Posted on 09/27/2003 11:44:14 AM PDT by HAL9000
Microsoft signs source code browsing agreement with China
The Source Code Browsing Lab of the China Testing and Certification Center for Information Security Products was officially founded on the morning of September 25. Microsoft is the first commercial software company that signed the operating system source code browsing agreement with the Chinese government. However, Prof. Wu Shizhong, director of the Center, said that it was too early to say whether Microsoft's operating system is safe or not.
The Source Code Browsing Lab of the China Testing and Certification Center for Information Security Products was officially founded on the morning of September 25. Microsoft is the first commercial software company that signed the operating system source code browsing agreement with the Chinese government. However, Prof. Wu Shizhong, director of the Center, said that it was too early to say whether Microsoft's operating system is safe or not.
Frequent appearance of loopholes in the past couple of years and attacks from hackers have aroused users' doubts about the security of Microsoft's operating system. Since this system's source code is not open to the public, many countries, including China, adopt the open source code Linux operational system, a rival of Microsoft, at the time of government procurement, the reason for this is that open source code software is more advantageous to national information security.
As shown in Microsoft global domain, China is the 18th country that signs an agreement on government security with the company. Maggie Wilderotter, senior vice-president in charge of Microsoft's global business strategy, said that her company takes an active part in government-built security projects.
The source code browsing agreement between China and Microsoft commenced in February this year when the China Testing and Certification Center for Information Security Products, on behalf of the Chinese government, signed the Government Security Plan (GSP) Source Code Agreement with Bill Gates, chairman and chief software designer of Microsoft, during his China visit. The establishment of the Source Code Browsing Lab represents an important process of the agreement.
At the inauguration of the Lab, the seven work units undertaking national information security projects signed the first batch of appendixes to the GSP on additional personnel. They and the Testing and Certification Center can browse the source code of the Microsoft operating system and engage in information security related research by the method as stipulated in the agreement.
Dr. Lu Chengzhao, deputy head of the Net and Information Group under the State Council Informationization Work Office, said that the operating system is the base of information network, e-government, and e-commerce, the signing of the source code browsing agreement is the first step taken in bilateral cooperation.
Related news from People's Daily -
Microsoft Opens Windows Source Code to China
Microsoft Gives Chinese Government Access to Windows Source Code
Don't be ridiculous. If one is to examine code, one has to have all the info, not part. If one examines it well enough to understand it, you bet they can copy it. The Chicomms are not that stupid.
Also, a few months ago the word was that MS gave the Chicomms something like half a billion and agreed not to bother them with charges of illegal copying in order to stop adoption of Linux. They have given away the house to the Chicomms. Anyone with money in MS better get it out fast.
Big deal! I don't care if they reverse-engineer Billy's stuff. Now if they could do the same and build me a 2004 Porsche Turbo Cab for half-price that would be cool!
The world's No 1 software vendor last Friday signed a deal to offer the Chinese Government access to the source code for its Windows operating systems. "The government security programme (GSP) covers 100 per cent of the source code of Windows, every part of Windows," Microsoft Corp founder and chairman Bill Gates told a news conference in Beijing.
So, is Billy lying here?
Gates joked that the deal has "zero dollars" of revenue associated with it, since it's (duh) free. But obviously, it's another important move in China for Microsoft.
The company pledged last year to invest $750 million in China over three years to help develop one of the world's fastest-growing computer and technology markets. And in addition to the GSP announcement, Microsoft signed deals in the last few days with China Unicom, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and PetroChina Co. Ltd. It didn't reveal how much those deals are worth, only saying it's in the millions.
It'll be nice to see some revenue flowing this country FROM CHINA for a change.... when/if it ever happens.
Wrong program; Read the article.
They've got a bunch of slaves in the United States working on Red Flag Linux for them.
I'll bet the default GDM bundled with the next rev of Red Flag Linux turns out to have the "look and feel" of Windows.... and Red Office is 100% compatible with MS Office.
We'll probably see a flood of new Windows worms and viruses flowing into this country from China - especially since they have access to "100 per cent of the source code of Windows, every part of Windows".
Did MS share the source code to MS Office in this program?
Trapped him? What? Is his leg caught in the trap? Well leave it in there. I want to see him chew it off.
WE SHOULD SURRENDER OUR GUNS
I'm not saying I have a lot of guns. Like Glocks or Uzi's or AR's or something like this. But if I did have a lot of guns I certainly would not give them up. Nope.
Hey B2K. You have any guns to take?
Oh.... probably not. Bill said "every part of Windows" and Office isn't really part of Windows. Point goes to TE.
Not trying to score a point there. I think anyone (including MS) attempting to do business in china is foolish. The chicoms are only interested in reverse-engineering, duplicating, copying, stealing, etc...
They'll be a "customer" for only as long as it takes to figure out the blueprints. Eventually, they'll be a competitor peddling a lower-priced knockoff.
On the other hand, I don't think MS is doing anything as foolish as providing the chicoms with linux source code. Cheap intel-based supercomputers can be built using linux -- Supercomputers that can be used for energy simulations (nuclear weapon design), fluid dynamic simulations (fighter plane design), and electromagnetic analysis (stealth design).
Lenin predicted that the capitalists would sell the soviets the rope to hang themselves with... But the linux developers are donating the rope for free.
As foolish as donating $750 million of support to help develop an industry that might someday clone a Cray? That they might build a Linux cluster should be among the least of our concerns.
If you needed to perform heavy military application simulations in the near term, which direction would you take to solve your problem?... Try to clone a Cray (complex proprietary hardware and software) or try to build linux superclusters (cheap hardware and free open source software plus free how-to documentation)? I know which way I'd go.
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