Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Software Linux

Japanese Government to Move to OSS 128

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."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Japanese Government to Move to OSS

Comments Filter:
  • 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 snwod ( 721177 )
      If you're going to do the "funny, funny Engrish" joke, you should at least be consistent.
  • 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).
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by rolfc ( 842110 )
        If they don't want their costumers to move away, they should help their costumers to integrate their products with others instead of expecting them to move to an all-Microsoft environment. They should not let their costumers wait months for patches that are market critical by Microsoft. Who want to do business with people lika that?
        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by ATMD ( 986401 )
          No, if they want to keep hold of their costumers they should lower the price of threads and fabric. As for patches (critical or otherwise)... those are so last season!
      • Oh this reminds me of one time in history.
        the USA was so scared of communism the were convinced that the domino effect would take place and therefore joined in several very successful campaigns in Korea and Vietnam.
        now microsoft is doing it on a legal scale with patents as bullets.
        • by init100 ( 915886 )

          USA ... therefore joined in several very successful campaigns in Korea and Vietnam.

          Successful campaigns? It's common knowledge that the US lost the Vietnam war. They (you?) pulled out with their tail between their legs.

          • whoosh..... that was the sound of sarcasm flying over your head.

            The GP was simply being sarcastically humourous.
            • by init100 ( 915886 )

              Sarcasm isn't always obvious in writing, as you have no voice cues or other indications, unless you also include the proper smiley.

          • you might have missed the cynical touch the very sucessful was sarcastic. - i know i should have made it more obvious... Now try reading it again - i am UK based btw
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        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.

        Confuse client and server, you should not. Deceptively similar they may seem, but different forces their adoption guides.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Microsoft need to respond to the market and the market is screaming "no vendor lock-in". Instead Ballmer threatens to sue governments for unspecified "IP" violations and then does a stupid patent deal with a linux vendor.

        I don't think we give Microsoft (esp. Ballmer) the credit they deserve. However unintentional it may be, they're the greatest salesmen F/OSS ever had.

        If monkey boy keeps this up the open source community should do the right thing; donate chairs.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Tuoqui ( 1091447 )
          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
          • by init100 ( 915886 )

            Bill Gates will get Bush to start dropping bombs.

            Who knows? It does not seem entirely impossible.

            they might try to get the US to make sanctions and crap against them in the UN

            Any of the permanent members in the UN security council could veto such sanctions.

            • by jc42 ( 318812 )
              > Bill Gates will get Bush to start dropping bombs.

              Who knows? It does not seem entirely impossible.


              To see some good precedents, look up the history of the phrase "banana republic". The US government has a long, sordid history of using military power to enforce business monopolies of American companies. The US government's complicity in building the dominance of IBM and Microsoft isn't a new story at all.

              Of course, they're not the only government to do such things. Here in the Boston area, people are g
      • 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.
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by MalHavoc ( 590724 )
        Well, hey, at least they sold those 200 Vista licenses in China, right?
      • Dude they've already lost the asian market. ~250 copies sold in china. Jeez.
      • 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 busines
    • RE:["No wonder Microsoft is scared and trying to pull FOSS patent issues out of their sleeve"]

      you can just call that SCO-2.0
    • 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)

      by iminplaya ( 723125 )
      If Microsoft does try this patent stunt, I hope Japan simply claims eminent domain and puts a quick end to it.
      • Note that this is a lot more feasible for patents than copyrights. Copyrights are protected internationally by the Berne Convention and other treaties, so that something copyrighted in one country has the same protection in another as if it were copyrighted there. Patents, however, are national in scope (with some special rules for the EU). A patent in the US is not valid in Japan.

        The USA has a slightly strange patent system which allows disclosure before patenting. Most other countries require the p

        • by init100 ( 915886 )

          Similarly, there is nothing stopping Japan declaring software patents as a whole invalid (I don't know their current legal status in Japan)

          They are almost certainly valid, as Japan is frequently listed (alongside the US) as one of the countries that allow software to be patented.

    • 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)
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      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 donaldm ( 919619 )
      From the article it is the Government that wants to go Open Source not Business or the Home user. Since the Government is an elected body there is more scrutiny on their spending so it is a very good political move to make this proposal.

      Many time we hear of "This year will be the year of Linux" but at the end of the year nothing has happened. The only way Linux will become acceptable by the general populous is when the countries' Government makes the switch. After this Businesses start to follow because the
      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by kamochan ( 883582 )

        I think the main tipping point for public Linux adoption will occur when...

