World's Largest Country Goes for KDE

As reported at CNet Asia, China has announced a new policy mandating homegrown software solutions throughout government agencies. Redflag Linux, a Linux distribution backed by the Chinese government, seems to be well situated to to fill their OS needs. And along with Redflag Linux Desktop 3.2 comes none other than our favorite desktop.

From the product sheet for their latest desktop offering: "Redflag Linux Desktop 3.2 introduces the latest and stable KDE desktop environment. The interface, beautiful and decent, is similar to that of [the] Windows operating system, enabling convenient operation for a green hand."

While I'm not sure about the "green hand" bit -- it sounds like they're happy with their KDE desktops. Hopefully we'll see more of the public sector following suit and embracing regional Open Source / Free Software solution providers.

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Comments

Seems you are the one swallowing propaganda. US is the 3rd largest country in the world, this is fact.

Isn't the US slightly larger than China? /look it up/ Yes, 9,629,091 sq km versus 9,596,960 for China. Although China does have more dry land. Or they did; with the Three Rivers Dam up that may no longer be true.

Anyway, this reminds me of my favorite indignant Canadian story -- the National Geographic recently printed a letter from an Canadian complaining, "A recent article wrote that Russia is the largest country in the world. Admittedly, that's true but you should have added that the second-largest isn't the USA, it's Canada."

I suppose it depends on the information source and the technique used to measure the land ... however mostly it is said, I think, that China is larger than the USA (9 560 980 versus 9 372 614 square kilometres). Mind you, this is actually quoted from a US atlas (Earth Mapbook: Environment Atlas, Interarts/Geosystems, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), so I doubt it is a matter of politics ...

Yeah, I really bet that's a matter of politics... I mean, what's better for politics than saying that you're a huge country... honestly...

I was referring to population. In this context it's a more appropriate measurement.

i wonder how China (or any country, for that mater) ranks by number of desktop computers? or how about deskop computers per capita? hm.. might be interesting to google on that later tonight... =)

Not computer usage, but internet usage:

China is already #3.. will over take #2 (Japan) soon..

Computer posession is much less than in China because computers are shared (computer centers, ).. much fewer people own computers than use them :)

http://www.c-i-a.com/pr1202.htm

Shouldn't the title be "World's Most Populous Country Goes For KDE", then? I know it doesn't really matter, since the article following elaborates on the title, however in humble opinion, 'largest' is understood as the biggest, particularly when you only see the title (eg on the kde.org website).

Err ... I'm sorry, that is not good either, because China is rather large -- countries like the Netherlands and Monaco are populous, on the other hand. How about "World's Most Numerous Nation Goes For KDE"?

That's discriminating against all non-Han people in China. =P

Basically "largest" is fine. A country is not just a geographical region but also a collection of persons that are "citizens". In fact as has already become apparent in this thread there are many ways to measure the "size" of a country.

Let's take a similar example; say that I'm referring to a school class. Now if I were to say "this class is larger than that class" this meaning would vary in context. If they were confined to a certain room I could be referring to that. Alternatively I could compell everyone in said class to be weighed and sum these to determine the largest class. Or, finally I could take the contextually more simple approach and assume it to mean, "They've got more people in there." ;-)

by Chris Bordeman (not verified)

Brilliant, noone probably realized that before you said it. Thanks so much!

Actually, India has the highest population now

uh, nope. China's pop=India's pop+USA's pop (300 mill)

by The Forum Jumper ;-) (not verified)

You people are so sad...lol

you need help...lol ^__^

Canada is the largest in terms of land mass. Used to be Soviet Union.

Size of countries by area:

#1 Russia
#2 Canada
#3 USA
#4 China

Size of countries by Population:

#1 China
#2 USA

and I think
#3 Russia
#4 Canada

#1 Russia:
total: 17,075,200 sq km
water: 79,400 sq km
land: 16,995,800 sq km
Area - comparative:
approximately 1.8 times the size of the US

Population:
144,526,278 (July 2003 est.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#2 Canada:
total: 9,984,670 sq km
land: 9,093,507 sq km
water: 891,163 sq km
Area - comparative:
somewhat larger than the US

Population:
32,207,113 (July 2003 est.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#3 USA:
total: 9,629,091 sq km
land: 9,158,960 sq km
water: 470,131 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia
Area - comparative:
about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about
half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly
larger than China; about two and a half times the size of Western Europe

Population:
290,342,554 (July 2003 est.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#4 China
total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than the US

Population:
1,286,975,468 (July 2003 est.)

