back to article Redmond puts wall around Windows 10 for Chinese government edition

While much attention has been focused on the new Surface Pro laptop Microsoft has launched in Shanghai on Tuesday, the company also announced a special build of its operating system for China. Dubbed the Windows 10 China Government Edition, the new OS is a product of over a year of collaboration with local trader China …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Do some evil

    Well, that's how it feels. Money doesn't just talk, it persuades.

    1. asdf

      Re: Do some evil

      No as Dylan said money doesn't talk, it swears obscenity.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Do some evil

        No as Dylan said money doesn't talk, it swears obscenity.

        Ah, yes, a "people's poet". Does his personal net worth of $180m swear obscenely, or does money work differently if you're a Nobel laureate rich twat singer, trying to be a trendy socialist?

        And as an aside, what's gone wrong with the Nobel prizes? They used to be proper prizes awarded to people for real work and talent. Now we get tossers like Obama being awarded the "peace" prize for simply not being George Bush, and Dylan gets a "literature" prize for scribbling out a few moany songs.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Do some evil

          Hey I still don't mind cat scratch fever on the radio that much even if it's artist is an even bigger douche bag than Dylan with significantly less material worthy of any kind of quotes. I can even enjoy Cat Stevens regardless of it all.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do some evil

      As America becomes more poor and China becomes more wealthy will Mega-Corps like MS headquarter there?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The China Government Edition will use these manageability features to remove features that are not needed by Chinese government employees, like OneDrive, to manage all telemetry and updates, and to enable the government to use its own encryption algorithms within its computer systems.

    Now the BIG question is, when will those features be included in the version foisted on the rest of the world?

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Those features sound like things that the Chinese government might like its general population to benefit from, too. I wonder how long it will be before this becomes the plain "China Edition".

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. PNGuinn
      Big Brother

      Information collection @Shadmeister

      You may have got that all wrong, you know. You shouldn't condemn Slurp without hard evidence.

      Have you considered that, being one of the world's expurts in data slurping, ms may have added a whole new raft of data collection which will phone home to to relevant authorities, presumably in the Middle Kingdom.

      It'd be info passed to certain other agencies the Chinese'd be worried about

      Have you considered that this new technology might be soon rolled out worldwide in an essential service pack, phoning home to ... err ...

      This may not end well for slurp.

      Off topic question - I wonder if the Chinese have specified a red BSOD?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Teiwaz

      Almost admire N.Korea.. at least in locked-down-not only spy but report you.

      At least they managed to get off Windows...and do their own O.S.

      Both China and Russia with infinitely more resources mulled over the idea and finally failed to pull that off.

    3. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      "This must then infer ... "

      This must then imply ...

  4. A. Coatsworth Silver badge

    The only real change is who is listening (or Hu is listening?)

    1. Notas Badoff

      An OS built ...

      for Hòumén's? (see 后门)

  5. Bruce Ordway

    Legal, Pirated or Free?

    >>a sustained campaign by Microsoft and the Chinese

    >> most copies of the OS used are now legal

    Does this statement seem a little bold?

    Could only find an old article.. maybe no longer applies?

    http://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-gives-up-on-charging-for-windows-in-china/

    1. MondoMan

      Re: Legal, Pirated or Free?

      Wasn't it just last week that reports suggested that China was especially vulnerable to ransomware since most of the country was running pirated copies of Windows and thus didn't dare to connect to Microsoft Update servers?

  6. Adam 52 Silver badge

    This could be interesting. So it is technically possible for MS to build this OS without the telemetry. So the required by law, necessity and corporate interest basis for processing allowed by GDPR wouldn't apply to Windows. There's clearly no safety of life justification so Microsoft are going to have to rely on consent. How many people are going to explicitly consent?

    Anyone want to join a collective action (allowed by GDPR) to get Microsoft one of those 4% of global turnover fines?

    Internet Explorer bundling all over again.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Do the Chinese replace Microsoft's telemetry / slurp / spying modules with their own?

    If not, how do we get hold of this virginal Windows-10...

    Sounds like the best option. Otherwise Mint all the way...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A tough choice, who to trust

    A: Microsoft

    B: The Chinese Regime

    1. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: A tough choice, who to trust

      You don't have to trust either, just rely on their self interest. Microsoft want to sell you stuff, the Chinese government want to blackmail and steal intellectual property.

      So for work use Microsoft, at home the Chinese government. Unless you are a particularly attractive blackmail target.

    2. MyffyW Silver badge
      Linux

      Re: A tough choice, who to trust

      Who to trust? It's the sweary bloke from Scandinavia for me everytime.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A tough choice, who to trust

      C. Linux Mint.... Installs in minutes, far faster and easier than Windows every did... Comes with LibreOffice and Firefox installed by default, and VLC etc is just a click away. No messing around with tricky privacy settings... No invasive UI features that the cult at Microsoft believe adds value... Most its all its all free! But hey if you still want to pay for Win10 and have your privacy taken away when even Google and Facebook are free go ahead.

  9. James 51

    How much do we have to pay to make one drive optional (I don't mind if other people use it but it annoy's me a lot that I can't get rid of it) and cut out the data theft?

    1. stephanh

      I recall OneDrivel being listed under "Programs & Features", I presume it can therefore be uninstalled from there.

      This was Windows 10.

  10. Teiwaz

    MS put a wall around Windows for Chinese Goverment edition

    Meanwhile Techies in the west wish they had a better wall around their own copy.

    Personally, I'd rather wall it up in a basement somewhere and pretend it doesn't exist..luckily most Windows software I want to use works Ok (not great, but Ok) in Wine.

  11. Hans 1
    Happy

    "The Windows 10 China Government Edition is based on Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, which already includes many of the security, identity, deployment, and manageability features governments and enterprises need," said Windows boss Terry Myerson.

    Ohhh, so it can get 0wned by specifically crafted PDF's, PNG's or BMP's so the government can spy ?

    Have they obsoleted SMB, yet ? Thought not .... InsecureByDesign!

  12. Lion

    Pirate copy anyone?

    For decades XP and W7 was pirated in China and a legit copy was hard to come by (or keep). It is still that way. We in the West paid for it. Perhaps the tables will be turned now that China has the scrubbed down version that everybody else in the world would like to have. The West could be awash with pirated copies of the China Edition!

    The obvious problem is that the China Edition will be calling the Beijing Mother-ship rather than Redmond's Death Star. The user will be getting notices that using a VPN carries the death penalty. There will be ads for this weeks chicken feet specials - I hear they are delicious.

    In actual fact it is a good thing that China will be using legit W10 licenses. The rest of Asia will hopefully follow - not likely though. Eastern Europe, Russia and South America - nope, never.

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