China blocks foreign software use in gov't

[sujan]

A new policy by China's governing body will rule that all ministries buy only locally-produced software at the next upgrade cycle.

The move by the State Council is aimed at breaking the dominance of U.S.-based Microsoft on desktop computers, will eliminate Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite from hundreds of thousands of Chinese government computers in a few years' time.

Gao Zhigang, an official with the Procurement Center of the State Council, told reporters that the new policy will be in place by year-end.

At a special congress held to encourage ministries to upgrade to WPS Office 2003, a China-made office productivity suite, Gao said that only hardware pre-installed with domestic operating systems and application software will be purchased by government. Those seeking exceptions will need to submit a special request.

http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/applications/0,39001094,39146335,00.htm

[cap]

1. too bad the US government doesn't have this policy!!!

there are H1B's working in the Pentagon.

[TacticalPeek]

2. The "we-don't-do-windoze" policy? I can dig it. n/t