The info above is copied from:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rs.html

> Size of countries by Population:
>
> #1 China
> #2 USA
>
> and I think
> #3 Russia
> #4 Canada
>
#2 India 1,049,700,118 (July 2003 est.)

Canada is not #4

Us landmass is larger than China is when only ALASKA landmass is included. Otherwise China's mainland is broader than US'.

If you consider China's autonomious regions (like Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, etc..), the US, even without Alaska, is more.

NO, That is wrong. plus Taiwan China is larger than USA. The factbook's sudden change is reflecting changing US policy towards China from Cliton eara. The Aim is clear, just to say China only have 26 long range Nuclear weapon hahahaha, if you believe that than have a cuppa. The chilling fact is that China has possessed at least 2000-2500 Long range warheads.

the usa is the most powerful well respected well fed.....organized wealthy...must I go on??? or will you get all jealous again???????LMAO

Dont hate us because you may work for us someday!

Take Care...
ps go get your bird flu shot......or maybe a sars shot....since you guys seem to catch anything you create......

Much love from the USA

Wrong, China IS 3rd biggest in area, cos it's a good bit bigger than Brazil and Brazil is actually bigger than the USA if you exclude Alaska so China is does come 3rd very closely followed by the US

Wrong, China IS 3rd biggest in area, cos it's a good bit bigger than Brazil and Brazil is actually bigger than the USA if you exclude Alaska so China is does come 3rd very closely followed by the US

This should settle it once and for all

ALL INFO SOURCED FROM THE CIA WORLD FACTBOOK OF THE US GOVERNMENT
___________________________________________
LARGEST COUNTRIES BY LAND AREA ONLY (NO WATER!)

1) RUSSIAN FEDERATION
16,995,800 sq km

2) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
9,326,410 sq km

3) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
9,161,923 sq km

4) CANADA
land: 9,093,507 sq km
____________________________________________
Largest Countries by TOTAL AREA (WATER+LAND)

1) RUSSIAN FEDERATION

total: 17,075,200 sq km
land: 16,995,800 sq km
water: 79,400 sq km

2) CANADA

total: 9,984,670 sq km
land: 9,093,507 sq km
water: 891,163 sq km

3) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

total: 9,631,418 sq km
land: 9,161,923 sq km
water: 469,495 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia
(THIS INCLUDES ALASKA AND HAWAII)

4) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km
_________________________________________
LARGEST COUNTRIES BY POPULATION:

1)CHINA 1,298,847,624 (July 2004 est.)
2)INDIA 1,065,070,607 (July 2004 est.)
3)USA 293,027,571 (July 2004 est.)
4)INDONESIA 238,452,952 (July 2004 est.)

MISC:
RUSSIA 143,782,338 (July 2004 est.)
CANADA 32,507,874 (July 2004 est.)
_________________________________________

So you can see the idea that Canada is bigger than China and the US is based solely on the fact that it claims sovereignty over more WATER than land! The USA Is only bigger than China if you include Territorial Seas. (having more coastline means more territorial seas can be claimed)

Some people in this thread have a very fanciful idea of the population of some countries.

The facts (from mid-2003) are:
Countries with > 50million people
1. China - 1,294,629,555
2. India - 1,065,070,607
3. United States - 293,027,571
4. Indonesia - 238,452,952
5. Brazil - 184,101,109
6. Pakistan - 153,705,278
7. Russia - 144,112,353
8. Bangladesh - 141,340,476
9. Nigeria - 137,253,133
10. Japan - 127,333,002
11. Mexico - 104,959,594
12. Philippines - 86,241,697
13. Vietnam - 82,689,518
14. Germany - 82,424,609
15. Egypt - 76,117,421
16. Iran - 69,018,924
17. Turkey - 68,893,918
18. Ethiopia - 67,851,281
19. Thailand - 64,865,523
20. France - 60,424,213
21. United Kingdom - 60,270,708
22. Dem Rep of Congo - 58,317,930
23. Italy - 58,057,477

The debate lies within the Great Lakes. Do you calculate the USA's portion of the Great Lakes in the total square mileage - or do you leave it out since the lakes are shared with Canada?

