Even with Microsoft reportedly making tremendous advances with an upcoming Widows 10, Beijing has banned Microsoft Windows 8 on all government devices.
According to officials in China, this has been as a result of rising security concerns about the use of foreign operating systems. This move, however, was forced by Microsoft ending its support for Windows XP, which is in up to 50% of desktop computers. By ending its support for Windows XP, Microsoft has put the computers running on the OS at high risk of virus and hacking attacks.
Chinese Authorities claim that they will not risk running an OS that does not have technical support and neither will they risk being confronted with such a situation in days to come, hence, windows 8 has been barred from bidding for public sector deals.
The decree, however, will only apply to government computers, so, personal computers will be unaffected by the ban. Microsoft will nonetheless continue to offer Windows 7 to the Chinese government. There are reports that Microsoft is working with various Chinese Agencies to come up with an evaluation Windows 8 OS specially made for China.
Local Chinese operating systems like Kylin and StartOS now have a better ground for growth.
