Open source protestor crashes Bill Gates' speech in China

We've certainly seen a variety of crashings go down on stage, but a determined protester and undeterred advocate for open source software rudely (albeit humorously) interrupted Bill Gates' speech at Peking University in Beijing, China. Gates, who was speaking on the topic of Innovation in China's future and receiving (yet another) honorary manager title, had his after-party all shook up by an off-kilter open source proponent who reportedly darted across the stage, "loudly shouted against Microsoft's monopoly," proudly displayed a sign of "Free software, open source," and was promptly "tackled by security and removed for questioning." It was suggested that the culprit may have been a member of the Linux Professional Institute, and while we're not exactly sure if Michael Dell would've shown any forgiveness, feel free click on through for a closeup of the sign and the unfortunate aftermath.

[Via SeattlePI, thanks Ralf]

Update: Reader Shawn W sent in a video of the proceedings! Check it out after the break.

[Mark7r0n @ Apr 20th 2007 5:14PM]

AWESOME!

[xaion @ Apr 21st 2007 10:23AM]

the chinese dont care abt open source code.. they just dont wanna pay..

[Jeff @ Apr 20th 2007 5:17PM]

Except that he's now probably on his way to a Chinese prison, never to be heard from again.

[Kento @ Apr 22nd 2007 2:36PM]

^^, lucky that he is "OK"... still! but not sure after B.G. leave China.....

Actually, China Goverment is supporting Linux (Red Flag) ^^

[Todd @ Apr 20th 2007 5:17PM]

My freaking hero! But I'm afraid that guy is gonna get "disappeared" by the unholy alliance of Chinese secret police and MS goons.

I rank this the second best prank evah...with this being number one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Y3B_sCtSg

[Teo @ Apr 30th 2007 5:09PM]

that's not a prank, that's assault.

[NapsterX @ Apr 20th 2007 5:18PM]

Down With "The Man!"

[alpha @ Apr 20th 2007 5:20PM]

It's a shame. Although I am a proponent of free software as well, I don't think this is the right way. And this happens in my alma mater? Oh, well...

[Philster @ Apr 20th 2007 5:24PM]

It's not quite Tiananmen Square, but AWSOME protest, nontheless!

[McGinley @ Apr 20th 2007 5:32PM]

I'm all for open-source,but I think this is immature.

[prp @ Apr 24th 2007 11:22AM]

absolutely. in spite of my differences with bill gates, i think the protestor disrespected the guest. he did no good to open source community and it's promotion. And he is no martyr in my eyes - there is a way to protest and should not be done at the cost of disrespecting somebody else.

[Tom @ Apr 20th 2007 5:40PM]

he's totally pouting in the last pic

[myscrnnm @ Apr 20th 2007 5:44PM]

lol, Bill Gates seems amused.

[randy @ Apr 20th 2007 5:54PM]

What a demented idiot.
Enjoy Chinese prison, fool.

[Arcaynn @ Apr 20th 2007 5:55PM]

Wow, that's effective.

I do not understand why people think this crap affects anything at all.

It does amuse me to watch open source nerds to make idiots of themselves though, just like the Bad Vista guys made me laugh.

[hemmy @ Apr 20th 2007 5:55PM]

Poor dude. They're gonna harvest his organs.

[zmanforever @ Apr 20th 2007 5:56PM]

No since it is China and a Communist Country he will be given the Chinese water tourture, while Bill Gates Personally removes Ubuntu from his HP laptop and puts Vista Ultimate in its place; all while the water torture make's him pee his pants.

[bgdc @ Apr 20th 2007 5:56PM]

Good for him. Too bad his efforts won't change the monopolistic/predatory practices Microsoft. God, it'd be nice to see them go down in flames..

[adam @ Apr 20th 2007 5:57PM]

HA!

Are those 5.25 inch floppy disks on the plaques they are holding?

That's innovation!

[t-bone @ Apr 20th 2007 5:59PM]

"It was suggested that the culprit may have been a member of the Linux Professional Institute". More like Linux Unprofessional Institute.

[Ronan @ Apr 20th 2007 6:02PM]

Jeff, hes probably executed by now.


