CrowdStrike fiasco highlights growing Sino-Russian tech independence
- Reference: 1721826188
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/24/foss_gets_geopolitical/
- Source link:
CrowdStrike's bad update took down Windows-based computer systems [1]around the world and had [2]wide-ranging impacts outside of IT . Microsoft software permeates so much of the connected, computer-driven world that it's easy to believe it's universal.
What's received less attention is that, due to geopolitical maneuvering, two of the world's largest countries were largely spared. As the BBC put it, [3]China swerved the worst of the global tech meltdown . The South China Morning Post's coverage said [4]Chinese cybersecurity firms are taking a victory lap .
[5]
Until last year, The Reg FOSS desk was based where Eastern and Western Europe meet. We took a close personal interest in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and we've reported on how Linux adoption is spreading in Russia due to Western sanctions. One Russian Debian-derivative vendor was already [6]planning to IPO by 2022 , and other distros we never see in the West, such as [7]ROSA Linux and [8]the Calculate Linux family , are thriving.
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As a result, there are reports that Russia was [11]relatively unaffected and [12]emerged unscathed .
[13]China started getting rid of Windows years ago . Its government is instructing companies to replace non-Chinese OSes with domestic Linux distributions, such as [14]Kylin and openKylin, based on Ubuntu . Kylin is doing well, reporting [15]more than 800,000 users a year ago , while Debian-based sibling [16]Deepin claims more than 3 million paying users .
[17]
As Windows users often tell us in the comments to our Linux distribution reviews, the Linux world is confusing and strange, and often the products are simply not quite as good as commercial alternatives. What the car industry calls [18]fit and finish often are inferior ... and if that's what you're used to, the free software experience can be markedly inferior.
Even though, as we argue, [19]you cannot in fact buy software at all. Despite this, [20]new software keeps new hardware selling . It's constantly getting bigger and more complicated and slower, but not really objectively much better. Proprietary desktop and server OSes [21]haven't vastly improved in 30 years .
There is a bigger picture here. FOSS frequently isn't as polished as proprietary software. The thing is, that sometimes doesn't matter. So long as an alternative does the essential parts of the job at all, that may be enough. If it's free – or at least, much cheaper – that is enough to clinch the deal.
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An example in the West is ChromeOS and Google Docs. Yes, it's true, although there is a [23]choice of rich local clients and backend servers to replace Microsoft Office and the combination of Outlook and Exchange Server – and frankly far too many desktops to launch them from – none are perfect replacements. That opened up the opportunity for Google to bypass the entire rivalry. If no alternative office suite is a perfect replacement, some companies have worked out that Google Apps in a browser is good enough to get by, and it comes effectively for free with Gmail (alongside Google Calendar and Google Contacts). If it lets your staff communicate and share what they need to get their work done, that is enough to suffice.
It may need an additional motivation, such as a ransomware attack. Long before CrowdStrike, the [24]Conti ransomware took Nordic Choice Hotels' Windows machines out, so they used CloudReady to [25]switch to ChromeOS Flex . If everything is web-based already, an OS that only offers a browser and nothing else will get the job done.
Don't underestimate the power of 'good enough'
ChromeOS is of course no use in China, behind the Google-blocking Great Firewall, but that's not a problem. As well as a choice of domestic Linux distributions, both for servers and clients, China is busily working on its own processors as well. The Register was already [26]reporting on Godson processors in 2011. More recently, although still not super fast, China's [27]Loongson processors are getting there . [28]GCC supports them . They are in shipping hardware in a [29]variety of form factors , including [30]from Lenovo . If you hadn't guessed already, [31]China is selling them to Russia .
Trade restrictions and sanctions, including [32]blocking Russian contributions , are actively fostering local developments. Even Western companies buying up Russian software doesn't block this, it just [33]results in domestic forks . Once the code is out there, taking it and forking it and developing it for local use is perfectly in line with the principles of free and open source software.
China is watching developments in Ukraine closely, as is occasionally even [34]visible in tech circles . Similarly, the West is nervously [35]monitoring Chinese tensions with Taiwan . TSMC's chip fabs are so hugely complex that it's highly unlikely a hostile invader could take over and keep them running, but just in case, there are [36]remote kill switches in place . If China were to invade its smaller neighbour as Russia did, the effects on world chip supplies [37]would be absolutely devastating . The US [38]reportedly buys 92 per cent of its leading-edge chips from Taiwan.
