Microsoft Modifies Windows 10 for China’s Government

Megalith

Megalith

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Per WSJ (paywall), more and more companies are customizing their products to meet the heightened security demands from Beijing, and the latest to undergo changes for the East is Microsoft’s baby. This seems like a strange choice for the likely paranoid Chinese government, as a lot of people would equate W10 with the word “intrusive,” with the telemetry business, pop-ads, and all that jazz. I guess the effort to create an alternative OS (e.g., Kylin) turned out to be a complete disaster.

China’s government previously banned Windows 8, citing security concerns, and launched an anti-monopoly probe against Microsoft. The Chinese government has also been concerned over foreign software that could be used by the NSA to spy on activities, and has consistently tried to move away from relying on Microsoft’s Windows software. Back in 2013 it partnered with Ubuntu maker Canonical to create an alternative to Windows, codenamed Kylin. That effort failed, and a new Linux-based operating system dubbed NeoKylin is the latest attempt to create an alternative to Windows in China.
 
If you have a very large number of Windows licenses MS will expose the source code to you anyhow. That doesn't give you rights to rebuild windows the way you like it , but you can comb through it looking for your favorite back door, if it exists.
 
Simplyfun said:
If you have a very large number of Windows licenses MS will expose the source code to you anyhow. That doesn't give you rights to rebuild windows the way you like it , but you can comb through it looking for your favorite back door, if it exists.
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That's true but what good is it if you can't build it yourself? It's almost completely meaningless
 
dgz said:
That's true but what good is it if you can't build it yourself? It's almost completely meaningless
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The idea of having source code access is that if the company goes away somehow (who knows how) your business is not at risk because you can continue to develop the platform if need be. It's a common enough practice for software vendors selling to large companies. The second part of this is you get to look and see if they're "spying" on your shit... though I don't know who lets telemetry like that out of their firewall without review.
 
I'm kind of digging that communist windows 10 logo, is there a larger version available?
 
I don't think that this is political, but it seems like every government (including the US CIA/NSA) pretty much owns everyone everywhere.

Me thinks that the Chinese government does not understand, just give everyone Facebook and all the Apple apps and you can have all the data that you could ever hope to have. All the idiot users try as hard as they can to open their lives to everyone.

As I put on my tinfoil hat, I think that I will resist the IoT for a while. :eek:
 
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For me the real question in this article is why can't they make Linux work? I mean we do. It was painful and we're a lot smaller than the Chinese gubbermint.
 
prime2515102 said:
Geez, haven't they heard of Spybot Anti-Beacon? lol
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According to this guy, they are working in a way to block it.



Actually, he posted that "rumor" in the comments.

Edit: This is the comment he made:


Barnacules Nerdgasm3 days ago
I've been talking to a few 'insiders' at Microsoft that are also saying that many of the things like App Store and Telemetry are now being hard coded into key services like explorer.exe and critical system services that if stopped will crash the box immediately. The reason for this is obviously to prevent programs like anti-beacon from disabling these services. It's pretty obvious at this point that Microsoft wants the data at any cost and their cover story is bullshit. I'll update you guys when I know more or when the Windows releases are public that contain these changes and we'll do a video on how to create a network bridge between your system and the internet to prevent telemetry from working even with all the services on the box trying to make contact.

Simplyfun said:
For me the real question in this article is why can't they make Linux work? I mean we do. It was painful and we're a lot smaller than the Chinese gubbermint.
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Very good question and I would not be surprised that MS actually paid the chinesse government to use w10.

They dont care for the money, they care for the reaction of the press and everyone else.

