China bans Microsoft Office on government computers

The Chinese government, just a month after banning Windows 8 on its employee's computers, has continued the trend, this time banning the Office productivity suite.

Employees have been asked to use alternative (mainly Chinese-based) suites, such as the popular and free Kingsoft Office.

Microsoft was shocked when it was revealed that China was banning the latest Windows, but the company has been promoting Windows 7 in the nation, and has ongoing discussions with officials to get the operating system reinstated in the nation. China has branded Windows 8 a threat to national security.

It has been suggested that Chinese officials were not fond of Microsoft cutting update support to Windows XP, which despite being 13 years old, is still used on over 40 percent of Chinese computers. In fact, the Chinese government only relatively recently ensured that all official computers were running genuine Windows XP, after a long fight with piracy.

Regardless, the fight is getting dirty now, and Microsoft cannot be happy with their cash cows being banned in a nation with over 1 billion computers.

Source:
Softpedia

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 3 Jul 2014 22:06

hearme0

Communism........Gotta love the notion of ONE F'ING PERSON making all decisions for everybody in the entire country, often on a whim. Yeah......that's the life for me.....................................NOT! Communism sucks! Freedom of thought ROCKS!

4.7.2014 16:07 #1

2048

...Steve? ...Steve Balmer? ...Is that you?

I am a numerical entity

7.7.2014 11:51 #2

SuckRaven

Awww... Poor Microsoft. They're just upset because someone is actually resisting getting fleeced every 2 years. I think anyone would be hard pressed to say that there is ANY actual increase in productivity from going from XP to 7 or to 8. And for us sad consumerists in 'murricah, we kind of need the Chinese to stay productive, and not spend money on frivolous OS upgrades, or else the whole consumerist driven economy will collapse. LOL. Anyways, I don't blame the Chinese for their decision, especially since, as the article mentioned, they just now barely got everyone up to speed with Genuine XP. Doubt they're in a hurry to leapfrog over to Windows 8, which would be a pretty drastic change.

SuckRaven

8.7.2014 10:21 #3

2048

Originally posted by SuckRaven: Awww... Poor Microsoft. They're just upset because someone is actually resisting getting fleeced every 2 years. I think anyone would be hard pressed to say that there is ANY actual increase in productivity from going from XP to 7 or to 8. And for us sad consumerists in 'murricah, we kind of need the Chinese to stay productive, and not spend money on frivolous OS upgrades, or else the whole consumerist driven economy will collapse. LOL. Anyways, I don't blame the Chinese for their decision, especially since, as the article mentioned, they just now barely got everyone up to speed with Genuine XP. Doubt they're in a hurry to leapfrog over to Windows 8, which would be a pretty drastic change. ...What the Chinese are saying is twofold: They see the Windows ecosystem as a security threat -- and there is evidence going back decades; They have cheaper and safer alternatives.

I am a numerical entity

8.7.2014 10:42 #4

Jemborg

Originally posted by hearme0: Communism........Gotta love the notion of ONE F'ING PERSON making all decisions for everybody in the entire country, often on a whim. Yeah......that's the life for me.....................................NOT! Communism sucks! Freedom of thought ROCKS! Who is the one person in China making all the decisions for the entire country on a whim?

The decision is a reaction to the (quite correct) USA citing of five Chinese generals for industrial espionage.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

DSE VZ300-
Zilog Z80 CPU, 32KB RAM (16K+16K cartridge), video processor 6847, 2KB video RAM, 16 colours (text mode), 5.25" FDD

13.7.2014 00:24 #5

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