Someone somewhere made a serious mistake that caused the CrowdStrike outage. The update was inadequately tested, and poorly deployed, without staging. (As Reg readers know, staging or phasing updates means not pushing them out to everyone at once. Canonical does this with its LTS releases, as we [39]noted for 22.04.1 and more recently [40]for 24.04 .) But this botched update, arguably, hasn't hurt CrowdStrike that badly. [41]Its share price is down but remains nearly twice what [42]it was a year ago .
The real error here is so much of the IT industry blindly trusting large corporate vendors not to mess up. The webcomic XKCD has been [43]eloquently skewering this for years. (This comic is from August 2018, presumably rather before [44]Boeing putting the beancounters in charge, but XKCD has been [45]doing so for years .) The big vendors are [46]drowning in code like everyone else, but the difference is letting the marketing department guide decision-making.
Every business and organization is free not to take the mainstream route, but most simply follow the herd. That's what is leading to [47]the commoditization of software .
The government of China has been doing something different, and as a result it need not care about the rest of the world's computer industry. It has its own OSes, running on its own silicon. It and its big Eurasian ally might be inconvenienced – but not crippled – by the collapse of the worldwide chip industry… just as it was, apparently, not massively affected in any significant way by CrowdStrike causing many of the world's Windows computer systems to collapse.
If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine – allegedly in order to save it, of course – then China might prove willing to destroy Taiwan in much the same way. As a side effect, it could do a more effective job of destroying the world computer industry than even CrowdStrike managed. The world might suddenly be grateful for resource-frugal FOSS if it does. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/19/crowdstrike_shares_sink_as_global/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/19/life_interrupted_how_crowdstrikes_patch/
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3g01y047pdo
[4] https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3271248/crowdstrike-microsoft-outage-chinese-cybersecurity-firms-take-victory-lap
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZqElHPBXIH@i2SPmsaaucwAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/09/russian_debianderivative_vendor_plans_ipo/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/15/comparing_the_descendants_of_mandrake/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/04/calculate_linux/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZqElHPBXIH@i2SPmsaaucwAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZqElHPBXIH@i2SPmsaaucwAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-unaffected-global-it-outage-thanks-western-sanctions-2024-7
[12] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sanctioned-russia-emerges-unscathed-global-143952292.html?guccounter=1
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/09/china_orders_ban_on_us_computers_and_software/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/30/kylin_the_multiple_semiofficial_chinese/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/07/openkylin_is_ubuntu/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/20/3_million_deepin_users/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZqElHPBXIH@i2SPmsaaucwAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fit_and_finish
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/04/you_cannot_buy_software/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/software_versus_hardware/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/19/windows_nt_30_years_on/
[22] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZqElHPBXIH@i2SPmsaaucwAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/21/onlyoffice_7_3_and_wps_11/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/02/conti-source-code-leaked/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/google_chrome_os/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2011/02/25/ict_godson_3b_chip/
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/02/china_loongson_mips/
[28] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/loongarch_gcc_12_1/
[29] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/13/loongson_cpu_mini_pc/
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/27/lenovo_loongson/
[31] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/17/norsi_trans_loongson_sanctioned_servers/
[32] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/21/russian_foss_contributions_blocked/
[33] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/freenginx_fork/
[34] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/russia_china_usa_ukraine_cyberdefense/
[35] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/as_chinataiwan_tensions_mount_hows/
[36] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/21/asml_kill_switch/
[37] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/09/hypothetical_tsmc_takeover_by_china/
[38] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/04/tsmc_discussed_moving_chip_fabs/
[39] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/12/ubuntu_22041/
[40] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/24/ubuntu_2404_upgrades_available/
[41] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/19/crowdstrike_shares_sink_as_global/
[42] https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/chart/CRWD
[43] https://xkcd.com/2030/
[44] https://www.theregister.com/Tag/Boeing/
[45] https://xkcd.com/1118/
[46] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/12/drowning_in_code/
[47] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/02/foss_ai_blockchain/
[48] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine :o
You were doing so well up to this. Russia doesn't want to destroy Ukraine. Russia doesn't want NATO advancing up to its own borders. Blackrock and the rest are happy to make a buck out of the conflict.
Re: If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine :o
You were doing so well up to this. Russia doesn't want to destroy Ukraine.
