China bans use of Microsoft's Windows 8 on government computers

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

China has banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft Corp's latest operating system (OS), in a blow to the U.S. technology company which has long been plagued by sales woes in the country.

The Central Government Procurement Center issued the ban on installing Windows 8 on government computers as part of a notice on the use of energy-saving products, posted on its website last week.

The official Xinhua news agency said the ban was to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for its Windows XP operating system, which was widely used in China.

Neither the government nor Xinhua elaborated on how the ban supported the use of energy-saving products, or how it ensured security.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/20/us-microsoft-china-idUSBREA4J07Q20140520

[DetlefK]

1. The municipal administration of Munich switched completely to Linux.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux

It's feasible on a large scale.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. I am pleased to hear that.

When we switched to Linux I could not believe the difference in ease of use.
so much of an improvement that when a friend gave us an Android tablet, we have not used it at all.

[Victor_c3]

2. The US Federal Government doesn't use Windows 8 either...

We just upgraded our computers from XP to windows 7 only about 6-12 months ago at my agency.

[TexasProgresive]

4. The same with big mega Telcom I work for.

I think Microsoft is writing off business clients for those who like baubles.
BTW the move to 7 has not been pleasant. We've had problems getting necessary apps to run that interface with various systems.

We have one system that has an antique WIN 95 machine because of the archaic GUI it uses won't run on anything newer. My son was forced to WIN & and had to struggle to get a printer that would work-meanwhile he had a report that must be printed on a deadline. Such fun. XP was flawless for the work that I do.

[steve2470]

17. I'm surprised to hear that about Win7

However, I take your word for it since you're in IT.

[RoccoR5955]

3. ALL computers should be banned from using Windows 8!

If you bring up a command prompt, you will actually find that it is NOT version 8, but version 6.2.
Windows 7, as well, is actually version 6.1.
Vista (ugh) is version 6.0
So AFAIC, Windows 7 is Vista warmed over, and 8 is Vista warmed over and patched.

[marble falls]

5. Hear, Hear! 8 truly sucks regardles of which dark recess of beyond his splinctor Gates pulled it.

[RoccoR5955]

21. Gates had nothing to do with it.

It was Ballmer!

[bemildred]

23. Correct. Gates at least understood marketing. nt

[doxydad]

6. Big F*cking deal!

It's banned here at the house, and my business too, until Microsoft gets their collective dead asses making a better, more user friendly product. i consider myself fairly intelligent, but cannot operate the Windows 8 or 8.1 platform. Microsoft sucks at not being user friendly. They have failed millions of people. End of RANT.

[Arkana]

7. Best idea China's ever had.

"When pressed for comment, a government spokesperson said 'It really has nothing to do with security concerns, we just won't use it cause it sucks donkey balls.'"

[Brainstormy]

12. Agreed

but machines running it do have some security concerns. They're in danger of being hurled across rooms.

[PSPS]

8. I issued the same edict for all of my clients too, as well as anything "cloud."

Windows 8 is very buggy, poorly designed and isn't business friendly at all.
And "cloud" is about as secure as publishing in the newspaper.

[Sunlei]

10. yeah all their game hacks used XP or earlier versions.

[Cooley Hurd]

11. Guessing (since the article doesn't explicitly say) it's because they think...

...the NSA has forced MS to build backdoors into it, NOT because of its usability.

Speaking of its usability, it's a fine OS that had a rocky rollout. 8.1 will have a service pack shortly that will restore the traditional start menu to the desktop (while still allowing Metro UI in a tablet environment). THAT'S what they should've done from the beginning, instead of forcing Metro (not a mouse-friendly UI) on everyone on every device.

[wisechoice]

13. windows 8 is the best os for tablet

I don't know why all these hate for Microsoft. If not for Microsoft, apple will be charging 3000$ for their macs. Windows made it affordable for me to assemble my own computers. Linux is not yet mature. The kernel is mature, but device driver Support is poor. Services don't run properly. I installed Linux on my office laptop and I had an embarrassing experience with it. The emails I sent had all junk characters when sending it through exchange server. I had to uninstall Linux and switch to windows 7. For servers, Linux is great.

