Not only has the IBM PC division been turning a profit recently (see the post I just added with a link to Business Week), the Chinese are using PC's to build supercomputers, in fact they use the Linux software that has recently been strengthened by IBM's contributions to the "free" software to build a supercomputer that registered in the top 10 in the world, a Chinese first.
Instead of criticising me for supposedly not knowing what I'm talking about, how about pulling the wool off your eyes instead?
So, is IBM selling China high encryption algorithms? are they selling them a means to build weapons that the EU is planning on selling to them? I don't think so. And that was my point. If I had the time, and a couple of million dollars, I could build a supercomputer myself with a good beowulf cluster of IBM Power PC's. And I'm just an average citizen. They are not selling them anything they couldn't achieve or haven't achieved on their own technologically. Another fact is that much of their PC sales is bulstered by their sales of the IBM Thinkpad, a laptop, which as far as I know will not be part of this package. I believe the reason for that is the fact that it uses some very strong hardware based encryption on their hard drives. So, IBM is not selling this country's security out with this deal. The President wouldn't be selling this country's security out with this deal. It is just basically wrong that an American Icon would even consider selling a very high profile part of their business to the ChiComms. That is what has got my goat, and probably yours too. But, instead of just saying that, you have delved into attempting to make this out to be more than what it is. At most it would be an attack upon our economy, albeit a small one. At the least it is a form of capitulation to the ChiComms for future business by both IBM and the Administration.
Ok, GE, I read the article you linked to. It makes no reference to IBM's contribution to Linux, an Operating System built by a Finish, and mostly optimized and upgraded by the open source community. Yes it is true that IBM has made contributions to the Linux Kernel, but nothing that could be construed as a security breach. Especially in light of the fact that anyone on Earth can have access to even the most recent kernel. Their are highly secure versions of the kernel, but these are not due to encryption but to configuration and therefore again do not fall under any security concerns. So, one more time. If you are against this business deal, I agree with you, but come up with a more valid argument.
"But a newer approach, in which numerous low-end Linux systems are connected with a high-speed network into a high-performance computing cluster, means supercomputers can be built from widespread, ordinary technology."
That approach was developed at NASA and given away for free - it's called Beowulf clustering.