        The little devil (who has flame retardant underwear) in me urges me to point out that actually, Open Source != Linux. Linux just tends to be the most well-known "easy" OSS keyword to mention. Even considering that the Japanese are talking about server platforms (i.e. OSS like OpenOffice or Gnome are not obvious candidates).

        I still prefer the BSDs as small-to-medium-scale server-side platforms, for their much more controlled lif

      • Linux pickup this year *has* accelerated, primarily with Feisty's release.

        Just a note. Whether or not this is the year of the Linux Desktop is questionable, but last month was the Month of Feisty.
      • I would say that the year of Linux has already happened. In March my wife was hosting a play date here for our 3 year old, and when I went out to get coffee from the living room, I walked into a room filled with stay at home moms discussing which ones were running Windows, which ones were running Linux, and which of the two was the best choice for their small children.

        The answers that they came up with are totally irrelevant. The very fact that groups of stay at home moms are sitting around even talkin
    • by SL Baur ( 19540 )
      Japan, Inc. has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft for a long time now. The first day I went to work in NEC's Unix division in Kobe, my boss pointed to a computer running Microsoft Windows on my desk and said that's yours. I had told them in the interview that I didn't do Microsoft Windows, but I guess something got lost in the translation. They relented though and gave me a desktop Linux box for development and I used the MS Windows box as a foot rest.

      I'm very glad to see this kind of move. Th
  • 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.

    • I imagine Sony is trying to appear to be uninvolved as much as possible. They might have historic involvement in BSD, but it is dwarfed by their investment and revenue stream derived from entertainment products which run on the Windows platform. I have a prediction. If the initiative in Japan becomes "law", it will be widely disregarded in fact. One must ask, if Linux (and variants of Unix in general) was a productive replacement for Windows and what runs on Windows, wouldn't it be fairly universal in use
      • Um. They're talking government offices, not home systems. Sony will have nothing to say because Sony doesn't give a shit.

        Not to mention that Sony has linux builds for its consoles; they have no problem with Linux at all.
    • 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 s

  • 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.
    • You know... I tried that, and they never gave me ANY discount. Actually, they wouldn't even answer the phone. They just forced Dell to sell me Windows even though I run Linux.
    • by mangu ( 126918 )
      The real magic words that show their preference for Unix systems are right besides Japan's prime minister in his personal website [s-abe.or.jp]
    • 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
  • Put up or shut up (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Archtech ( 159117 )
    Microsoft should now list exactly which patents it is referring to, and how the Linux kernel infringes upon them. At worst, the Linux team can then rewrite the offending code so that it no longer infringes.

    However I am deeply sceptical of this whole claim, and find it very suspicious that Microsoft has not given any details but prefers to stick to vague sabre-rattling. Until specifics are published, we will have to conclude that Microsoft is merely bluffing: trying to frighten off the weaker and less determ
    • Microsoft should now list exactly which patents it is referring to, and how the Linux kernel infringes upon them. At worst, the Linux team can then rewrite the offending code so that it no longer infringes.
      Just like SCO has, you mean?
    • Microsoft should now list exactly which patents it is referring to, and how the Linux kernel infringes upon them. At worst, the Linux team can then rewrite the offending code so that it no longer infringes.
      How about issuing a formal challenge to Microsoft for them to list the offending patents and stop SCO'ing around? Of course some of those patents could be real blockers that one can't write around...
    • by Vulcann ( 752521 )
      >> At worst, the Linux team can then rewrite the offending code so that it no longer infringes.

      Or just move to OpenSolaris. I know Linux fanboys like to ridicule Solaris but in my low level experiences with both OSes, the Solaris kernel is way more stable and solid. Stuff like the implementation of Asynchronous IO on RHEL has been and is a cruel joke! There is very little patent controversy around Solaris too and it plays nice with other Unices ...and oh ...its also free. Even though IBM and RH lik
    • by jav1231 ( 539129 )
      I think you make a good point. Microsoft probably doesn't want to go into court to validate the patents. What they can hope for is that many companies will simply cave, choosing compliance over litigation. The enterprise is ultimately their bread-n-butter and they're going to them to bank on the FUD. If this were to go to court, they'd lose a lot of the patents, and may actually win on some. However, that opens to door to IBM, HP, and others to turn to Microsoft and say, "Okay, let's see how many patents yo
    • Microsoft should now list exactly which patents it is referring to . . .

      Vague FUD is scarier than specific claims, so Microsoft won't hurry to publish such a list.

      At worst, the Linux team can then rewrite the offending code so that it no longer infringes.

