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Japanese Government to Move to OSS

Posted by Zonk on Mon May 14, 2007 04:31 AM
from the a-little-less-time-on-hold dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Linuxworld has up an article on the Japanese government's plan to reduce its reliance on a single IT vendor by moving to open source software. 'Oracle, NEC, IBM, HP, Hitachi and Dell are among 10 IT equipment and software vendors that are forming a consortium to develop and sell Linux-based servers and computers for the Japanese market. The move by the vendors to collaborate on Linux in Japan comes from a edict from the country's government to make Linux and open source a priority for all IT procurements, starting this July.' The government has said explicitly it wants to decrease its reliance on Microsoft as a server operating system platform."
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  • I for one (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mipoti Gusundar (1028156) on Monday May 14 2007, @04:35AM (#19110929) Journal
    I for one am welcomming our new rinux lunning overlords. Banzai!!!
  • by kamochan (883582) on Monday May 14 2007, @04:37AM (#19110939)
    No wonder Microsoft is scared and trying to pull FOSS patent issues out of their sleeve. They really do need to hang on to their existing customers with their bare teeth... competing with products seems to be something they are unable to do these days (well, ever, really).
    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2007, @04:45AM (#19110979)
      They won't like Japan moving away from their products. If Japan does it, then South Korea may follow, and then who knows what the future will hold in the Asian market? Microsoft has had an overwhelming market share in these countries for very long, and even though Japanese designers do use Macintosh computers, there's simply no way to get by without access to a Windows PC, due to the governmental reliance and the huge amount of Internet applications that require IE6. It will take quite some time for businesses to follow, but imagine if they lost a fair chunk of their share in those markets: it would mean a big loss, both in business potential and in PR, since it's certainly not doing your company any good when an entire country is moving away from it (especially when it's a big and important one in the field of technology like Japan).
      • by WindBourne (631190) on Monday May 14 2007, @08:19AM (#19112217) Journal
        For the last 6 years, the federal gov has pushed Windows throughout and this was dictated from above. They have worked hard at keeping software companies on Windows. If EU, China, Russia, Japan, And South Korea port to Linux, then they will establish a market, while the Americans will miss it. Sadly, you would think that America would have learned their lessons from what happened in the move from DOS to Windows. Many companies OWNED the dos world, but would not port to windows. When they did, it was too late. They had already lost the market.
      • Well, hey, at least they sold those 200 Vista licenses in China, right?
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          Unfortunately, Microsoft cant win vs a government. They make the laws/rules that Microsoft has to play by. If enough countries make laws that cause it difficult for Microsoft to stay in business then you know what will happen...

          Bill Gates will get Bush to start dropping bombs. Just kidding, they might try to get the US to make sanctions and crap against them in the UN but ultimately thats only as reliable as the countries that are willing to enforce it.

          Quite frankly I'd like to see a few countries go the wa
    • They really do need to hang on to their existing customers with their bare teeth...

      The concepts of not putting all you eggs in one basket, and one size does not fit all apply here. I'm fairly confident that there is enough interest and use for technology that economies can't support more than one operating system. An each of those operating systems will do some thing well and some things poorly.

      Windows, GNU/Linux, & Apple systems each serve a different set of needs, and therefore each will continu

