Oh boy, here we go again! The Chinese government is ready to dump Windows in favor of Linux, and this time around the decision makers seem serious about seeing this change through.
As reported by Bloomberg, Beijing has ordered government offices and state backed firms to replace foreign branded PCs and their associated operating systems with alternatives that can be domestically maintained.
For this reason, the country is expected to replace almost 50 million PCs — and that too in central government agencies alone.
Of course, a massive process like this will not happen at once. According to sources familiar with the mater, the change is expected to be carried out in a staggered fashion over a period of two years. Same is the case with other regions of the world that are gravitating towards Linux.
Those of you following along will be aware that this move has long been in the making.
The Chinese government has been encouraging the use of homegrown hardware and software for the better part of a decade now. Authorities have apparently hired a firm to vet and monitor local suppliers in the development of sensitive components like semiconductors and the cloud.
Worth a mention that components that are hard to replace — like CPUs and GPUs — that are developed by western firms are exempt from this order. Many Chinese OEMs rely on these products as these are not readily manufactured locally.
With a drastic measure like this, local manufactures in the country like Lenovo, Kingsoft, and Inspur Electronic Information Industry saw their share prices rise on mainland stock exchanges in China. On the other hand, PC OEMs like Dell and HP are bound to be negatively affected.
As will Microsoft, with Windows set to be replaced by Linux.
Let’s see where this one leads.
Any thoughts?
