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Windows 10 China Government Edition is a modified version of Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, created in collaboration with the Chinese government over the past two years. This version supposedly boasts bespoke high security for the government and stated-owned entities, while retaining the defining features of Windows 10.
Source: Windows Central
A Microsoft spokesperson said that this is the first time Microsoft has built a custom version of Windows for China.
Source: Fortune
additional coverage:
Geekwire
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Windows 10 China Government Edition Launched
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In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls.
-- Lenny Bruce
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Friday May 26 2017, @08:23PM (7 children)
It's a good question: why would China want to trust their government secrets to an OS made by an American company with strong ties to the NSA?
My theory: humans are generally incompetent. As you say, a Linux-based OS would make a lot more sense for them, and for any country's government really, since it can all be audited and built yourself from components not tied to any government, and customized any way you want; you just need some competent programmers to do it for you, which you'd think a large government wouldn't have trouble hiring domestically. So, in conclusion, I think the general failure of Linux to get very far with governments simply proves my assertion: humans are generally incompetent. This is just one small data point showing again why we'll never be an advanced civilization.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @08:53PM
... that when humanity finally achieves civilization (advanced or otherwise), it won't involve any government.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday May 26 2017, @09:02PM (3 children)
My theory is that they have a few million machines running this version of Windows which Trumppence and the useful idiots will monitor remotely. Meanwhile, they'll be doing their real work on proper computers.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday May 26 2017, @09:12PM (2 children)
I'm sorry, that's ridiculous. It sounds nice, and shows you have a real hope for humanity, but it's just ridiculous, like any conspiracy theory: for it to be true, it requires a level of complexity and coordination between people and competence that simply is not realistic in the real world. Occam's Razor holds here: the simplest explanation is the most likely, and that's my prior assertion, that humans are simply bumbling and incompetent, and therefore doomed to be an evolutionary dead-end.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Friday May 26 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)
Don't burst my delicate little bubble. I still live in the hope that the human race might escape from this rock and form self-sustaining colonies off planet. It's not looking good, is it?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 26 2017, @09:44PM
No, it really isn't. Sorry.
The best I can tell you is that my personal theory is that we're in the parallel universe where humans are incompetent fuck-ups and will soon drive ourselves to extinction, but somewhere out there there's at least one parallel universe where humans did better, avoided some historical pitfall, and have managed to build a more advanced society and are at least in the process of starting to build offworld colonies and explore the galaxy.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Friday May 26 2017, @11:28PM (1 child)
China does not want people running Linux as they won't have control over the logging, encryption, etc, or certainly not as much control. With the modified version of Windows, they have a back door into every machine, pretty much guaranteed.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday May 27 2017, @01:16AM
We're talking about government computers here, not ones in peoples' homes or in companies. That's why it's called the "Windows 10 China Government Edition". With this one, Microsoft and the US government have a back door into every machine in the Chinese government, pretty much guaranteed. And the idea that a government making its own version of Linux for internal use wouldn't have control over logging or encryption is just insane.