Microsoft makes China state procurement list with Windows

A recent list of software supply agreements published by the central government of China shows Microsoft as the only overseas operating system to make the cut despite the US IT giant having had a bumpy road in its official dealings with China this year.

The list by the Procurement Centre of the Central Government Institution of the People's Republic of China features the upgrade and full licence of Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise Editions, with pricing published.

Depending on the license, the cost of Windows 7 is given as 950 to 1,755 yuan (A$166 to A$305) per copy, although there is no indication of purchase quantities.

No mention is made of Microsoft's newer Windows 8 and 8.1 operating systems.

Locally developed low-cost or free Linux distributions dominate the personal operating systems segment for the government procurement agency.

These include the mobile Aliyun OS made by Alibaba Group that runs apps developed for Google's Android, along with Ubuntu Kylin, NeoKylin, Deepin, SPGnux, LX and the National Fundamental Software Company of China's Linux distribution.

In May this year, the Chinese government announced a support programme for local Linux developers, to break the stranglehold of overseas software vendors in the country. 

On the server side, the procurement agency lists different editions of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 with Software Assurance in another Linux dominated list, with local distributions as well as Oracle and Red Hat Enterprise variants.

IBM, Oracle, MySQL, SAP HANA are found in the database systems listings along with five editions of Microsoft SQL Server.

Microsoft is currently under scrutiny by the Chinese authorities, which this week said an anti-monopoly probe into the Windows operating system had begun. As part of the investigation, Chinese government agents raided Microsoft offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.