“While Apple has strongly resisted building a special ‘GovtOS’ to provide the U.S. government with access to iOS devices, it appears that Microsoft has no such qualms,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac. “TechInAsia reports that Microsoft has created a special version of Windows 10 for China, called Windows 10 Zhuangongban, which includes ‘more management and security controls.'”
“Whether those controls will allow the users to control or at least see the level of surveillance they’re being subjected to or not isn’t confirmed,” Amanda Connolly writes for TNW. “But it seems more likely, given the partnership and government backing, that the security features will allow the Chinese government to keep a close eye on users.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Reason #2,736,851 to stay the hell away from the increasingly desperate Microsoft’s products and services.
I think it’s a tricky situation selling software in other countries precisely because they may demand a specialized version for their market.
If this is a case of ‘every version of Windows sold in China is this version’ then I view it a bit differently than what the FBI is asking Apple to do.
Isn’t this just a specialized enterprise volume license version of the OS for their Government computers, similar to having a tailored versions of Lynx. This is not for the consumer/business market.
From what it sounds like, the Chinese government was concerned about potential NSA back doors, so Microsoft let them analyze the code & worked with an enterprise customer for a specialized version for their government computers to calm their paranoid fears.
How is this anything similar to Apple and the FBI situation? Hasn’t Microsoft been fighting the US government in courts for 2 years over the US gov wanting access to data on their cloud servers?
“How is this anything similar to Apple and the FBI situation?” It’s not. MDN has a hard-on for MS and uses this as clickbait.
There is quite the irony in what you say ” the Chinese government was concerned about potential NSA back doors” instead of Microsoft wrote a “GovtOS” for some government because they were concerned about the Chinese.
Yup, more and more of the world is waking up realizing just who is totally bereft of morality and ethics.
Oh I’m sure that China is only going to sell that version to the criminals. 😉