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Quotes article from the Epoch Times, the Falun Gong paper. This may not the most credible source. What would "China" dropping Microsoft windows mean? Surely no

Quotes article from the Epoch Times, the Falun Gong paper. This may not the most credible source. What would "China" dropping Microsoft windows mean? Surely not all Chinese companies stopping use, since that would be extremely disruptive. More likely a few ministries starting a program to try Linux. Not that a scenario where possession of an install disk would be a crime doesn't appeal to me. The weight of the entire Chinese state might help the Linux desktop crack 10% usage but suspect I'll have to dream on.

cm2187 7y ago
Isn’t the linux desktop mostly a driver problem? If it is the case I would assume that given the number of chinese manufacturers, China could force them to release suitable drivers. The linux desktop would reach a critical mass that would make it hard for non chinese manufacturers to neglect it. It would require more UI that there currently is. Even for simple things I often find myself stuck in front of a terminal, looking at the documentation to figure out how the damn thing works before I can even look for the right syntax.
- Const-me 7y ago
  It's a clusterfuck of problems: https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.t...
  - middleload 7y ago
    As a 10 years user of Linux (at home and at work) let me tell you that page is full of FUD. It's picking up every issue on Linux and paints it as a disaster. Then it goes to "I have no idea what I'm talking about" mode with > There's no concept of drivers in Linux aside from proprietary drivers for NVIDIA/AMD GPUs
    - Const-me 7y ago
      > It's picking up every issue on Linux and paints it as a disaster. Every time I tried to use Linux on desktop, I stopped due to a dozen of issues from that list. > There's no concept of drivers in Linux In Windows ecosystem, you buy hardware, plug it in, install drivers, and it works. On modern Windows, often they downloaded automatically by Windows, and start without reboots. I think the OP meant that Linux can't offer comparable UX. The drivers are compiled into the kernel. On the source level, this is due to the lack of the ABI.
      - Nursie 7y ago
        > Every time I tried to use Linux on desktop, I stopped due to a dozen of issues from that list. At this point in time, given how technical a site HN is, and how many people have success with linux, it looks very much like the problem might be you. I don't mean this to be nasty, but installing and customising linux now is a pretty trivial exercise. > On modern Windows, often they downloaded automatically by Windows, and start without reboots. On modern linux, they are usually already present on the system and it just works. You don't need the download stage for the vast majority of things. Nvidia Graphics cards are an obvious exception, but for the most part, this complaint is spurious.
        Const-me 7y ago
        > how many people have success with linux This includes me. I successfully develop commercial-quality stuff for Linux servers, also embedded for ARM devices (using Debian kernel so far). But the desktop is different. > usually already present on the system The hardware is just too diverse. I have following USB devices plugged into my desktop right now. USB 3.0 DisplayLink monitor: proprietary protocol, still experimental support on Linux, chip vendor only supports Ubuntu, monitor vendor doesn’t support any. Logitech C920 web camera: microphone, auto focus, on-board h264 codec. Logitech G700s: a mouse with 7 extra buttons and horizontal scrolling. Microsoft LifeChat LX6000: 2 way USB audio, OS volume controls, a couple extra buttons. Also wireless adapter for xbox gamepad: 6 analog axes, many buttons, two vibration motors, two way audio.
      - 7y ago
dagw 7y ago
More likely a few ministries starting a program to try Linux. Worth noting that this is far from the first time China has done this. First there was the original Kylin OS, based on FreeBSD, then they created their own Linux distro called Red Flag OS, and now they have the new Kylin project which is Ubuntu based. Interesting to see how it plays out this time around.

cm2187 7y ago

Isn’t the linux desktop mostly a driver problem? If it is the case I would assume that given the number of chinese manufacturers, China could force them to release suitable drivers. The linux desktop would reach a critical mass that would make it hard for non chinese manufacturers to neglect it. It would require more UI that there currently is. Even for simple things I often find myself stuck in front of a terminal, looking at the documentation to figure out how the damn thing works before I can even look for the right syntax.

Const-me 7y ago
It's a clusterfuck of problems: https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.t...
- middleload 7y ago
  As a 10 years user of Linux (at home and at work) let me tell you that page is full of FUD. It's picking up every issue on Linux and paints it as a disaster. Then it goes to "I have no idea what I'm talking about" mode with > There's no concept of drivers in Linux aside from proprietary drivers for NVIDIA/AMD GPUs
  - Const-me 7y ago
    > It's picking up every issue on Linux and paints it as a disaster. Every time I tried to use Linux on desktop, I stopped due to a dozen of issues from that list. > There's no concept of drivers in Linux In Windows ecosystem, you buy hardware, plug it in, install drivers, and it works. On modern Windows, often they downloaded automatically by Windows, and start without reboots. I think the OP meant that Linux can't offer comparable UX. The drivers are compiled into the kernel. On the source level, this is due to the lack of the ABI.
    - Nursie 7y ago
      > Every time I tried to use Linux on desktop, I stopped due to a dozen of issues from that list. At this point in time, given how technical a site HN is, and how many people have success with linux, it looks very much like the problem might be you. I don't mean this to be nasty, but installing and customising linux now is a pretty trivial exercise. > On modern Windows, often they downloaded automatically by Windows, and start without reboots. On modern linux, they are usually already present on the system and it just works. You don't need the download stage for the vast majority of things. Nvidia Graphics cards are an obvious exception, but for the most part, this complaint is spurious.
      - Const-me 7y ago
        > how many people have success with linux This includes me. I successfully develop commercial-quality stuff for Linux servers, also embedded for ARM devices (using Debian kernel so far). But the desktop is different. > usually already present on the system The hardware is just too diverse. I have following USB devices plugged into my desktop right now. USB 3.0 DisplayLink monitor: proprietary protocol, still experimental support on Linux, chip vendor only supports Ubuntu, monitor vendor doesn’t support any. Logitech C920 web camera: microphone, auto focus, on-board h264 codec. Logitech G700s: a mouse with 7 extra buttons and horizontal scrolling. Microsoft LifeChat LX6000: 2 way USB audio, OS volume controls, a couple extra buttons. Also wireless adapter for xbox gamepad: 6 analog axes, many buttons, two vibration motors, two way audio.
    - 7y ago

dagw 7y ago

More likely a few ministries starting a program to try Linux. Worth noting that this is far from the first time China has done this. First there was the original Kylin OS, based on FreeBSD, then they created their own Linux distro called Red Flag OS, and now they have the new Kylin project which is Ubuntu based. Interesting to see how it plays out this time around.