have often accepted the proprietary systems so they can’t be that radical. I mean the RMS spirit doesn’t really exists among mac users.
I kind of agree on that; then again, as Mac people, we’ve already “chosen”. If the Mac OS and Windows are two evils (which I don’t agree with), the Mac OS has got to be the lesser of the two evils.
And the more innovative of the two. (Vista got quite a bruising on our Mac site the day it came out – a big reason for that was the blatant copying of Mac OS X Tiger. Kinda clues you in on why the “Great Leader” Steve Jobs is keeping National Security-grade secrecy on Leopard…)
Also See:
BLUG blog – Re:Wang Yang protests at award ceremony, April 24, 2007
Xinhua – Protester at Bill Gates Beijing ceremony sparks debate, April 24, 2007
People’s Daily Online – Protester at Bill Gates Beijing ceremony sparks debate on Internet, April 23, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
April 25th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Microsoft is harvesting a significant number of high quality patents from its Chinese employees, which Microsoft will use against China in years to come.
There may also be cases of bending or circumventing Chinese patent laws.
I think Chinese government should pay signifiant attention to this aspect and use its peoples’ brain power for its own good, not gift it away to companies like Microsoft.