14 DAY TRIAL // A single open source protester managed to crash Bill Gates' Microsoft parade on Friday, April 20, 2007. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was attending a ceremony at the Peking University towards the end of the past week as part of his current visit to China when a strong supporter of free software and open source programming managed to take the stage for a few minutes.
The protester, which remains unidentified to this date, climbed up on the stage at the event and with a banner with the "Free Software - Open Source" words written on it. In the video embedded at the bottom, you will also be able to hear the protester screaming for Open Source support.
Bill Gates had only finished his speech and as part of his appearance at the Beijing University was involved in an award ceremony. Just as he hands out the final prize to a student from the Beijing University of Technology, and all the winners gather around him for a group photo, the protester made his way on stage and stole the show.
The demonstrator proceeded to immediately leave the stage after generating a consistent amount of confusion, and was subsequently detained by the police. Bill Gates, and the entire event were little affected by the otherwise embarrassing disruption and performance of the open source supporter.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft's Chinese parade has seen no rain in the past week as Bill Gates, at its forefront, announced a complex strategy for the continuation of the Redmond Company's local business.