14 DAY TRIAL // China yesterday announced that Windows 8 is banned on government computers due to what the country called an energy-saving program that doesn't include Microsoft's newest operating system.
Of course, the reason behind this decision sounded a bit weird and everyone wondered if China actually tries to get the revenge for the Windows XP end of support which happened just after the authorities purchased genuine licenses for the retired operating system.
Microsoft, on the other hand, told us in a statement that it was surprised by the decision to ban Windows 8, but says that it would continue to work with the government in order to offer them Windows 7 as a replacement.
“This morning, the China Central Government Procurement Center posted a notification titled ‘Bidding Process for Government Purchasing Energy-efficient IT Products.’ The notification indicates that Windows 8 operating system is excluded in the bidding,” Microsoft said in the statement.
“We were surprised to learn about the reference to Windows 8 in this notice. Microsoft has been working proactively with the Central Government Procurement Center and other government agencies through the evaluation process to ensure that our products and services meet all government procurement requirements. We have been and will continue to provide Windows 7 to government customers. At the same time we are working on the Windows 8 evaluation with relevant government agencies.”
China is actually one of the countries that asked the Microsoft administration to continue providing support for Windows XP, despite the end of support. China explained that it only recently purchased genuine Windows XP licenses, so moving to a different operating system would be a very expensive process.
Microsoft obviously declined this proposal and said that China, just like all the other countries out there, needs to upgrade local computers to Windows 7 or 8.1.
People close to China's decision to ban Windows 8 pointed out that local authorities might actually try to get their revenge for the Windows XP end of support, even though Microsoft announced this deadline a couple of years ago.
At the same time, Microsoft is also pushing hard to boost sales in China, so banning Windows 8 on government computers is clearly a decision that could really affect these efforts. Offering Windows 7 instead would obviously slow down the adoption of the modern operating system, but it's still a way to make sure that China doesn't give up on Windows entirely, as the country is also working to develop its very own Linux-based OS.