China continues rising on the Steam Survey with Linux now at 1.87%

Personally I find this fascinating that China is so Windows-centric. It might be because there's no IP laws and a lot of these are pirated copies of Windows (so basically free as in beer), but still, it's an American product, I would think its use would be discouraged at the very least. I guess Red Flag Linux didn't gain as much popularity as they hoped it would. ;-)

On the other hand, Linux is an open system while Windows is fully controlled plus they might have some deal in place for backdoors and stuff, so everyone is happy (I mean the corporation and the government).


Last edited by pb on 2 October 2024 at 7:53 am UTC

Quoting: pbPersonally I find this fascinating that China is so Windows-centric. It might be because there's no IP laws and a lot of these are pirated copies of Windows (so basically free as in beer), but still, it's an American product, I would think its use would be discouraged at the very least. I guess Red Flag Linux didn't gain as much popularity as they hoped it would. ;-)

On the other hand, Linux is an open system while Windows is fully controlled plus they might have some deal in place for backdoors and stuff, so everyone is happy (I mean the corporation and the government).

Honestly, I think it is mostly because Windows has really, REALLY good support for Chinese language + Pinyin.

Linux support of those two is absolutely abysmal - yeah, you can get something installed that "kind of works", but it will still be far, far away from the support MS offers for this.

And because that is the case, there are not many Chinese Linux users, and because of that, not much effort goes into improving the situation, and there you are, vicious cycle.

I tried learning Chinese for a while and I totally get why no Chinese person would want to touch Linux, even IF they were tech affine and not afraid of terminals.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 2 October 2024 at 8:15 am UTC

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: pbPersonally I find this fascinating that China is so Windows-centric. It might be because there's no IP laws and a lot of these are pirated copies of Windows (so basically free as in beer), but still, it's an American product, I would think its use would be discouraged at the very least. I guess Red Flag Linux didn't gain as much popularity as they hoped it would. ;-)

On the other hand, Linux is an open system while Windows is fully controlled plus they might have some deal in place for backdoors and stuff, so everyone is happy (I mean the corporation and the government).

Honestly, I think it is mostly because Windows has really, REALLY good support for Chinese language + Pinyin.

Linux support of those two is absolutely abysmal - yeah, you can get something installed that "kind of works", but it will still be far, far away from the support MS offers for this.

And because that is the case, there are not many Chinese Linux users, and because of that, not much effort goes into improving the situation, and there you are, vicious cycle.

I tried learning Chinese for a while and I totally get why no Chinese person would want to touch Linux, even IF they were tech affine and not afraid of terminals.

I used to use Deepin, which is a very good Chinese Linux desktop and distribution. I stoped because I got some hanzi, French and English mixed and that was too much for me.

But I wholeheartly agree with you, Linux community should be more welcoming to Linux users. Deepin is my favorite Gnome variant so far, it's a pity I have to stop using it.

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: pbPersonally I find this fascinating that China is so Windows-centric. It might be because there's no IP laws and a lot of these are pirated copies of Windows (so basically free as in beer), but still, it's an American product, I would think its use would be discouraged at the very least. I guess Red Flag Linux didn't gain as much popularity as they hoped it would. ;-)

On the other hand, Linux is an open system while Windows is fully controlled plus they might have some deal in place for backdoors and stuff, so everyone is happy (I mean the corporation and the government).

Honestly, I think it is mostly because Windows has really, REALLY good support for Chinese language + Pinyin.

Linux support of those two is absolutely abysmal - yeah, you can get something installed that "kind of works", but it will still be far, far away from the support MS offers for this.

And because that is the case, there are not many Chinese Linux users, and because of that, not much effort goes into improving the situation, and there you are, vicious cycle.

I tried learning Chinese for a while and I totally get why no Chinese person would want to touch Linux, even IF they were tech affine and not afraid of terminals.

First: I believe you immediately.
Second: That's surprising, the CCP has put quite a lot of development in developing their own Linux distros this is exactly what I would've thought would've gotten better from that effort.(kylin and derivatives)


Last edited by LoudTechie on 2 October 2024 at 8:43 am UTC

For people with knowledge of Chinese and time leftover.
This arch page contains a good list of projects you can contribute to, to fix your specific problems.
This project started as a Mandarin specific localization effort, but is more generic now.

If you would rather fix localization problems with money:
The outreachy project of SFC attempts to fix under representation issues and with that localization issues.

If you would rather fix localization problems as a job:
https://www.credly.com/org/the-linux-foundation/badge/linux-foundation-research-localization-partner-2023

Localizationlab specialises in fixing locale issues for floss



Development of good locales is difficult in open source development, because although the contributors tend to stay once they've made significant contributions.
The best way to attract them is through socials and that works a lot less with people that come from a different culture and speak a different language.

There's a reason all the medium to large projects beg for translators.

Quoting: pbPersonally I find this fascinating that China is so Windows-centric.

Not for long. In the next 1-2 years, the Chinese will significantly completely abandon Windows (even pirated versions will be cut) and switch to HarmonyOS.

They write that its microkernel is 3 times more efficient than Linux. Other sources also say that it will be possible to launch Steam + native streaming of games on DX12.2

Chinese government-sponsored developer (e.g. a company) would be completely capable of bringing proper Chinese language support to Linux. And people would switch to it, if mandated by the government [1]. I am guessing independence from Windows is simply not something considered to be an issue by the CCP. Especially when they can force Microsoft to comply with Chinese regulations, and do all the work for them.

[1] I have met quite a few Chinese exchange students in uni, and all of them were using some government-mandated download manager. I asked them why would they use it in Europe, and they did not really understand the question. It's just something you do as Chinese. It's a very different culture.

Quoting: LinasCCP

CPC