      I hope it is that easy. Software patents can be so overbroad [eff.org] that there is no way to avoid infringement. For example, patent 6,243,373, "Method and apparatus for implementing a computer network/internet telephone system," is a VOIP patent, one of a fe

  • 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.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      But once they decide, it is done, they don't look back.
      I once worked for Fujitsu, so I know. Once the Japanese government and major companies embark on the open-source bandwagon, they will become sharp warriors against Microsoft. It may bring Microsoft Japan down by sheer popular pressure. The people go with the government there. 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.
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Jesus_666 ( 702802 )
        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) Journal
    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:1, Insightful)

      by Xuranova ( 160813 )
      The only way you are going to get affordable healthcare for everyone( which means those who can't afford it) to have everyone(meaning those who already can afford it) front a larger percentage of the bill. I'll pass(needless to say I'm in the latter category).

      As for a complete conversion like this, lets hold our applause until they've made a SMOOTH transition. The last thing the U.S. needs is to be offline for god knows how long because something went wrong in this transition you want so much.

      Universal Hea
      • I'll pass
        Wow, so you'd rather do with more luxury goods then see your fellow man have better health. I surely hope your ethic isn't what's meant by the phrase "the American way."
        • Wow, so you'd rather do with more luxury goods then see your fellow man have better health. I surely hope your ethic isn't what's meant by the phrase "the American way."
          All part of being a Christian nation...
          • Insightful comment. America probably isn't a Christian nation. Here's a quote from the Christian bible: "'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49) Everyone knows the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but few know why God destroyed them. Instead of reading the bible to find out, they make up stories about them being gay even coining words like 'sodomy.' Surprise world! Forgetting the poor and ne
            • 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

              • by nuzak ( 959558 )
                Not that I'm a fan of religion, but Lot was a character in the Old Testament.
                • ...but Lot was a character in the Old Testament.
                  All of my Bibles include both a New and Old Testament. Are you suggesting that I should toss out the Old one?
                  • by nuzak ( 959558 )
                    > Are you suggesting that I should toss out the Old one?

                    A lot of evangelical Christians think so (oddly the evangelicals tend to be the fire and brimstone types, go fig). At any rate, you were crucifying (ahem) Christianity for a story that isn't part of its canon.
                    • At any rate, you were crucifying (ahem) Christianity for a story that isn't part of its canon.
                      I'm not sure what type of church you've attended, but the Old Testament is very much is a part of the Christian canon. Some sects have slightly different canons, but I'm not aware of any mainline ones that do not include Genesis.
      • The only way...

        When an argument starts like that, you know it's faulty. Cost reduction would be another way. We pay twice as much as anybody else per capita and have worse results by most metrics. The reason our costs are so high is that insurance companies make such huge profits, both on health policies and on malpractice. Big pharma's profits aren't helping, either. Outside of insurance and pharma, universal health care would be a great thing for most businesses.

      • The only way you are going to get affordable healthcare for everyone( which means those who can't afford it) to have everyone(meaning those who already can afford it) front a larger percentage of the bill. I'll pass(needless to say I'm in the latter category).

        There is of course an argument that goes a little like this:

        If all the people in a society are relatively healthy, they are better consumers and better workers, meaning that the rich will get even richer off of the average citizens life activities. Onl

        • by Yfrwlf ( 998822 )
          My idea as well, our system is ridiculous. The middleman is making tons of money. At least we have some competition between insurance companies to provide lower costs, but they are still profiting from consumers, there is money lost there, it's the stupidest system ever. The money needs to be accounted for, and there are many ways you could make this work, but here is one idea:

          You deposit so much money per month into a fund for paying for emergencies. Once the account reaches a certain limit, pe
          • Hmmm well these programs do exist, at least for companies (which any individual could start for themselves). Problem is that the amount required is much higher than most can do. You'd need at least 100k in an account to handle the typical 'emergency'.

            If they were required and taken out of your paycheck every month by the gov and put into a fund for you... well supposedly that's what we do already.

            The hardest part would be covering the interim. We are set up now so that there is no time to develop this emerg
  • 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.

      • You think the unitary Japanese govt. knows dry rice about software, Grasshopper? ...no chance. You want to know what the boys in the diet DO know about? Nationalism.

        The Japanese Govt. had yet another nationalistic fit (that's what they do - that's their job - happens to be one of their standing orders.), and what you're relying on for your FTA is the press release to mask the flag waving ("The government has said explicitly it wants to decrease its reliance on Microsoft as a server operating system platf
      • A shining example of how/why Microsoft is different from ordinary corporations:

        IF a government or other large body demands something in particular, most companies would try to find ways to satisfy the demands in effort to participate in the market. Microsoft doesn't do that. Especially in the case of Linux, they have historically attempted to change or block the market's direction.

