Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Microsoft is facing another hurdle in its bid to encourage adoption of Windows 8: China has reportedly banned Redmond's latest OS on government computers.
As reported by the official Xinhua news agency, all desktops, laptops, and tablets used by central state agencies must run on an OS other than Windows 8, according to China's Central Government Procurement Center.
"All computer products are not allowed to install [the] Windows 8 operating system," says a translated post on the center's website.
The center did not specify why it was banning Windows 8, but Xinhua said the country wants to avoid losing support for an operating system like it did recently with Windows XP. Last month, Redmond stopped providing support for the aging operating system, despite the fact that many public and private users were still using it.
According to Xinhua, a majority of government-issued machines run on Windows XP. Overall, XP has a 70 percent market share in China.
The ban applies only to government offices; the personal computer market remains unaffected.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
In the wake of the XP support shutdown, some local industry leaders are making a push for a new home-cooked OS, likely based on Linux, Xinhua said. So far, the few Linux-based operating systems already in place in China, including KylinOS and StartOS, have not made much of an impact.
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By: DocMemory
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