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      If Microsoft does try this patent stunt, I hope Japan simply claims eminent domain and puts a quick end to it.
    • I sort of have to disagree with that.
      Windows 2000 was, is, and will be (until the process of making it obsolete via lack of patches to make it compliant with new hardware is complete) very competitive with anything else, especially when you factor in ease of use and administration.
      I switched from the HP-UX / Solaris world to the Microsoft world professionally in '97 when I discovered that A) I could make more money that way, and B) that I actually liked being able to work with a product I was playing games on at home.
      When Win2k came along, it was like validation; I didn't at the time, and still don't, like what they did with the DNS server & Active Directory, but it DID work, and worked well.
      Towards the middle of NT 4's life, and until about 6 months after the release of win2k, things were sweet in microsoft land; things worked, if you blocked all the ports except the ones you actually used you were pretty safe, and the OS did everything; search engine, internet chat server, web server, early versions of VOIP, the list goes on & on. and if you shelled out the money for a good copy of office 2000, you got a free copy of SQL server and a whole crapload of web-enabled toys to play with from the OSE.
      Almost immediately thereafter, however, Microsoft obviously began to come to the conclusion that they had succeeded too well; there was no real reason to upgrade from win2k/office2k. ever.
      So they started killing it. They started killing function via patch. the fully developed 64-bit patch was put on the shelf until after the release of WinXP, except for in a highly expensive version of (not absolutely sure about this) Windows 2000 database server LE. Some people think that the code "leak" of 2004 was intentional, in order to push people either to XP or windows 2003. No effort was made to make intel hyperthreading CPU's work properly (they do work, but count each tread as a separate CPU, which they aren't, causing slowdowns). and .NET.
      In recent years, companies have started releasing games that fail to install on win2k; in all examples to date, the games can be forced to install on win2k, and work easily as well as they do on the target platform.
      I retired from full time work for a couple of years now, but when I do consults, it's either Debian, Solaris or Win2k. Screw the .net crap and it's descendants.
      (Feel free to disagree, this is mainly my spur of the moment opinion and not highly researched)
    • competing with products seems to be something they are unable to do these days

      I think I'd word that a bit differently. Microsoft can compete and win against any product. The problem form M$ is that Linux isn't a product. How can a large monopoly undermine something that is given away for free? Well... they try.. SCO, investing in Novel. But Linux is a multi-headed beast that any smart kid can ship for free once M$ buys out a vendor. M$ could probably kill Linux in the US with it's influence in congr

  • by arivanov (12034) on Monday May 14 2007, @04:37AM (#19110945) Homepage
    Curiouser and Curiouser

    That explains the timing of Microsoft Saber rattling. One thing they forget is that it is 50+ times harder to get a patent in Japan compared to a patent in the US and many of those patents do not hold there. Unless they have decided to stop contesting the ATT verdict and turn it to their gross advantage. Hm... If a quick settlement of the ATT case follows it will definitely get curiouser and curiouser...

    The other curious point is that some of the usual OSS Japanese suspects are strangely missing. Sony and NTT have many years of history of BSD investment. Both of them do not appear on the list and there are quite a few "foreign devils". Curiouser and curiouser...

    • That explains the timing of Microsoft Saber rattling

      Bah... A real /. reader would know that Microsoft has long since moved beyond mere saber rattling. A Microsoft Ninja will pick up a chair and handle it, weighing it, carefully checking it's balance with an expert eye that makes it obvious that he will throw it at you the instant you fall out of line. Be especially careful of Microsoft Ninjas who have risen above MCSD rank, they always score clean headshots.

  • Listen (Score:5, Funny)

    by Yoda Jedi Master (1101773) on Monday May 14 2007, @04:41AM (#19110971)
    The beginning of the end, this is.
    But the Empire will wake up, and strike back. Unclear the future is.
  • Magic words (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2007, @05:01AM (#19111061)
    The government has said explicitly it wants to decrease its reliance on Microsoft as a server operating system platform.
     
    These are the exact magic words one needs to say to get a HUGE discounts from Microsoft.
    • If that is the best response MS would have, well, they would be trully in a no win situation.

      In 3 or 4 years down the line comes negotiation time again and the Japanese Government (or any other entity that obtained a big disscount) threatens to go to Linux again.

      There is a point where MS can't keep disscounting. THat is a short term fix for their broken bussiness model, they have to fix their corporate culture in a way similar to what IBM had to do in the 90s.

      Or perish, as unimaginable as that may sound now
  • by KNicolson (147698) on Monday May 14 2007, @05:25AM (#19111207) Homepage
    A survey conducted just one month ago showed that barely one percent of public sector employees used Linux [whatjapanthinks.com], despite the Japan Information-technology Promotion Agency [ipa.go.jp] spending untold millions on feasibility studies over the last two or more years.
      • This decision may become even a new theme for the comic books (manga) that they read on their way to work, so the people will learn quickly about the new status quo.

