It has a sort of awful inevitability about it.
The Chinese government’s "Go Rural" program offers subsidies up to 13% for rural residents who purchase approved nettops or netbooks.
The systems come with a version of Red Flag Linux built on the Moblin stack.Along with internet access, the software provides applications for crop and livestock management, farm production marketing, remote office access/automation, and even online tour and hotel booking systems.
Slashdot reports that the problem is that for a lot of users, the programs they want are on Windows. And Microsoft, of course, makes sure that they know this. The fact that in most cases these programs are about entertainment and not improving the running of a farm has nothing to do with it. What the user wants is the razzmatazz that goes with the Microsoft product.
If the current pattern holds, about 30% of these subsidized systems could ultimately wind up re-installed with Windows.