If balmer wants money from me for using Linux then he owes me for years of my life lost due to dealing with windoz.

MS shout off about avoiding Linux, then they release Vista to much fanfare, same time they buy into a Linux distro. Vista turns out to not quite be the wonder product it was painted, people are looking at alternatives. The East have already told MS where to get off, so MS starts pushing something that they might interested in. Today the figures emerge that $60 bn are being "lost" to open source software by the traditional markets.

Looks like MS are hedging big time, just in case this Mickey Mouse, "communist", free stuff, might have something in it after all.

Seeing as you can buy a legit copy of XP in China for $3 I can see why Microsoft has an in bed deal with Novell..... So they can slowly convert all their customers to windows..... Mwah ha ha, and excellent strategy, these poor Chinese have had an inferior desktop experience for way too long, see you next budget.

"Seeing as you can buy a legit copy of XP in China for $3" ... no you can't. You can buy a picture perfect <i>copy</i> of XP in China, complete with holographic CD and licence key sticker, for $3, but it's no more genuine than this $9 note I have here. You can buy a legitimate copy of XP for $15 (120RMB), though. And yes, people will still choose the fake one because it's 1/5 the price.

For Linux, not so many people use Linux because Windows is so cheap and has all the software (ok, just QQ then) that people want. But when we do use it, we like Red Flag, mainly because it actually works with Chinese, rather than adds it as an afterthought.

SuSE and openSuSE have not the webpage written in Chinese. Doesn't inspire confidence. So I think this is not a serious effort.

I don't understand your comment. On the one hand you say that a *legit* copy of XP is $3 in PRC i.e. its dirt cheap so why wouldn't they have already bought a copy, on the other that they need to be slowly converted to Windows.

The main reason many in the PRC use ,say, Red Flag Linux over Windows surely is that they don't trust a company they see as a US govt. stooge & they have full control over Red Flag, i.e. no NSA backdoors etc (real or imaginary). Windows is great for games, sure, but can you see the Red Army doing Ballmers bidding......Yeah,right.

The GPL3 will prevent this - perhaps these latest moves will encourage more people to adopt it.

Oh well!

After using SuSE in all it's flavours since 6.3, I guess Unbuntu or Mint have got a new user.

I had hopes that when Novell bought SuSE that at a big player was going to push over Microshit'es house of cards.

Another delusion shattered.

Why Paris, 'cos she's not the only tit around here.

I believe (from the Microsoft site and el reg) the pricing structure in place in the east is a relatively new one to fight piracy, given the technology sanctions and such in place in china I would presume most machine are underpowered for a windows OS. Although saying that I have never been (although their solar eclipse next year does fall on my birthday so I may visit) so I may be completely and utterly wrong. Plus I'm sure MS would be willing to either open up some sections of the OS or make specific government deals to get a wedge of that tasty pie.

Just wondering if anyone can explain to me how a CUSTOMER can be sued for using an OS with (apparent) patent infringing code?

...fixes this and a bunch of other nice issues. It's a shame the kernel can't upgrade at the moment, but there's always hope.

Still, I've used SuSe, and I'd prefer Gentoo any day.

The only technology sanctions against China were to do with nuclear weapons and missiles, not computer technology. You can buy all the latest gear in China... with a couple of months delay whilst the drivers are translated.

Stands to reason as it's all made there anyway!