[RoccoR5955]

22. Linux is not yet mature?!?!?!

Linux has been around for TWENTY THREE years!
How can it not be "mature?"
Linux may be a bit more difficult to configure, because you can't just install it, and expect it to work, so you have to actually know what hardware you have to install it.
But recently, there are actually flavors of Linux that you can just run and go. Straight from the CD/DVD, and never use the hard drive at all!
No, the only thing that Linux does not have that Apple and Microsoft has is an advertising budget.
Linux is an operating system that is free as in speech, not free as in beer. Linux is the operating system of the PEOPLE!

The only reason why you didn't have your email on your laptop going through the exchange server display properly, is because your mail client on the Linux side was not configured properly.

Oh, and Apple wouldn't be charging $3k for their computers. Apple computers are competitively priced, when compared to comparable Windows PCs. When the hardware is the same on both platforms, the price is often cheaper for the Mac. Yes, cheaper for the Mac. Look at the specs, and you will see that the $400 Acer computer comes nowhere near the lowest end MacBook Pro. Slower processor, less hard drive space, inferior graphics. Check it out for yourself.

I can say this, as I have been servicing computers for more than twenty-five years. I BETTER know what I am talking about, about 2000 people rely on me to do so!

[ballyhoo]

14. Smart move. It is the single worst OS

in history. I bought a Dell Venue 8 Pro with Windows 8.1 on it a few months ago just to see why friends of mine were throwing their Windows 8 machines out of the window (literally). I now know. I took the Venue 8 back to Costco two weeks before the return time ran out. The supervisor that gave me the return said they got back almost all the ones they sold. Costco said what has happened is that consumers are now running around searching all over for Windows 7 machines with XP not being maintained anymore. I bought two Acer Aspires myself and have found others for neighbors. As far as Windows 8/8.1 goes, I have never seen anything so poorly designed since I started with Kaypro 10's years ago. Windows 9 better be good or Microsoft is approximately history.

[JoeyT]

15. Not quite in history.

ME was worse by several orders of magnitude. The natural state of ME was a BSOD. Vista was worse than 8 as well. I don't think Vista could've done anything without lagging if you'd installed it on a Cray.

The main difference on the user end is that 8 is a bit less user friendly than either of those, while being much less of a crash happy resource-hog. It's still a POS, just not to the degree those were.

[ballyhoo]

16. Sorry, disagree with you on all counts. I'm a CNE and

spent years putting in networks and have put in hundreds of computers, computer systems and accounting software systems. I had ME on one of my machines for six months before I canned it and returned to 3.1. I put Vista on my daughter's computer. She still uses it although I've offered to upgrade to 7 many times. However, neither of these aforementioned systems was anywhere near as bad as Windows 8 "IN MY OPINION." Windows 8 might be okay if you want to play games, watch movies or view pictures of flowers or something. But as far as doing actual work,ie. running databases, doing spreadsheets, even WP, forget it. Just working the email is bad.

[wisechoice]

18. you are bashing windows 8 because you think it is a fashion

Spreadsheets , wp work the same way that they do in windows 7. It is a fantastic real OS for a tablet.
On the other hand, ipad/android tablet might be ok if you are playing games, watching movies or view pictures of flowers or something.
I love the fact that I can run x86 applications when I need to, while I can use this as a typical tablet is unique feature that no other tablet OS can offer. And their gestures are easy to use and in my opinion better implemented than ipad.

[ballyhoo]

25. Good for you. I'm glad you like it.

[byronius]

24. Windows 8 nearly drove me insane.

I couldn't believe the overwhelming arrogance of it. Shockingly inept. My god.

I still want to know how it happened. Three days later, I wiped the drive and installed 7, which is relatively functional.

I felt strongly as if it was a Microsoft power play, some delusional executive who believed consumers could be guided like rats in a maze to serve the needs of Microsoft. Every design decision seemed to serve the corporation at the expense of the operator. Bizarre overreach. Truly crazy.

