Ubuntu to ship on over 1 million PCs in China

[Ellipsis]

As we approach the release of Ubuntu 10.10, Jon Melamut vice president of sales and product management at Canonical has released this bomb shell: Lenovo is shipping over 1 million Ubuntu PCs in China in 2010. This may seem like a small number but just six months ago Canonical claimed to have just twelve million users worldwide. In 2008, the total number was 8 million. This new number comes from a single manufacturer: Lenovo. The total number of Ubuntu PCs shipping worldwide from others including Dell is unknown.

China is a massive market with huge potential for Open Source and Ubuntu. The Chinese government for one ships it’s own Linux distribution: Red Flag Linux. Moreover, China and US are getting increasingly competitive. This may lead the Chinese to choose products not directly linked to the United States. Open source in some ways is natural to the Chinese, which has long believed in the value of strong communities and the socialist principles of the common good. Of course the other open source ideals of complete transparency and freedom are things that are entirely new.

This huge developing market may also be part of the reason why Canonical is sending a design team member to China to evaluate Ubuntu’s usability. Canonical recently held it’s second hardware summit in Taiwan which had over 200 attendees from major Asain OEMs and ODMs.

Link with sources (http://ubuntuforecast.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/lenovo-set-to-ship-over-1-million-ubuntu-pcs-in-china-in-2010/)

[foxmulder881]

This can only be a good thing. I have heard about Red Flag Linux and to be honest, I don't really know anything about it other than the fact it's China's very own home-bred Linux distro. But I suspect that Red Flag Linux has a strong presence in China, therefore it could be a tough market for Lenovo and Ubuntu to crack.

[bash]

If that actually works out and the people that buy those machines keep Ubuntu and don't just immediately replace it with some pirated version of Windows, this could be pretty big for Canonical and Ubuntu.

Interesting side note though: at least from what is written on the Wiki, there are no plans for a Chinese simplified and/or traditional version of the font.

[NightwishFan]

This is a way Ubuntu can shine in a developing market.

[formaldehyde_spoon]

It would be great to see Ubuntu gain millions of uses in China, but I lived there for several years just recently and never saw any OS except pirated Windows.
You can buy a cracked copy for less than a dollar in shops everywhere, even in bricks and mortar stores on university campuses.

[foxmulder881]

You can buy a cracked copy for less than a dollar in shops everywhere, even in bricks and mortar stores on university campuses.

So who uses the Red Flag Linux? The Chinese government?

[formaldehyde_spoon]

So who uses the Red Flag Linux? The Chinese government?

No-one, give or take a few. I'd be willing to bet most(99.9%) Chinese have never even heard of it.

I doubt most of the government uses very much besides cracked Windows either ;)

[whiskeylover]

They'd probably end up pirating even Ubuntu.

[Ellipsis]

It would be funny to start pushing Ubuntu as the cure to Microsoft's piracy problems.

[smellyman]

So who uses the Red Flag Linux? The Chinese government?


it's just like any distro. I don't think the Chinese gov sponsors it.

[Ellipsis]

it's just like any distro. I don't think the Chinese gov sponsors it.

Actually Red Flag was sponsored by the Chinese government. From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flag_Linux):


Red Flag Linux first appeared in August 1999, when it was created by the Institute of Software Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Financial help came from government-owned Shanghai NewMargin Venture Capital. In March 2001, Bloomberg News reported that CCIDNET Investment, a VC arm of the Ministry of Information Industry, had become Red Flag's second largest shareholder.

[Dustin2128]

They'd probably end up pirating even Ubuntu.
we're too late...

[MonolithImmortal]

we're too late...

That is now my wallpaper.

[Khakilang]

Well at the least the Open source software is expanding and we get to see more developer putting their good work to good use.

[HermanAB]

In other news:
Balmer threw 1 million chairs at Mark, who turned around and sold them all for scrap metal at a tidy profit.

[Ellipsis]

Well at the least the Open source software is expanding and we get to see more developer putting their good work to good use.

What I am hoping is for more Chinese developers to get on board and start developing for Linux. China has (as Microsoft planned) become addicted to Windows just as the rest of the world. But the portion of China using computers is very small. As the market matures further we need to step up and really offer REAL alternative in China and elsewhere in the developing world.

[cra1g321]

Great news but i dont think it will gain major popularity in china. China has an insane amount of gamers who we all know are running windows.
So i say it will do well with non-gamers and people who run netbooks and laptops.

[ikt]

It would be funny to start pushing Ubuntu as the cure to Microsoft's piracy problems.

Microsoft prefers people to pirate their software.

[beew]

It would be funny to start pushing Ubuntu as the cure to Microsoft's piracy problems.

But then there may be some unexpected twists.
http://www.clonedinchina.com/2009/12/xp-com-owner-launched-windows-xp-alike-ubuntu-based-ylmf-os.html

:P

[formaldehyde_spoon]

What I am hoping is for more Chinese developers to get on board and start developing for Linux. China has (as Microsoft planned) become addicted to Windows just as the rest of the world. But the portion of China using computers is very small. As the market matures further we need to step up and really offer REAL alternative in China and elsewhere in the developing world.
Not *very* small. Over 400 million, so about one third.

[Dustin2128]

Not *very* small. Over 400 million, so about one third.
not small by any stretch of the imagination; that's more than the population of the US alone, but a lower percentage of households in china have computers relative to the US and EU.

[formaldehyde_spoon]

not small by any stretch of the imagination; that's more than the population of the US alone, but a lower percentage of households in china have computers relative to the US and EU.
Yes, one third ;)

Not *very* small. Over 400 million, so about one third.