        Great. It'll be the OS-tan version of (Infinite) Crisis on (Infinite Worlds|the Civil War|Marvel).

        I can aleady see it - The four well-known MacOS-tans (OS 9, Panther, Tiger, Leopard) team up with the eleven well-known Linux-tans (Fedora, RHEL, SUSE, Slackware, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Arch, Debian, Mandriva, Linspire) and engage in bloody wa
  • by ushering05401 (1086795) on Monday May 14 2007, @05:37AM (#19111271)
    Kudos to the Japanese. I find myself asking if America could stage a conversion of this sort at this time? Hmmm... probably not.

    How about another sort of conversion... say trying to implement an affordable healthcare system? Hell, I would love to be able to afford health insurace.

    How about a more thouroughly reviewed/reviewable patent system, not just for software, but across the board?

    Most other 'first world' nations have these things. Their implementations differ. Some work better than others.

    All of these issues are related.

    If you can cite a reason that America lacks these things other than special interest profit motive I would love to hear it. Maybe you could also apply that reason to my governments consistent resistance to acknowledging human influenced environmental change (many highly placed officials deny it exists!)

    Congratulations to the Japanese for joining the ranks of countries taking measures to fortify and secure their information systems through diversification. Not to be unpatriotic or anything, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that this move and others like it will do serious harm to certain American companies, and force some true competition for government contracts here in the states.

    Regards.
            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              I guess that depends on your definition of Christian. Polls show that the population overwhelmingly identifies itself as Christian. The government overwhelming wants to be Christian, from the laws proposed and passed to the creed claimed by the individual politicians.

              Unfortunately, Christianity has been plagued for almost 2,000 years by many of the same problems that Jesus had with Judaism. The downward spiral started once the personal creed of the man known as Jesus was developed in dozens of competing

  • V E N D O R S (Score:4, Informative)

    by djupedal (584558) on Monday May 14 2007, @05:41AM (#19111283)
    Pay close attention before you go running off to the front office. The vendors are doing this - not the buyers/clients/users. In Japan, the vendors tell the buyers what and when they will buy. Say it with me: v e n d o r s
    • C ON S U M E R S (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Per Abrahamsen (1397) on Monday May 14 2007, @06:07AM (#19111409) Homepage
      Spell it.

      From the article:

      The move by the vendors to collaborate on Linux in Japan comes from a edict from the country's government to make Linux and open source a priority for all IT procurements, starting this July.


      The government is a (very large) consumer, this (very large) consumer says that is will spend ten billions on mostly Linux based infrastructure. Not surprisingly, the vendors try to bid into this very large order.

  • by jkrise (535370) on Monday May 14 2007, @06:34AM (#19111523) Journal
    'Oracle, NEC, IBM, HP, Hitachi and Dell are among 10 IT equipment and software vendors that are forming a consortium to develop and sell Linux-based servers and computers for the Japanese market.

    With the possible exception of IBM... all the other vendors above are the worst offenders when it comes to NOT promoting choice, adherence to standards, avoiding vendor-lockins etc. which is what the Open Source philosophy is all about. These vendors have Linux offerings and Open Source partnerships more as a PR exercise, than to promote the Open Source philosophy. Even IBM still maintains separate Linux and AIX offerings... and still maintains ambivalence over it's future... whether it will have 2 separate OSes or just AIX or Linux.

    Does not bode well for Open Source in Japan, I guess. RedHat might've made a big impact, but it's not listed.
  • Just Plain Wrong (Score:5, Informative)

    by oddmake (715380) on Monday May 14 2007, @06:35AM (#19111531) Journal
    Come to see What Oracle Japan said about this news [oracle.co.jp](ja_JP)
    They say "Though we are strong supporters of Linux,No such alliance are planned.Recent nikkei article [nikkei.co.jp] is wrong"
  • ubuntu (Score:5, Funny)

    by lovebyte (81275) * <lovebyte2000&gmail,com> on Monday May 14 2007, @07:31AM (#19111855) Homepage
    The japanese governement is, for now, waiting for the release of Ubuntu Tantalizing Tentacles.