Governments and technology companies do not always see eye to eye, especially on matters of privacy and security. At least that’s the case when doing business in the western world. In China, it’s about giving the government what it wants with the Windows 10 China Government Edition.
Microsoft has created a modified version of Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, which removes parts of the experience that the Chinese government would rather not have to deal with. This involves the removal of OneDrive; while also introducing a change that allows the Chinese to use their own encryption algorithms.
The Chinese government is not immediately jumping into this new operating system. Instead, it will be deployed in a pilot programme at three levels of governance: the Chinese customs department, the city of Shanghai (EITC), and a state-owned company by the name of Westone Information Technology.
Lenovo has been tapped to provide the necessary hardware to deploy the new operating system. Microsoft says that the company is only the first OEM partner to pre-install Windows 10 China Government Edition.
It would be fair to say that this partnership with the Chinese government is a good thing for Microsoft’s finances. More importantly, it stems the tide of governments moving towards open source or homegrown solutions.
[Source: Microsoft Blog]
