ridiculous that they haven’t done this already. Also there have been like 2 previous announcements like this already, aimed at not using Windows for government stuff.
The Intel and AMD stuff is bigger news I think.
It also really should be more far-reaching. Why should people’s personal data be susceptible to surveillance?
If they promoted using Linux on personal computers, it might encourage video game developers to ensure better compatibility with Linux as well, although that obviously isn’t important in the grands scheme of things.
I imagine it’s a really difficult task to migrate decades of data and processes that were built around using windows. It’s not just the internal stuff the government uses, but also making sure you can still interoperate with all the contractors. Like if the government works with a company and they send a word doc, can you still read it, etc. I’m not surprised it’s taking a while to do.
I do think that this is necessarily going to lead to a lot more Linux usage in China though. Once the government starts using it in full, a lot of resources will be poured into polishing rough edges. And migrating off x86 opens up a lot of possibilities for Linux as well. For example, companies like Huawei could start making RISCV based laptops that work similarly to M series from Apple. This architecture allows for much faster and more power efficient chips.