If the USA owned the whole of the Great Lakes (the land all the way around them) - there would be no debate.

If you calculate that the land underneath the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes is as much a part of America as Arkansas - the U.S. is larger than China.

China(we say our country "Zhongguo", i.e. "Central Country", our Zhongguo had been once the largest country for about 2000 years, but not after Russia grew up and ate us part by part , damned Russia, I hate it

@Dung Heap:

In fact, you have to count either land mass or total area(incl. water). I prefer the land mass.
By land mass, the US is ranked 3rd.

Russia: 16.995.800 sq. km
China: 9.326.410 sq. km
US: 9.169.700 sq. km(All territories of the US)
Canada: 9.093.000 sq. km

I love Chinese, but they exhibit a level of self-deluding, pointless nationalism that I had never come across before, myself being a member of a liberal "see things from the other person's point of view" democracy. I've lived with a Chinese lady for more than ten years, and am heartily sick of listening to arguments like this, or (for example) that "it was okay for China to invade Tibet because it's part of China really and the Tibetan monks are all paedophiles". She reallt thinks this, and my girlfriend isn't even a mainlander! She grew up in Taiwan and venomously hates the Beijing Communist regime! I only found this thread during an argument about whether or not China was the largest country in the world. She insists that it is, but other countries changed the maps. As if having political control of more desert than other countries is a matter of national prestige! Chinese are great fun though; visit the country is you have the opportunity.

What a stupid question, why the hell are you arguing?

It's a fact that China has the largest population, but not the largest land mass, why discount parts of some countries so that the other country becomes bigger.. you don't just not add Alaska to the USA and say "China is bigger", Alaska is a fucking part of the USA, as much as Tasmania is a part of Australia.

so stfu and stop arguing on pointless questions in which the inferior argument is already determined by facts

and what Robin said, Chinese are just self-delusive.

So which one is it then???????

OK...I think I'll have to settle this argument once and for all.

The Largest Countries in terms of land mass (sq km)
1 Russia 17,075,400 (doesn't include ex Soviet satelite states)
2 Canada 9,976,140
3 United States 9,629,091
4 China 9,596,960
5 Brazil 8,511,965
6 Australia 7,686,850
7 India 3,287,590
8 Argentina 2,776,890
9 Kazakhstan 2,717,306
10 Sudan 2,505,810

The Largest Countries in terms of population
1 China 1,298,847,624
2 India 1,065,070,607
3 United States 293,027,571
4 Indonesia 238,452,952
5 Brazil 184,101,109
6 Pakistan 159,196,336
7 Russia 143,974,059
8 Bangladesh 141,340,476
9 Japan 127,333,002
10 Nigeria 125,750,356

India will overtake China in population at the current growth by 2025. China 1 child policy has to change because of its plan to be an economic giant so they might be still the biggest countries in terms of population. That remains to be seen.

China also controls Tibet (1,228,400 Km²). If you deduct that total, then China is the 5th largest country. Tibet is rightfully an independent country. It was invaded by China and the world did nothing, not even the mighty US of A. The way I see it, the US are bullies. They pick and choose who they fight with. Their biggest victory was in Grenada. They were whipped convincingly by Vietnam and now are getting screwed by Iraq. "In Bush They Trust".

"The way I see it, the US are bullies. They pick and choose who they fight with. Their biggest victory was in Grenada."

Oh yeah, were bullies all right. Were the goddamned world's policeman, that's what we really are.

When a fight is too tough or requires a long-term commitment, the Europeans (save Britain) run away from it. We are the only country in the world that has the intestinal fortitude to see it through these days. Everyone else has become too comfortable and spoiled to deal with it. You know what? It is much MORE DIFFICULT to fight a war that needs to be fought than to CRITICIZE IT!