        There have been many jokes in the past about "Microsoft Linux" and the like. The joke was one of absurdity -- it would never
      • The big Japanese vendors make their big money out of middleware, not OS's, so it's no big deal for them to supply Linux-based rather than Microsoft-based systems. They can continue to lock in public sector clients to their middleware. One example is the systems for registering citizen data (koseki); the different companies' systems are still not fully mutually compatible despite a national database for citizens.

        METI and the IPA have often made "anti-Microsoft" comments but then toned them down. My informa

  • 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.
    • 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.

      I don't think IBM is really ambivalent. It's quite clear to me that IBM's future is Linux, not AIX. They won't actually come out and say that, to avoid scaring big AIX customers, but I think the plan is to keep AIX investment to the minimum level required to effectively support existing AIX shops, while recommending that new systems be deployed on Linux. At some point in the future AIX will be discontinued, but I'm sure that is many years away. IBM supports its products for a long time -- OS/2 Support

  • 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 ) * <<moc.liamg> <ta> <0002etybevol>> on Monday May 14, 2007 @07:31AM (#19111855) Homepage
    The japanese governement is, for now, waiting for the release of Ubuntu Tantalizing Tentacles.
  • Every while and then some Government says they'll move to Linux.
    Then you find out that they are actually going to think to plan to move the servers to Linux.
    For every server they run they also have dozens of clients running some ... ehr ... other operating system. By moving the clients they could have much more advantages.
  • While I think this is a good thing, and that more attention for Linux is also really great... I can't help but wonder if Vista had been a more solid, fast, user friendly, and affordable OS, would these companies even be having these thoughts?

    It seems that all this pro-Linux/OSS talk from these big companies like Dell is coming right on the heels of the disappointing launch of Vista. It must be depressing for Microsoft to realize that their wonder-OS has turned people off so badly.

    Hopefully this news will be
    • uhhhh.....the writing is on the wall.
      Microsoft doesn't want to look clues.
    • Being that I am deployed overseas, I have had plenty of time to talk with people on their Vista experiences, since maybe 30 people here have bought (mostly) Toshiba Satellites from the PX here loaded with Vista Home/Home Premium, or recently bought another brand immediately before leaving. I would say, unbiasedly that vista is a big step back in terms of usability according what people say here. The start menu for certain people is awkward, UAC is an annoyance for many, some have complained that their XP
  • now, microsoft is trying to scare off potential linux migrations by alleging infringement of microsoft intellectual shit. (i can not dare say property because theres so much crap and shit they patented).

    but, despite linux community's challenge, they are not saying what infringes upon their iS., neither they are suing, yet.

    lets say that major players migrated to linux, then, lets say that there REALLY was code in linux infringing microsoft's, and then microsoft sued these companies.

    now, at this poin
  • . '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... ' Meanwhile,

    'Microsoft, IBM, and Dell are among 10 IT equipment and software vendors that are forming a consortium to develop and sell Linux-based databases'
  • I believe I will be filing for a patent on a method of filing patents to stifle competition via the overworked patents office inability to properly investigate patents. If Microsoft, IBM and others claim prior work then they admit to filing patent claims to foster anti competition. Should they not then I can collect royalties for future patent filings of this nature. Since I am in the US and Slashdot is in the US publishing does not prevent me from filing patents. Enjoy the mess.
  • by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
    When the US government formally decided Microsoft was a monopoly, this kind of project here at home would have been the least of the remedies the government could have undertaken.

    Instead we "elected" Bush, whose Justice Department never met a monopoly it didn't love.
    • Moderation -1
          100% Offtopic

      Japanese government moves to OSS to avoid the American MS monopoly. American government declares it a monopoly, but does no such thing. That's the topic, monopolophile TrollMods.
  • This isn't a matter of open source zealotry, it's the result of being burned too many times. Conventional wisdom says that open source projects have great starts and lousy finishes, that you need commercial software to get the professional-grade fit and polish. As I said, that's conventional wisdom. The reality that I've seen is shrinkwrap software tends to look the nicest, OSS is the roughest but with the most features, and the super proprietary high-end stuff (the kind you spend millions on) tends to be t
  • "Japan does not exist in 2007."
  • The obvious move is open source ... closed source has a place ... but not as much as it used to ...
    companies are starting to trust open source a little more ... and the general acceptance of open source
    to general consumers is higher than ever before ...

Comparing information and knowledge is like asking whether the fatness of a pig is more or less green than the designated hitter rule." -- David Guaspari

Working...