Oh crap, I shouldnt have said that. If you dont hear from me plz come rescue me from beijing thankyou

[wargarurumon @ Apr 20th 2007 6:04PM]

bill doesn't look all to impressed

[wargarurumon @ Apr 20th 2007 6:04PM]

bill doesn't look all to impressed

[Brian M @ Apr 20th 2007 6:07PM]

Seriously, what is preventing open source software from suceeding? is it difficult to get because microsoft has blocked the internet access to it? Are there things blocking large organizations to switch to it? Do you think there are no other choices other than MSFT? Do you think Novell runs a lot of MSFT? what about AAPL, SUN or ORACLE? how much MSFT do they run. MSFT isn't doing anything to prevent people from running Open Source, People keep choosing MSFT on their own because they like it, it works and it is easier! Do you think Oracle, SUN, Novell and Apple have large microsoft networks? Boo freeckity hoo MSFT does not want to give everyone access to "THEIR SOURCE CODE" get over it and design or build something better that people choose and MSFT will have to worry about making their stuff compatable, until then DEAL.

[LongshotX @ Apr 20th 2007 9:56PM]

I totally agree. Me personally, I don't want to have to deal with all the damn flavors of Linux or whatever. I just like an OS that is widely available whether that means Vista or XP in my University's Library, my friends computer, work, or the public library. I couldn't imagine how it'd be if Ubuntu was on computer A, Red Hat on computer B, Mandrake on computer C...do you see where I'm going? Windows does have its share of flaws but it works whether I want to network, word process, surf the net, play a game, watch a movie, etc. And I don't see why this guy is protesting. It isn't like you can't go online and download an installion disk. What an idiot. If there were such an uproar over Windows I'm sure a lot more people would be up in arms with torches, pitch forks, and clubs; but guess what the only people upset over Windows domination are a minority of Linux Fanboys. Get over it. Most people don't give a damn about Open Source, and a lot more don't even know or care to know what it is. Just stupid!!!

[Chris Wiegand @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:27PM]

Well, personally I got sick of the spyware that kept popping up, even on trusted sites. I don't run an antivirus under Linux, as it implements proper security. I also have a Mac at home - same deal. There are over HALF A MILLION viruses for Windows. I can count, with my two hands and two feet, the number of viruses for Linux. And Mac has a few more, but not by much. Windows security is laughable. Absolutely hilarious. And I need something secure. I also like being able to remove features I don't need, like the GUI, or setup an outgoing firewall (Windows didn't do this under Vista), or add a new feature to the kernel.

[k0a10 @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:33AM]

I totally disagree. Very high quality free/open source software is available and emerging. What the movement needs is exposure, pretty much no matter what. That's what this person realized and is trying to do.

[Alex @ Apr 20th 2007 6:13PM]

Freaken sweet. Would have made the whole protest more effective if say it were a naked model, or he was running around in a chicken suit or something.

[eh @ Apr 20th 2007 6:19PM]

I could have sworn that software was already free in China.

[Macguy07 @ Apr 20th 2007 6:33PM]

Wouldn't it be better to try and influence Microsoft with your wallet, not an immature stunt like this? If you don't want their software, don't buy it. You may not be the majority, but it can have an impact (maybe, eventually). Fortunately, this type of zealot does not represent all supporters of OSS, but it does set a stereotype of what some OSS people are like and is a big turn off for most people.
I personally think Microsoft has been doing a lot of good work lately, Vista, Home Server and XBox 360, these are all really good products for me. If you choose not to use them, don't.

[Klaus Burton @ Apr 20th 2007 7:01PM]

Haha, Gates' smirk is awesome in that first photo.

[Colm @ Apr 20th 2007 7:12PM]

Why is everyone so supportive of open source? Is it not right that programmers who put so much hard work into their software receive remuneration?

[glacia @ Apr 20th 2007 7:12PM]

"Seriously, what is preventing open source software from succeeding?" One thing, lack of support, a consistent product and coherent direction.

Seriously Ubuntu is less than 3 years old and before it a different flavor of Linux was all the rage and before than another. What is touted as the strength of open source is also it's greatest impediment to adoption. There is no central source to keep it alive so next year Ubuntu may be gone entirely and another flavor will be the MS/Apple killer.

And the greatest argument open source format promoters have against companies like MS are also the greatest weakness of open source formats. They will argue that MS can end support for a format any time they like. But if there isn't a penny going toward keeping an open source format alive will it be supported next year or even next week?

Someone is going to trot out the argument that because the standard is open you can write your own software if none exists. Sorry but open source isn't the panacea its promoters would like it to be.

Oh and BTW, I use Unix about 50% of the time.

[RijilV @ Apr 20th 2007 10:55PM]

but..if its open anyone can support the product. You don't need XyZZy company to give you support for product ABC, all someone has to do is get enough skilled people to start supporting XyZZy. They can patch it themselves, find bugs quicker, etc etc.

Open Source software isn't having a hard time. What do the vast majority of webservers run on? How about DNS? What about FTP? I'm sure you really like Exchange, but I'd be willing to be the bulk of all email is handled by open sourced products. Hey, how many of you out there run Firefox?

