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.
posted April 20th 2007 5:07PM
Lovely ... you have an authoritarian government, local officials are corrupt, the Internet is censored, health care is lacking, and air quality in major cities sucks ... so clearly, the solution is to protest Microsoft.
Real nerds don't protest. Sounds like some kind of crazy hippie.
"what about AAPL, SUN or ORACLE?"
AAPL has very little or no MS. From the few glimpses of there data center, it's Macs and where not possible, AIX. Probably the only thing they run is Office and a few Win boxes for development (QT, iTunes).
That was my point, you can be as MSFT free as you want there are plenty of choices.
Who says he's going to prison? The Chinese government was probably behind this banal stunt.
archiesteel I would be the first to say competition is not only good but great. In fact I've said it for 30 years of sitting in front of a computer. Ok, now the problem for open source is that it has to actually compete. If a version of Linux for instance wants to unseat MS they will have to change from being the "no one speaks for it" operating system because when there's a problem people want to speak to someone.
I have no bias against open source I'm also a realist. If you're saying there are no open source zealots then you must be living under a rock. I'll admit the promoters are slowly trying to put a professional face on open source but they have an uphill battle. Not because of MS as they would love to believe but because of their own history.
Lastly, don't kid yourself about this guy being the face of open source. The average person is more likely to know what the capital of Guam than what open source is. But when they hear open source they'll remember having seen this guy on the news.
Open Source/Linux *does* compete, but you're wrong in assuming that it has to "unseat" Windows in order to be successful. Any OS dominating the market is a less-than-ideal situation in my book.
As for "no one speaks for it"...most Windows users don't have access to MS support anyway (or the means to buy it), so the point is rather moot. As for businesses, there are Linux distros that offer support (RedHat, SuSE...even Ubuntu can have support provided by Canonical).
There are a few open soure zealots, just like there are MS shills and astroturfers. The fact is that Linux is ready for a *lot* of desktops. As for putting a "professional" face, you should know that Linux is already used quite a lot in server space. Google is a shining example of the kind of business you can build using Linux! Linux is also highly successful in High-End computing, as well as the embedded world. On the desktop, it is enjoying a market share similar to OS X, and its use is growing at a very rapid space in some regions of the world, such as China.
I think it's time to update your knowledge of Linux, because it's advanced quite a lot since the last time you looked at it, it seems.
As far as this guy goes, he'll be forgotten in a couple of days. He won't be the face of open-source for anyone, no matter how much you wish him to be (your insistence to see this as a reasonable outcome despite the fact that this is nothing more than an anecdote also confirms your anti-Linux bias).
We should organize a petition to get this poor dude out of prison, because we've all benefitted from open source one way or another.
I don't see any penguins in his tie!!
March of the Penguins!!??
to the GALLOWS!
a follow-up story on this guy would be nice. Or an interview.
In other news, there'll be some organs available on the transplant market in a couple of weeks.
Doesn't this guy already know?
WINDOWS AND OFFICE ARE FREE, in China.
LOL...Gates, you just got served, douche!
This proves it. Windows isn't indestructable and bill isn't a god.
HOAX .....
The guy with the crude message is an MS employee in Beijing. I live in China and know how this system works. Such a poor actor. Look at the body language.
Billy scores 10 Brownie points for Vista Visit, and his loyal protesting friend gets a few good servings of dofu and moutai after the circus show. Later he gets a vixen like xiau gunya (cewek) with dah nu nu, (susu besar) and laughs because everyone has been conned effectively. Billy is a smart man. Much smarter than your average jungle bunny, meadow muffin, or the readers of these messages.
This guy is an idiot.
We should all be protesting the patenting of software because patenting logical processes is just evil and unfair, but there is nothing wrong with copyrights and companies wanting to keep their source code private. It's THEIR source code that they paid developers to write. What is about private property that open source cheerleaders don't understand? Coke doesn't release the formula for their soda but I should have to share my source with the world? No way, thats up to me.
Down with M$!
"you're wrong in assuming that it has to "unseat" Windows in order to be successful. " At least stick to what I actually said. That's presumption on your part not assumption on mine. I didn't say it had to do anything.
"most Windows users don't have access to MS support." Huge amount of official support online and a company with a long history behind the product. Also support doesn't simply mean hand-holding. It also means having a product history.
"I think it's time to update your knowledge of Linux, because it's advanced quite a lot since the last time you looked at it, it seems." Oh you mean since the last time I toured a Google server farm with palates of Velcroed together Linux boxes? I would say nice try with that juvenile attempt at a personal dig but it wasn't.
Had you actually read my posts you'd know that I use Unix around 50% of the time. I prefer it over Linux but run Linux on some work machines where we use Python. I'm about as tech agnostic as a person gets. So perhaps you should look inward for irrational bias.
And like it or not for the general public this guy is the face of open source. Not him personally since you didn't and may still not get what that means from a marketing aspect. The general public hears about Linux almost exclusively through headlines about some random act of vandalism. If open source continues to have no face and no message to the general public then people like this guy become the face and the message.
I guess you have to applaud the effort. Fitting that this took place in China. Free enterprise and open source software are far from best friends.
SF
http://www.wasatchsoftware.com
想自己出名吧，
不看好开源软件，毕竟有金钱做动力，开发者才会去尽心尽力写程序……
Damn no pies this time... wasnt it a chinese guy who pied him awhile back.
Omg.... How old is this thing? Clearly 5.25 floppies were all the rage about 14 years ago. This guy was probably an original zealot. I mean damn....