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China’s Windows XP Pirate is Out of Jail – and Now Eyeing Android
by STEVEN MILLWARD on SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 in ASIA, WEB
http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/0 ... ws-xp-tomato-garden
The notorious Chinese software pirate behind the ‘Tomato Garden’ cracked editions of Windows XP is now out of jail, having served a two year term in the slammer. His arrest in 2009 brought to an end China’s biggest software piracy ring. It is estimated that his Windows XP Tomato Garden Edition was downloaded over 10 million times, and that Mr Hong profited from ad revenue on the download website.
Now a free man, Hong Lei (pictured right) says he is abandoning his pirating ways, and also washing his hands of PCs – saying that smartphones are the way of the future.
Having started a Tencent Weibo account – you can follow him here – he admitted over the weekend that he has lost touch with Windows OS and coding in general:
These past three years I have forgotten many things, and not learnt anything new […] Now things are developing so fast – there’s Windows 8 now, but just three years ago I was on XP. I need to learn and recharge!
Promising to go legit, he’s eyeing smartphones – especially Android:
What to do in the future? I still don’t have a clear idea, but I’m thinking of opening a web forum first to see the situation. Smartphones are hot now.
I’ve just encountered Android these past few days. I think I could pick up on Android development pretty quickly.
'Tomato Garden' pirated editions of Windows XP are still all over the web and available for download. (Image source: a dodgy site that we can't name)
Hong Lei’s enthusiasm for Google’s mobile OS has already been seen in many other Chinese web portals and start-ups: from the small team behind the beautiful MIUI version of Android, to Baidu’s adaptation for its upcoming Baidu Yi OS.
Back in August of 2009, Hong Lei was sentenced to three and a half years in jail in his native city of Suzhou, on the outskirts of Shanghai. He was also fined 1 million RMB, which at the time was nearly US$150,000. It’s not clear why he’s being released from his prison term 18 months early.
When Windows XP launched its simplified Chinese characters version back in November of 2001, an upgrade copy cost 1,500 RMB – which was about a month’s wages for many office workers at the time. Nearly a decade later, Microsoft has learnt some sort of lesson from all this, and localized prices of Windows and Office software box-sets in many emerging markets.
However, the Tomato Garden rip of XP is still widely available all over the Chinese web, and is downloadable in just a few clicks.
番茄花园修改版Windows XP的作者洪磊出狱:转型,瞄准安卓系统
于2011-09-26 18:01:18翻译
tethys2011@译言http://article.yeeyan.org/view/249210/220600
番茄花园修改版Windows XP的作者洪磊已提前出狱。他表示转型是必须的,不会再走盗版的老路。可能打算涉足智能手机,尤其是安卓系统。
众人皆知的“番茄花园”盗版案中因涉嫌改动Windows XP操作系统的洪磊在服刑两年后出狱。2009年“番茄花园”盗版案一审宣判,洪磊被捕入狱,中国最大的软件盗版链至此终结。据估计他的Windows XP番茄花园版的下载量超过1000万次,洪磊从捆绑广告插件中牟利。
重获自由后,洪磊(下图)说他已经放弃了盗版老路,并且不再涉足电脑行业---打算往智能手机方向发展。
洪磊开通了腾讯微博,上周末他承认自己已经跟不上Windows操作系统以及编码了:
“这3年时间由于缺少学习,很多东西都忘记了,原来的东西可能不适应了。现在发展太快,都要Win8了,3年前还是WinXP。我需要学习和充电!”
洪磊承诺不再做违法的事情,他目前正在关注智能手机---尤其是安卓系统:
“对于以后做什么,我暂时还没有好的想法,但是我觉得先开个论坛再看看情况,目前智能手机很火,也许打算多往智能手机发展!”
“安卓的系统我也是刚接触几天,我认为我可以尽快先了解安卓系统的发展。”
洪磊对于Google移动操作系统的热衷已经在中国许多门户网站上有所显现:从安卓系统的MIUI版本背后的小团队,到百度即将推出的“百度.易”操作系统。
在2009年8月,洪磊在苏州本地被判刑三年半,并罚款100万人民币,相当于150,000美元。他服刑18个月后被提前释放,其原因不明。
2001年11月,Windows XP发布了简体中文版操作系统,其升级费用为1500元人民币---这差不多是当年许多在办公室工作的人一个月的薪水。大约十年之后,微软从中学到了一些经验教训,在许多新兴市场上把Windows和Office软件模板的价格制定的更本土化。
不过番茄花园版的XP系统依然广泛的存在于中国网络上,几次点击就能下载到。 |
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