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Linux for Asia: Asianux 276

Posted by michael from the penguins-not-native-to-asia dept.
kiwimate writes "Two Linux distributors (one each from China and Japan) are building a common Linux platform for Asian companies. Using Oracle software to create the product, which is dubbed "Asianux", they have declared they'll create a common kernel so that the two companies' offerings can interoperate with ease."
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Linux for Asia: Asianux More

Linux for Asia: Asianux

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  • Asianux (Score:5, Funny)

    by pheared ( 446683 ) <[ten.deraehp] [ta] [nivek]> on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:45PM (#7932414) Homepage
    I guess that's better than Lasia. Not much better though.

  • More open source in Asia news... (Score:5, Informative)

    by tcopeland ( 32225 ) * <tom AT thomasleecopeland DOT com> on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:46PM (#7932443) Homepage
    ...can be found on AsiaOSC [asiaosc.org].

    There's a note on the front page there about a recent Mongolian Linux release, too.

  • Wouldn't LinAsia have sounded better? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Or is that just my wacky English speaking mind?

  • Cooperation! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TwistedSquare ( 650445 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:47PM (#7932454) Homepage
    And there was us thinking Asia couldn't teach us anything about how to do IT, but then they turn out to have companies that actually agree on common standards at the outset!

  • Chinx (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:47PM (#7932458)
    was just too politically incorrect.

  • Asian geography (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wonder if they have forgotten that Asia is more than just the area of China and Japan. Turkey, Syria, Indian...and even Iraq are all Asian countries as well.
    • I wonder if they have forgotten that Asia is more than just the area of China and Japan. Turkey, Syria, Indian...and even Iraq are all Asian countries as well.

      Iraq is not an Asian nation. It is in the middle east. Syria is even farther to the west. What kind of a crazy map are you looking at??

      Afghanistan (which BTW borders China in one spot), India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and one other "istan" which I can't remember right now. Those are the nations of "central asia".
      • Iraq is not an Asian nation. It is in the middle east. Syria is even farther to the west. What kind of a crazy map are you looking at??

        The middle east is not a continent. If Iraq is not a part of Asia, would you consider it be part of Europe or Africa?

  • Complete with (Score:5, Funny)

    by gwayne ( 306174 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:48PM (#7932478)
    keystroke-logging lib_bigbrother.so.0 no doubt

  • Maybe I'm just ignorant but... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Michael Crutcher ( 631990 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:49PM (#7932481)
    Why the hell does the asian market need its own linux distros? Isn't there asian character support in current linux distros?

    Is this just a national pride thing designed as a big middle finger towards western development? Wouldn't they be better served if they helped make current distros better?

    Aren't you tired of stupid questions?

    • Actually, character support in any OS (including Windows), is spotty, bug-ridden, and limited at best. I suspect that this is more a chance to re-write the thing from the ground up as a native ideogramatic OS, instead of installing a native Western-char OS, then tacking on the packages afterwards.


      Makes things less clunky that way.

      /P

    • Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by geoffspear ( 692508 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:58PM (#7932631) Homepage
      Why the hell does the US market need more than one Linux distro? Wouldn't all the developers be better served working on just one of them?

      • Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Dan Ost ( 415913 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:29PM (#7933030)
        Probably, but only if you could get everyone to agree on the same distro.

        If you tried, you would probably find yourself ham-strung by people like me
        who use different distros for different purposes. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
      • Choice, my friend. Why did they do it? Because they could. There was so much FUD spread about Linux, GNU, GPL, Open Source over the years, that's just not funny. The most ridiculous remark given to Free software developers was that they are communists. Quite opposite - if there is anything really democratic in this world, it's Open Source movement.
        • If there's any really democratic economic philosophy in the world, it's communism. The fact that it doesn't work as a form of government and it's only been implemented (or, at least, had some abomination of a political system implemented in its name) by dictators doesn't change what the philosophy is.
          • No, it (communism) just appears that way and only on the surface. In essence, it's utopia, impossible construct and particularly so in economic terms.

            The ultimate goal of communism is "From everybody according to their abilities, to everybody according to their needs."

            Fortunatelly, humans will never be on this level of thinking - that would kill all progress.

    • Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:05PM (#7932713)
      Stick a Linux distro CD in a drive and boot. What do you see? If you answered "English words" then you win.

    • Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:12PM (#7932802)
      Consider this:
      - Japan has two character systems
      - China is using different character system
      - AFAIK South-Korea is using another different character system
      - Thailand is using completely different character system

      So now we have at least 4-5 different character system in south-east Asia (not counting India). I seriously doubt that any wester n distribution provides excellent support to all those characters.
    • Why don't you RTFA?

