Chinese government forcing internet cafes to switch to Chinese Linux OS

[wvoutlaw2002]

From late 2008:

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/linux_as_trojan_horse_forced_adoption_of_red_flag_linux

The Associated Press wrote in a recent article that owners of Internet cafés in the southern Chinese city of Nanchang are required by authorities to switch to Red Flag Linux, even if they were using valid copies of Windows.

The measure taken by the Chinese government can't be good p.r. for Linux. First of all, Red Flag is selling its product to the cafés at a steep price. Secondly, it begs the question whether this deal is merely a scheme to fill Red Flag's coffers or the Chinese authorities built a surveillance back door into the product.

[Monkeypox]

You KNOW the Chinese built a lot of backdoors into that OS.

Eventually they'll require everyone in China to use it.

[wvoutlaw2002]

You KNOW the Chinese built a lot of backdoors into that OS.

Eventually they'll require everyone in China to use it.

Yep. And I'm pretty sure it's altered in such a way that even their customized Linux kernel is proprietary and closed source and that tinkering with the source code to get rid of the backdoors would result in 25 years in a forced labor camp.

I'm still worried about SELinux. I mean what if SELinux becomes activated by default in all Linux distros and then the government launches its cyber false-flag and uses the Cyber Security Act to declare any tampering of source code - proprietary or free/open-source - without permission is cyberterrorism?

BTW I visited Red Flag Linux's Wikipedia page, and its logo is Tux waving a red flag. For the Infowars OS project, I'm gonna try to make a wallpaper of Tux holding a big-ass megaphone...maybe the "Tyranny Buster".

[Lucian Solaris]

Poor GNU/Linux 

[wvoutlaw2002]

OMFG! Is Red Flag Linux connected to Oracle?!

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,2134474,00.htm

Didn't Oracle's CEO volunteer to create a national ID card for the USA and supply the software to the government for free immediately after 9/11?

[wvoutlaw2002]

http://www.redflag-linux.com/en/download_end.php?class1=6&class2=1&id=67

Anybody want to download Red Flag and test it out for backdoors?

[Infokrieger]

You KNOW the Chinese built a lot of backdoors into that OS.

Not very likely. Any Linux distribution must be free (as in freedom), otherwise it would violate the license agreement. Can't do a closed source Linux. And if it's open source, the backdoor would be found eventually.

[Monkeypox]

Not very likely. Any Linux distribution must be free (as in freedom), otherwise it would violate the license agreement. Can't do a closed source Linux. And if it's open source, the backdoor would be found eventually.

If they're not controlling it, why would they bother to create their own version?

I can't imagine that the Chinese govt would go to the trouble of creating their own OS, and then let anyone and their brother mess with it.

 

[Infokrieger]

They are not creating their own OS. They couldn't come up with something decent, so they are taking what's already there (The OS is GNU with a Linux kernel), add some software, some branding, some patches, and an installer and that makes up a distribution (same as SuSE or Ubuntu).

I don't know what you can or cannot imagine what's going on in their heads, but I guess they'd rather have their own people tweak and fix their OS than CIA/Microsoft/NSA. From a paranoid technician's POV it makes sense.

[phasma]

My friends in china can`t get on this site!

[Monkeypox]

They are not creating their own OS. They couldn't come up with something decent, so they are taking what's already there (The OS is GNU with a Linux kernel), add some software, some branding, some patches, and an installer and that makes up a distribution (same as SuSE or Ubuntu).

I don't know what you can or cannot imagine what's going on in their heads, but I guess they'd rather have their own people tweak and fix their OS than CIA/Microsoft/NSA. From a paranoid technician's POV it makes sense.

Yes, I understand that it is their own flavor of Linux.  But I would think from a security standpoint it's a fail on their part.  I would think they'd want to force a closed OS that they control on everyone.

Like Windows.

 

[Lucian Solaris]

In China, it doesn't matter, the tyranny in government and society is prima facie.  Here it's hidden, and the company that maintains WinBlow$ has a financial interest in churning out the versions.  That company exists today because it probably agreed to some outrageous (if publicly learned) conditions to avoid breakup.

Remember that WML meta-data exploit in WinBlow$ a while back where the renderer PURPOSEFULLY looked for an execute bit "as a feature" to execute a block of data as if it were code?  That was a FEATURE!  There is NO JUSTIFICATION, NO REASON that should exist as a feature, but it did.  I guarantee that was a purposely placed entry vector RIGHT INTO YOUR WINBLOW$ SYSTEM!

I'll bet RedFlag uses a kernel module that is closed source and plugs directly into the system for remote access (or for on demand access) to the root filesystem.  (Realize I have no idea, this is a guess)

Yes, I understand that it is their own flavor of Linux.  But I would think from a security standpoint it's a fail on their part.  I would think they'd want to force a closed OS that they control on everyone.

Like Windows.

 

[EvadingGrid]

So they want to escape the West....

All this illuminati shite is but a drop of water to the way they think, which is long term and ultra-nationalist.

They will do what they have to do to survive in the short term, they will even pretend to play along with the west.

[Infokrieger]

But I would think from a security standpoint it's a fail on their part.  I would think they'd want to force a closed OS that they control on everyone.

They can't do that with Linux. The license requires them to make it free. Also, search the web for "security by obscurity" and you will find that it's common knowledge that it doesn't work. Think of crypto-algorithms. The proprietary ones always get cracked while the free ones are secure.

[wvoutlaw2002]

They can't do that with Linux. The license requires them to make it free.

It depends on the definition of free. Linux has to be "free as in speech". Linux does not necessarily have to be "free as in beer". At least the North American GNU/Linux distros which are not "free as in beer" - eg. Novell, Xandros and Linspire - are/were "free as in speech".

If China were to demand Red Flag Linux include proprietary code in all of its source code and make it to where it's not even "free as in speech", do you actually think Stallman and the FSF would actually have a chance of either forcing the Red Flag code to be made "free as in speech" or forcing Red Flag to cease and desist? If Stallman did that, he would make himself an enemy of the Chinese government and would risk being put in a prison work camp if he ever showed up in China. Do you think Obama would plead for Stallman's release? Hell no, because Obama's busy filling the Justice Department with RIAA shills and his cybersecurity task force with Microsoft shills.

[Infokrieger]

Any Linux distribution must be free (as in freedom)

That's what I'm saying! Are you aware of any trouble between Stallman, Torvalds and the Chinese? Because, I'm not. Maybe I missed something? Do you have any indication to believe the Red Flag distribution is violating the license? Because I don't. Looks like any other Linux distro to me.

[EvadingGrid]

They dont want to pay tax (licence tax) to america
They might pretend to be playing along with the banksters,
but the bottom line is it is CHINA

Checkout how different the thinking is between western and china.

The difference between how they think and how we in the west think are mind blowing....