And dont forget the local shills, they need all the ammo they can get.
 
grtitan said:
]Barnacules Nerdgasm3 days ago
I've been talking to a few 'insiders' at Microsoft that are also saying that many of the things like App Store and Telemetry are now being hard coded into key services like explorer.exe and critical system services that if stopped will crash the box immediately. The reason for this is obviously to prevent programs like anti-beacon from disabling these services. It's pretty obvious at this point that Microsoft wants the data at any cost and their cover story is bullshit. I'll update you guys when I know more or when the Windows releases are public that contain these changes and we'll do a video on how to create a network bridge between your system and the internet to prevent telemetry from working even with all the services on the box trying to make contact.
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Jesus christ this is depressing.
 
Mistral said:
Jesus christ this is depressing.
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Until proven I'll take that claim with a grain of salt, but if it does turn out to be true it certainly won't go over well. So I will be keeping an eye on that to see what becomes of it.
 
Simplyfun said:
For me the real question in this article is why can't they make Linux work? I mean we do. It was painful and we're a lot smaller than the Chinese gubbermint.
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Spinning up your own Linux distro and then adding spyware to the top of it takes a lot of time and money. Why bother with that with MS has already done it for them? ;)
 
Mistral said:
Jesus christ this is depressing.
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The really depressing part is how easy everyone has bent over for this crap, including the reviewers in this site and others and continue to praise MS. And same thing for Nvidia.
 
Simplyfun said:
The idea of having source code access is that if the company goes away somehow (who knows how) your business is not at risk because you can continue to develop the platform if need be. It's a common enough practice for software vendors selling to large companies. The second part of this is you get to look and see if they're "spying" on your shit... though I don't know who lets telemetry like that out of their firewall without review.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know that. What I meant was that all bets are off if you don't build the code yourself.
 
oh yeah, those little shittard simians from current ms, in full denial, a bunch of ugly little monkeys who think now they are cool and have to block comments in youtube videos and ignore feedback from their forums, because reality is a motherfucker for a certain type of nerdy ugly autists.
 
ManofGod said:
Yeah well, good luck with that.
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Actually, that is working great for me, W10 on my gaming PC, OSX and Arch for the rest.

No complaints and peace of mind that all my keystrokes are staying in my computer.
 
ManofGod said:
Yeah well, good luck with that.
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Sorry, are you being sarcastic?

I mean, other than gaming, there are few other applications I use that are Windows specific.

Well, I do have to say that Office (OneNote, Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint) would be missed, but not irreplaceable.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Sorry, are you being sarcastic?

I mean, other than gaming, there are few other applications I use that are Windows specific.

Well, I do have to say that Office (OneNote, Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint) would be missed, but not irreplaceable.
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Nah, just the idea that if someone is using Linux, they will be more secure from privacy invasions and other such stuff. Check Edward Snowden if you disagree with me. :( However, if that is not the reason you are using Linux, carry on then.

Edit: Fixed
 
ManofGod said:
Nah, just the idea that if someone is using Linux, they will be more secure from privacy invasions and other such stuff. Check Edward Snowden if you disagree with me. :( However, if that is not the reason you are using Linux, carry on then.

Edit: Fixed
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Not only I agree with you, I think you make a great point.

However I "have to" accept that Government, including foreign ones, have a legitimate right to protect their citizens interests, specially for security and vital interests.

That said, what I do not "have to" accept is that commercial organizations which sell me their products, have a legitimate right to snoop on me.

An Operating System, is something I want to buy only to help me use my computer. Nothing else.

Hopefully there will continue to be a choice to find such an OS.

Similar logic, for ISPs, Telcos, etc.,
 
RealBeast said:
I don't think that this is political, but it seems like every government (including the US CIA/NSA) pretty much owns everyone everywhere.

Me thinks that the Chinese government does not understand, just give everyone Facebook and all the Apple apps and you can have all the data that you could ever hope to have. All the idiot users try as hard as they can to open their lives to everyone.

As I put on my tinfoil hat, I think that I will resist the IoT for a while. :eek:
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Oh they understand. They do have their own IT giants like baidu and weibo. Don't worry I think china is slowly but surely learning people just need to ' feel free' not actually be free.. its just cheaper that way.
 
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