"By creating a software monoculture the Chinese authorities are creating a risk that a vulnerability in the software, providing it was serious enough to allow remote code injection, could be used to create a huge botnet. More subtle flaws might also be used to create targeted attacks on government computers - a factor that is unlikely to pass unnoticed down at the NSA."

Riiight, so that's different from Microsoft and Windows how exactly?

Mines the one with the <insert distro> Linux Live CD in the pocket

help! help! I'm being repressed!

Mine's the one with the black knights head in the pocket.

I haven't heard enough details to know if this is a good idea or not... perhaps El Reg can enlighten me?

If this is parental-control software which adults can turn on for their kids, then getting it bundled with the PC seems reasonable. If it's no use then they can turn it off or uninstall it. (You might argue it's a waste of government funds and/or a "stealth tax" on PCs, but there are plenty of ways all governments waste money & tax people).

If this is state-control software where the state says "all computers shall run this filter which cannot be turned off, or else", then that's different. (And in that case, the aim is _not_ for the filter to be 100% effective. Trying to get around the filter will likely be cause enough to be thrown in jail; so it just gives one more way to catch dissidents).

How people are required to follow someone elses poorly executed good intentions.

Wasn't Blair's parting remark after overriding democracy and leading us into a war on lies something like "I meant well"

Even my parents know how to uninstall software.

Even if they made it difficult with malware tactics, computer literate people will be able to and pass this information on. Even if they make it completely impossible to uninstall, no malware survives a format and reinstall.

Or install Linux.

Not compatable with linux? Hah i knew converting was a smart move

"By creating a software monoculture the Chinese authorities are creating a risk that a vulnerability in the software, providing it was serious enough to allow remote code injection, could be used to create a huge botnet. More subtle flaws might also be used to create targeted attacks on government computers - a factor that is unlikely to pass unnoticed down at the NSA."

Simple enough...

The rest of the world just block traffic from China and you'll never have to worry about the potential risk of botnets again.

http://www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pub/gd/

Paris, because she has two know paths of ingress, with the constant posibility that more will be discovered to the world at large...