Red Flag Linux, a counterattack against MS Window?

This article reveals that Chinese government forces its Internet cafés to use Red Flag Linux system.

I checked the government document about the policy of internet café. There is only one province out of 32, which has a document mentioned Linux system. And it says that “…we recommend Red Flag Linux and Microsoft Server…” Moreover, Red Flag Linux can be downloaded from official site freely. So I don’t think the government “is forcing its internet cafés”.

However, I agree that there is no guarantee of freedom by using licensed open source. Open source-based software is not free beer but more likely to be free speech. Like free softwares, they are not free of charge but free of use. As I know, most internet cafés in china are using MS Windows system. Under such circumstances, Red Flag Linux as an open source-based system is now cooperating with a provincial government to some extent. I suppose the aim is trying to break the monopoly of MS Windows in China, more or less. Regardless of the effect, this can be seen as a counterattack from the open source community to Microsoft.

The author in this article points out several factors to make the software “truly free” such as “Free markets, open standards, and open data”. Nevertheless, I believe the real obstacle for the development of open source-based system is not the marketing, licensing or standardizing, but the development of application softwares. MS Windows is now having many software companies to develop softwares, but operating systems like Linux lack this competitive ability. Therefore, although Red Flag Linux is taking its action, there, unfortunately, can’t be any threat to MS Windows.


Sources:

Article, Open-source freedom lost on Chinese government, retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10113243-16.html

Red Flag Linux official site: http://www.redflag-linux.com/d/iso/