In a move to reduce software piracy in China, Beijing has banned the sale of so-called “naked” computers, that is, personal computers sold without software, according to an announcement on Friday. The timing could be a political move to coincide with Chinese President Hu Jintao’s upcoming visit to the United States. The U.S. has urged a crackdown on illegal copying of software, music and other electronics. The Beijing Copyright Bureau announced the ban would be in force by the end of 2006.
I can see the chinese governments point of view, but to make it illegal to sell a naked computer, but the redmond ripoffs are not the only software options available. Open Source software easily out-performs many of the closed source offerings, it is more secure by a country mile and it can be distrubuted for nothing more than the cost of the media. I'm sick and tired of hearing this codswallop about microsoft being ripped off because they will do anything to stifle the spread of open source software and spare no thoughts about trashing it at every opportunity and injecting FUD at the very mention of it. Sure, it's not as polished as Microsofts software, but that's only because hardware manufacturers have ignored it. More hardware support will encourage more users, will encourage more developers and the polish will be applied making it more attractive than proprietary software with unbelievable licensing restrictions. Foolish people, do you not know that open source software makes up much of the backbone of the internet, the very medium that microsoft runs on top of? How come your broadband modems don't get infected? Change the laws, yes, but give them something they're allowed to have that takes only 2 minutes to image onto a new hard disk or 15 minutes to install complete with office and multimedia capabilities, legislate for Linux.
Loading ...
Beijing Bans Naked Computers
Posted by: Jennifer LeClaire April 17, 2006 01:51 PMIn a move to reduce software piracy in China, Beijing has banned the sale of so-called “naked” computers, that is, personal computers sold without software, according to an announcement on Friday. The timing could be a political move to coincide with Chinese President Hu Jintao’s upcoming visit to the United States. The U.S. has urged a crackdown on illegal copying of software, music and other electronics. The Beijing Copyright Bureau announced the ban would be in force by the end of 2006.
I'm sick and tired of hearing this codswallop about microsoft being ripped off because they will do anything to stifle the spread of open source software and spare no thoughts about trashing it at every opportunity and injecting FUD at the very mention of it.
Sure, it's not as polished as Microsofts software, but that's only because hardware manufacturers have ignored it. More hardware support will encourage more users, will encourage more developers and the polish will be applied making it more attractive than proprietary software with unbelievable licensing restrictions.
Foolish people, do you not know that open source software makes up much of the backbone of the internet, the very medium that microsoft runs on top of? How come your broadband modems don't get infected?
Change the laws, yes, but give them something they're allowed to have that takes only 2 minutes to image onto a new hard disk or 15 minutes to install complete with office and multimedia capabilities, legislate for Linux.