Microsoft has a market domination for a few reasons, they were the first to come out with a product for the x86 architecture, Linux wasn't even thought of for another decade. To think that somehow Microsoft was the reason for the acceptance of the x86 architecture is naive. IBM opened that up to anyone who wanted it (hrmmmm does this sound vaguely like something else?) and there wasn't really anyone else who was doing as much R&D as IBM or who had the corporate clout to push a product out.

Also, lets face it, marketing works. In general we buy what we're told about.

[john @ Apr 20th 2007 7:17PM]

Just so sad to see open source resort to these kind of tactics. A fitting punishment would to have him tattoo'd with "Open Source Sucks".

[mike @ Apr 20th 2007 7:44PM]

"lol, Bill Gates seems amused."

Really? It looks like he's having a flashback to the Conan O'Brien demo.

[L.Rawlins @ Apr 20th 2007 8:14PM]

'Down with DRM' and 'Adopt open standards' would have been more beneficial slogans, but kudos where it's due for having the balls to do it in the first place, random asian dude.

[Richard Lai @ Apr 20th 2007 8:16PM]

What a lad.

But I must say I am not having a good time with Ubuntu 7.04. I am suffering from the common ATI bug where the resolution only goes up to 1024x768. I've followed several posted solutions like editing the xorg.conf but still no change. Well, in fact, I can't even boot into Ubuntu after following the official solution for the bug.

Back to Windows MCE 2005 for now.

[archiesteel @ Apr 21st 2007 12:06AM]

Follow this howto, either method 1 or 2:

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Feisty_Installation_Guide

[Ayle @ Apr 20th 2007 8:17PM]

Jeez, dont be surprised if after stuffs like that oss supporters are considered a bunch of hippies..... That was just stupid...

[joran @ Apr 20th 2007 8:22PM]

LOL hes not in prison....for a communist country china is fairly liberal...If anything this guy got stuck with a fine or where they make minor criminals sit on the sidewalk with writing in front of them saying what they did...

I can pretty much guarantee it takes alot more than that to get disapeared.

[ConsumerJoe @ Apr 20th 2007 8:36PM]

Ahh one more idiot fantasizing that he's fighting a holy war. The hilarious dichotomy is that open source zealots are constantly making themselves look anti-business and Microsoft's biggest customer base is business. So in the end they simply solidify Microsoft's customer base against open source.

Meanwhile the average consumer is more likely to scratch their heads and wonder what the sign means. I can hear people asking "Is he demanding free software from Microsoft?"

[infest0r @ Apr 20th 2007 8:37PM]

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/6196/spil33tnr0.jpg

[BEETROOT @ Apr 20th 2007 8:42PM]

Maybe Jack Bauer can bust him out when he is there rescuing Audrey.

[furry_goat @ Apr 20th 2007 9:11PM]

Funny thing is the survey at the bottom of the chinese Sohu.com website, where it says:

89.14% support the guy in going against Microsoft's monopoly (10.86% against)

63.95% support the method the guy used to express his opinion (36.05% against).

[RijilV @ Apr 20th 2007 10:58PM]

yeah man, I totally hear you. Having to make choices is hard. I like it when people just pick stuff for me so I don't have to think about it.


Eeeahkah. get real, start thinking. I hope you don't drive like that...

[archiesteel @ Apr 21st 2007 12:07AM]

"I couldn't imagine how it'd be if Ubuntu was on computer A, Red Hat on computer B, Mandrake on computer C...do you see where I'm going?"

You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It would either be a Gnome Desktop or a KDE Desktop, both of which would seem very familiar to anyone who has ever used a Mac or Windows PC.

Seriously, Linux distros aren't that different from one another, at least from a user's point of view.

[LongshotX @ Apr 21st 2007 3:37PM]

Well nobody gives a shit to tell you the truth. Fuck Linux!

[glacia @ Apr 20th 2007 10:10PM]

furry_goat. I'm not entirely certain why you'd think it was odd. You would probably get the same numbers on almost any site because of how its asked. I think he's deluded and misguided but I support him protesting if he wants. Heck I'm sure even MS does because this wacko is now the face of open source.

I'm actually more surprised by the 63.95% number. I think he's a moron but I still support the method. Do open source zealots want him to shoot someone or plant a bomb instead?

[archiesteel @ Apr 21st 2007 12:06AM]

This "wacko" is not the face of open source. F/OSS doesn't have a "face." No one speaks for it, and everyone speaks for it.

Your bias against open-source is obvious (note the use of the term "open-source zealot"...), but really, isn't it a *good thing* for MS to have some real competition, for a change?