      It's not about the middle finger, or about just having 'asian character support'. They want to create a product for businesses ("server-operated environment"), and for that you need tech support.
      From the article:
      "The two companies also aim to set up a joint support centre at Oracle's Beijing facility to provide technical assistance to China customers using Asianux-based products"

      Basically, it's a choice between having to resort to mailing lists and dealing with people who don't have a
    • The idea is to rewrite Linux source code in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. This way those countries no longer need to depend on American and European programmers.

  • What???! *Outrage* (Score:5, Funny)

    by curtisk ( 191737 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:49PM (#7932486) Homepage Journal
    Don't you mean GNU-ASIANUX? *Hrmmmph*

  • common kernel? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by brondsem ( 553348 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:49PM (#7932498) Homepage
    All linux distros have the same kernel: linux. You need more than a common kernel to get a high degree of interoperability.
    • many technically undereducated editors use phrase "common kernel" instead of "common set of components". They know nothing about OS and perhaps don't know that OS has a kernel. Forgive them.
    • No they don't have the same kernel. Every single distro uses a modified version of Linux, which makes it extremely difficult to distribute binary drivers. Whether this is good or bad left as an exercize for the reader. Red hat especially. They have so many patched applied to their default kernal that is is a nightmare to try and compile a your own kernal (say you have your own patches that you need to use) and still have have third party drivers work.

      Given how much Japanese Companies love their proprietary
      • for an example, look at the list of kernel source packages available for gentoo. gentoo-portage.com lists 43!
      • Maybe someone should take these distros and slap them upside the head! When I use Linux, I use Slackware. One of the principles reasons is because Slackware doesn't futz around with the software. The kernel is vanilla. GCC is vanilla. KDE and GNOME are vanilla. It's enough work putting together a quality stable distribution, without second guessing other projects.

  • This makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Informative)

    by MarkWatson ( 189759 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:51PM (#7932522) Homepage
    .. to both cooperate on Linux and base their IT on Linux.

    Personally, I now use Mac OS X (after about 10 years of enthusiastic Linux use :-) but there are several reasons for non-U.S. companies to standardize on Linux and cooperate on region specific versions:

    • Cost savings
    • increased security - not trusting a U.S. company (Microsoft)
    • improved CS education: really learn how an OS works in school by having the ource code
    • good performance on lower end computers
    • easier to create new inovative IT applications when you have control over the entire software stack

    -Mark

    • After 10 years of using linux (and I assume enjoying it), I'm curious why you decided to switch to OS X? You don't see too many stories out there of people going back to a proprietary system after having used linux for so long....
      • Good question.

        I am (mostly) a Java consultant and an author, and I found Linux to be a more productive environment than Windows (good command shell, Unix utilities, etc.). I spent way less time maintaining a Linux development system than Windows NT or 2000.

        However, I spend even less time maintaining my OS X development machines (I use 3), and OS X has all the Unix niceness that I need for software development.

        As far as writing goes, I wrote 2 published book entirely using Star Office (then Open Office) o

  • And for France (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:52PM (#7932538)
    And expecially for France, we will have Asterux.

  • misleading writeup (Score:5, Informative)

    by kisrael ( 134664 ) * on Friday January 09, 2004 @04:53PM (#7932556) Homepage
    Using Oracle software to create the product

    More like "making use of Oracle's software development centre in Beijing"--its a kind of important distinction, otherwise I was wondering what Oracle IDE they were going to use, or database they were planning to build into the distro...

  • heh (Score:2, Funny)

    by pyth ( 87680 )
    I bet they'll have new commands to use: keke, kekeke, kekekeke, kekekekekekekekekekeke^_^
  • Increased adoption of Asianux in Asia-Pacific may give software and hardware companies a good reason to certify their wares on Linux, as they will not need to support multiple versions of the open-source operating system (OS).

    /me uncorks champagne

  • Rice-Chex (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:01PM (#7932661)
    After this is successful, this Oriental version of Linux will be combined with the one being developed for the Czech Republic.

    We wish the new "Rice-Chex" project much success.

  • Sounds better than (Score:4, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:01PM (#7932665) Journal
    Rinux.

    Hey, before you get all crazy, I learned it from South Park...

  • GPL! Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:02PM (#7932671)
    Let's just see how well the GPL does in these countries, especially in China where piracy is rampant, and there is no such thing as private property (it's the definition of Communism, get over it flamers). Human (property) rights have never been terribly important in Asia, maybe we'll have to send in Stallman and Theo to get pissy at them when they uber-up the Linux kernel and don't publish their changes.

    -1 Flamebat, +1 Cynical, or +1 Prophetic? You decide.

    • Re:GPL! Ha! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by FortKnox ( 169099 )
      Let's just see how well the GPL does in these countries, especially in China where piracy is rampant, and there is no such thing as private property (it's the definition of Communism, get over it flamers).

      Umm, the GPL will work WONDERS in a communist state. In fact, China would be smart to support open source software. Think about it... the GPL is a very communist-like idea with communist-like ideals.

