A lot has happened in the four decades since Mao vowed to "put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism." Yet Chinese technophiles are still plenty wary of imperialists - take their leeriness about the global ambitions of a software empire from Redmond, Washington, for instance.
Most PCs in China run on Microsoft Windows. Although Microsoft complains about rampant piracy - the US-based Business Software Alliance claims that 96 percent of China's software is illegally copied - Bill Gates understands that it ultimately expands his company's installed base in the burgeoning market. Indeed, Microsoft intends to be a permanent player in the People's Republic; the company recently decided to spend $80 million developing a research facility in Beijing.
But Cliff and Iris Miller offer a freer alternative. The husband-andwife team runs Pacific HiTech, founded in 1992 to bring open-source Linux software to Asia. The company already holds more than 50 percent of Japan's 400,000-user Linux market, and now is poised to spread the Linux gospel in China as well. In partnership with Qing-hua University - "China's MIT" - Pacific HiTech will release a Chinese-language TurboLinux package early this year. "We're in seeding mode," Chris Miller says. If all goes as planned, Linux will also be used in several government ministries within two years.
Of course, other Chinese firms are taking aim at Redmond (see "He's Got Guanxi!", page 122). But by bringing Linux to China, Miller suggests, he's leading a revolt - an open-source insurrection that will chip away at Microsoft's hegemony. "We're shooting for total world domination," he says, and laughs. "That's the Linux party line."
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