Business | People’s code

Why China is giving away its tech for free

Its newfound fondness for open-source is awkward for an authoritarian state

This illustration is a pixel art depiction of a fortified structure resembling a castle made of computer components, such as circuit boards, RAM sticks, ports, and microchips. The castle is floating in space, emphasizing a digital or cybernetic theme. A re
Illustration: Nick Little

Underpinning the digital economy is a deep foundation of open-source software, freely available for anyone to use. The majority of the world’s websites are run using Apache and Nginx, two open-source programs. Most computer servers are powered by Linux, another such program, which is also the basis of Google’s Android operating system. Kubernetes, a program widely used to manage cloud-computing workloads, is likewise open-source. The software is maintained and improved upon by a global community of developers.

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