It's also where Russia & BlackRock have something in common. Destruction is temporary, and there's a lot of money to be made in reconstruction contracts. Currently Russia is doling out that pork, not Western companies. There are oddities, like the £50bn+ the UK's spending on HS2 vs a new rail line Russia's built to Crimea. Ok, that's not 'high speed' and Russia used a particularly agressive form of compulsory purchase to acquire the land. But it's boosting Russia (and partners) economy at the expense of Ukraine and the West.
It's much the same with sanctions, and the longer those go on, the more likely it'll be that Russia, China etc develop alternatives to Western products. Do BRICS members want to rely on MS+ClownsTrike, or would they prefer a lightweight OS & apps instead? Maybe with source code available if you want to check it for back-doors?
Keep up at the back
> the £50bn+ the UK's spending on HS2
Aint you 'eard? Rishi Sunak cancelled HS2 in favour of filling potholes, before Keir Starmer cancelled Rishi. People have to walk from Birmingham to Manchester now.
> check it for back-doors?
Winston: "Oh, Julia, let's get the new MINITRUTH E2EE app for the Telescreen! Then no-one will see our love notes!"
Julia: "Well Winston, I suggest we read through the source together first, to check Big Brother hasn't left in any back doors!"
[Off left: heavy knocking noise]
Re: If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine :o
"Russia doesn't want to destroy Ukraine. Russia doesn't want NATO advancing up to its own borders."
Given that invading Ukraine prompted other neighbouring countries to apply for NATO membership that didn't work out well. You may well be correct in saying Russia doesn't want to detry Ukraine - it's just that its kleptocrats, having stolen as much as they can inside their own country want to steal another one and don't mind destorying it in the process.
@Doctor Syntax - Re: If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine :o
Since when Albania and Croatia are neighbouring Russia ?
New countries are being co-opted into NATO in order for the USA to profit. In case you didn't notice, at this very moment from all countries involved in the conflict, Russia and USA are the only countries where economic growth is strong. EU's economy is for all purpose destroyed because they have to come up with the money to fuel the war and endure the effect of economic sanctions imposed by the Americans against Russia. To put this briefly, EU is providing the money, US is providing the weapons and Ukraine is providing the corpses. Feel free to believe otherwise.
Re: Russia doesn't want NATO advancing up to its own borders
Ukraine was definitely spinning out of Russian orbit and latterly had ambitions to join both the EU and NATO, both of whom were fairly lukewarm in their response. Russia already had borders with NATO countries - and it has now doubled their length with the accession, principally, of Finland - as well as losing most of its European market for its most lucrative commodities. Even if that's what Russia wanted, its planning seems to have gone a little awry.
Re: Russia doesn't want NATO advancing up to its own borders
>Even if that's what Russia wanted, its planning seems to have gone a little awry.
They chose ..... poorly
Re: If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine :o
If Russia gets away with destroying Ukraine – allegedly in order to save it, of course – then China might prove willing to destroy Taiwan in much the same way.
Oh dear, Liam, was that necessary .... and I agree with the AC comment above ....... "You were doing so well up to this.”
And how disappointing there’s no inclusion and similar comment on the Western complicity and criminal support for the genocidal shenanigans of wannabe high tech Israelis in Gaza against third world infrastructure Palestinian citizens ...... as they exercise the Great Cleansing and quite despicable Shoah Root Reboot.
What a quite mad and getting madder and badder world such useless idiots are building to catastrophically fail. I suppose shit for brains is responsible for that. It is the only logical excuse one cannot disagree with.
battlefield
Great stuff. It brought to mind a photo of some Ukrainian military personnel working at a wall of screens with windows desktops that accompanied an article in a New York newspaper near the start of the war. I had been wondering whether or not they would be using Linux. Seeing the desktops, I then wondered about the windows licenses.
Might be a naive question, but as China's Kylin and OpenKylin are based on Ubuntu (which I believe is based on Debian), then aren't the Chinese forks in some way affected by any changes Canonical make? So they are not 'that' independant?
> FOSS frequently isn't as polished as proprietary software.
Very true. Its achingly close, but devs get side tracked by adding obscure functionality, or drunk on hubris and take a UI wrong term like Gnome.
That said commercial software has got worse so its closer than ever now.
Of course, the context menu in Windows 11 that pops up when you right-click on the desktop and has it's own context menu, which looks completely different, is the epitome of polished proprietary software.
Actual problem
The real error here is so much of the IT industry blindly trusting large corporate vendors not to mess up
There's no indication that neither China is not exposed to a similar risk from its homegrown offerings. Indeed, I suspect the monoculture risk there is even greater.