The Dark Visitor

H/T: Thomas

Some very interesting news coming from Radio Free Asia on regulations forcing Chinese internet cafes to switch from Microsoft XP to Red Flag Linux (a Chinese produced system).  Officials promoted this as an effort to crack down on pirated software but the move has angered cafe owners who were not happy with the 5,000 yuan licensing fee.

My thoughts:

1. A response to the recent Black Screen of Death incident.  However, if this is only required for internet cafes, it won’t make a dent in the problem. Just doesn’t make much sense.
2. Trying to force internet cafes to close down.  Chinese officials aren’t very fond of the cafes and the extremely high licensing fee could be a way to force them out of business.
3. As per the article, better monitoring.
4. Forced on China by our good friend Eastwood, who owns massive shares in Ubuntu.