      Maybe I should ask you this:
      Which economy would the GPL work better in: Capitalistic or Communistic

    • Re:GPL! Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by The One KEA ( 707661 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:14PM (#7932850) Journal
      Why would it do any better or worse? Unless China completely airgapped themselves from the Internet, then the code written for Asianux will find its way back into the greater consciousness - not only does the GPL demand it, but the human race's general tendency to try to get away with disobedience wherever possible will almost guarantee it ;-) I don't think the GPL will suffer in China, but we'll see.

    • Re:GPL! Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dmaxwell ( 43234 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:25PM (#7932969)
      There are perfectly pragmatic reasons why this isn't likely. Private forks of large OSS projects become harder and harder to maintain over time. The fork has to be regularly ported to new versions of the public project or fixes from the public project have to be ported to the fork. Either way, it starts out being a little bit of work and turns into a lot of work. Alternatively, the fork could be turned into a different animal altogether. The last option would need a dev team comparable in size to Linux itself. Every package in the distro that is forked adds to the difficulty and expense even more.

      Sure, these two companies could do exactly what you say. But how long would they be able to keep the product fresh and relevant? Continually maintaining the fork is usually going to be less costly than just passing your changes to the upstream project.

    • There is a valid point here... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Draxinusom ( 82930 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:29PM (#7933021)
      ...hidden underneath the ignorant ranting, which is that the GPL requires strong enforcement of licenses to function. It has nothing to do with Communism, piracy, or human rights. Countries like China simply don't have the legal infrastructure to deal with license violations. There are some indications that companies are getting away with GPL violations in the U.S.; how much easier will it be for them to do so in China, where the FSF has no legal representation?
      • Yeah right. China shoots corrupt officials. America puts them in office. Stop think china is some 3rd world nation. As for human rights issues. Was the west any better a few decades ago? Ask a black american if you don't know the answer. American police killed peace protestors, china killed human right protestors. Big frigging difference (and this is not anti-america the same happened in europe just on a smaller scale as usual)

        How china will deal with the GPL and opensource in general remains to be seen. H

        • Stop think china is some 3rd world nation.

          China isn't just "some 3rd world nation". It's virtually the definition of 3rd world.

          China shoots corrupt officials. America puts them in office.

          What a pathetic joke this is. I've dealt with Chinese and Western officials for years. The level of corruption in China is in a completely different league from that in the US. China is solidly 3rd world in its corruption, like Indonesia, India, or Mexico. The law doesn't matter, just guanxi. The shooting of corrupt o

    • Re:GPL! Ha! (Score:4, Informative)

      by deanpole ( 185240 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:35PM (#7933086)
      China where piracy is rampant, and there is no such thing as private property

      Funny you should mention that as they are about to vote on a constitutional amendment [chinadaily.com.cn] for it.

      Nonetheless, they already have private property except from the government who can basically take whatever they want. For the purposes of GPL and selling software, this is probably sufficient.

    • China recently chaged their Constitution. Private property is NOW allowed.
    • and there is no such thing as private property
      ------
      Yes, and under communism, the GPL would not be necessary, because all source would be free. Communism is not realistically implementable on a large scale, but it does have certain upsides.

      Human (property) rights have never been terribly important in Asia
      ------
      Property rights != Human rights. Property rights are critical for a quickly growing, free market economy, but there is a fundemental difference between something desireable like property rights and s
    • there is no such thing as private property (it's the definition of Communism, get over it flamers).

      Um, the definition of Communism (at least according to Marx & Engels, who are widely credited with coming up wiht the idea) is that the government owns the means of production (e.g. factories, farms, etc.) Certainly in practise, Communist governments have always permitted some level of private property. At the very least, that roll of toilet paper you stood in line for four months to get and paid a mil

  • Rinux: Ready for the desktop? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Friday January 09, 2004 @05:08PM (#7932755) Journal
    I can't even imagine what a nightmare the command line would look like. I'm still figuring out the switches for fsck. Hard enough to do without contructing commands out of little pictures of houses, dancing guys and trees with lines through them.
    • I'd just like to point out that this flamebait spawned two very interesting, well reasoned and thoughtful threads. They must be from k5 ;)
  • I'm still holding my breath for the ultimate linux distribution: auto-configuring, self-reparing, using state-of-the-art package management, with a killer GUI, full desktop integration, stability up the wazoo, that can take all preferences and settings from an existing windows or mac installation and import them into the new environment.

    It should be called Sexus Linux.


  • Sure beats the first name: Oriantalnix.

  • Woohoo! Now my computer will COSPLAY when I do!

    (because nothing is sexier than a 25 yr old man with hairy legs wearing a sailor moon outfit)
  • If they are making their own linux distro why do they need to buy linux desktops from SUN?

    Steve

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