I was scarred by the experience. I lost three days of time I did not have in trying to make that ridiculous hamster wheel work. It'll make me reticent to upgrade, forever.

So bad.

[ballyhoo]

26. But apparently it's marvelous

for pads. Myself, I don't like pads. They are toys. I'm glad you got straightened up. I'm running all Windows 7 (64) with two XP pros as backup. I could not figure out why Win 8 was done either. I think it had to do something with wanting computers to look like cellphones. Totally stupid. I have a Motorola Max. I hate it. I've started keeping it off all the time and using my land line. My cell phone never stops updating, sending me email, informing about everything. I'm sure one day they'll even make toast. I just got a new contract and Verizon lied their butt off about it. So I am stuck for two years. I might just go pay cash for one of those Net 10 jobs. I bought my wife a Mot Max too. She won't even turn it on. She made her company buy her an I-phone 5, which she doesn't like either. I don't know how old you are, but for me, I'm starting to long for the old days before Google and Google-everything--that--moves. Just so tiresome. Oh, well, sorry for the rant.

[byronius]

28. No, I get it. Google-strapped-to-your-brain is clearly the aim.

Still. Better than an Altair.

[JoeyT]

27. It pretty well sucks for games too.

So it's not really fine for that, either. Pictures are probably ok with a third party image viewer.

Edited to add: I haven't really messed with 8 a lot, and spent months fighting ME, and a year fighting Vista, which may be why I hate them so much more. My experience with 8 was having it on my machine for an hour before going back to 7 and trying to explain to my 75 year old aunt that none of her programs were going to work anymore because the new computer machine thing she bought was windows 8 while the one she was upgrading from was the original windows 95, and operating systems tend to change over damned near two decades.

[ballyhoo]

31. Ahhhhhhhh, that explains

it: your feeling that 8 is not as bad as ME or Vista. The problem you mention with your aunt strikes terror into people helping others mechanize. I don't much care for computers anymore. I spent 15 years of my life having people look at me like I was crazy when explaining computer stuff to them. Gets lonely. That's why I'm only certified in Netware through 4.1. I didn't want to go on. I now do budgets and spreadsheets for my wife's hospital. Before I forget, I just bought a Brother color laser printer an HL-3170-cdw. I love it. The color is great, although I do color on my HP C5580 commensurate in quality. But there is something so natural about the color in the laser. It's got like style, kind of like a painting on canvas. Anyway, if you get 2 C notes it's a good buy. I have two monster puters and four lazer printers and I'm gearing up for the election telling people if they vote Republican this time they will end the world. I'm doing it by snail mail because the other approaches look canned. People want an honest message and I'm going to try and do that; I don't care how much the postage costs. Anyway, Joey, good luck with whatever computer you settle on. If someone would 3rd party a redo of XP Pro with its organization on it, I would go for that. Call it XP Pro Reborn.

[penultimate]

29. What problems did you have running spreadsheets on Win8?

What kind of databases are you talking about? There isn't anything that 7 can do that 8 cannot do. If you tweak Win8 in a couple minor ways, you pretty much have an improved Windows 7 box.

Now it's damn near impossible to check ones email on Netware 5.5

[madokie]

19. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to a windows computer

Linux all the way for me.

[FrodosPet]

20. Does Linux support Netflix yet?

I am a fan of Linux going all the way back to the days when it was young enough and small enough to run on a dual floppy system. From Slakware to RedHat/Fedora to my current flavor, Xubuntu. So this is not Linux bashing.

I've been trying to install Netflix for a friend running Ubuntu 14.04. I followed the instructions, installing through apt-get after setting the repository, etc. Alas, I only got it working once - very choppy, then it quit and never worked again. By any chance, do you have any tips on running .NET apps or Netflix on Wine/Mono?

[DeSwiss]

30. I'm still using XP now.....

...but I've got another computer system that I bought sometime back when I read that support for XP would end this year. With Windows 8.0 on them they were practically giving them away. But that Windows operating system will never see the light of day.

- This will be the first program it sees when I boot it up for the first time.

K&R