While our soldiers are getting their hands dirty and are being shot at every day, the comfortable in Europe and our country can only criticize. I am glad I live in a country where it is possible to criticize those who are responsible for giving you freedom to do so!

Vietnam was an abberation on the American Military's history. THIS WAR COULD HAVE BEEN WON if we (the citizens) would not have listened to the goddamned biased media! The TET OFFENSIVE was a strategic loss for the Vietcong, the American media turned it into a propaganda victory for the enemy. TRAITORS!

Think about what you consume from the mass-media and look at the bigger issues. If you don't think the media has their own agenda, think again. The Media really believes they are the 4th branch of government in this country and has thought that for some time. The real problem is that they haven't been granted this power by our constitution, they have only been given the power to say what they want, they haven't been given the power to make people believe what they want, but they think that they do. They have gotten to the point of cockiness, though. They really believe you are stupid.

I don't think you are stupid. Hear me out.

By the way, our greatest victory was over the Kingdom of Great Britain in the Revolutionary war, without that victory we would not have a NATION, our 2nd greatest victory was over Imperial Japan, without that victory, we would all be speaking Japanese or German and eating Sushi or Kraut.

Thanks!

Actually, you would have eventually had your independence from Britain. Canada got it without fighting. Maybe all you had to do was to ask nicely. :)

I don't agree with the war in Iraq, but I do tend to agree with what Del says about the Europeans, i.e the other NATO members (excluding the UK). Canada got into this argument with them, specifically Germany when our guys were losing men in heavy fighting in Afghanistan and their troops were hanging out in the safe zones.

Regards.

ewll actually india is bigger then china if you are compairing populations thought u should know that

The United States is bigger than China because of the Great Lakes. There's a lot of land under that water - and the US owns half of it, (and all of Lake Michigan).

by anymous (not verified)

China will never follow the GPL! If you then try to go to court they will fart in your general direction! Free Software in a non free country? maybe it could have some influence, but I don't believe so. Have a look at
http://tinyurl.com/klq8

by Tom (not verified)

I did try to raise the issue of China being a notorious abuser of human rights, but my messages got deleted every time I posted about it. This is despite the dot's own policy of not moderating general messages (according to the front page).

I also joked that maybe it was time for KFirewallBuster and KHumanRights. Obviously they didnt' appreciate the joke ;-)

by Anonymous (not verified)

I guess it's just offtopic. Should we start a thread with the long AI list of human rights violations each time a US-related article appears (I only need to say 'guatanamo bay')? It's not fair to reduce China and especially the Chinese people to the bad actions of their government...

by Tom (not verified)

Well my original message was pointing out how bad the Chinese government actually is in many respects, to temper people's praise. I think it's important the we don't just start talking about the Chinese government as being incredibly cool, just because they use some FS, especially given their firewall. They obviously don't subscribe to the principles of Free Software - they just want workable solutions that don't tie them to foreign companies.

by anonymous (not verified)

Your original message was a meaningless flame.

by Chris Bordeman (not verified)

That's EXACTLY right, their only reason to do this is to reduce their dependence on foreigners so they have no leverage when China eventually acts on it's plans for world domination.

by kieltux (not verified)

At least you can download Red Flag distribution here:
http://www.redflag-linux.com/xiazai/eindex.php

by anonymous (not verified)

Is this why companies like Oracle are partnering with Redflag in China?

Seems the US is the greater threat to Free Software with companies like SCO around.

by Rasta (not verified)

Sad, but RedFlag is an active GNOME Fundation member.

Look at these pages:
http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/redflagjoins.html
http://www.redflag-linux.com/jujiao/enews_view.php?id=1000000011

So, "GNOME-Desktop goes China" (http://www.golem.de/0101/11920.html)

by Anonymous (not verified)

Lol, press releases from 2001 and their newest release 4.0 last month has (still) KDE as default desktop (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=Red+Flag).

by Ashton (not verified)

There isn't anything sad about it. Both KDE and Gnome are great projects, and support is a good thing.