Dave Sherohman wrote: > On Fri, Dec 05, 2008 at 08:35:20AM -0600, Florin Iucha wrote: > >> The title is bad, but the abstract is illuminating: >> >> Authorities in the Chinese city of Nanchang are compelling the city's >> Internet cafes to replace their Windows operating systems with Red >> Flag Linux -- and charging them about $726 for it as well. Some cafe >> owners are closing down rather than comply. >> >> It's just some thugs shaking down businesses. >> > > The move to Linux is an effort to tighten censorship and step up > surveillance online, said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet > Project at the University of California-Berkeley. > > "It mainly means [a] less secure and private communication > environment for netizens in those Internet cafes," Xiao said. "The > authorities are gaining more control." > > Yeowch... I have a feeling that, if this article is spread widely, > these assertions will become standard anti-Linux FUD rather than > recognizing that they apply only (if at all) to Red Flag Linux, not to > Linux in general. > > To avoid that stigma, we can call it GNU/Red Flag Linux