Japan, China, S Korea Agree To Standardize Linux 270
Ooi writes "Japan Today News reports: 'The governments of Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to work together to come up with an alternative computer operating system to reduce reliance on Microsoft's Windows, the Yomiuri and Nihon Keizai newspapers reported Sunday.
According to the reports, the three countries will help their private sectors develop Linux, an open-source OS that can be copied and modified freely. The agreement was signed in Beijing on Saturday by senior government officials from the three countries.'
Australian IT has an article on the issue prior to the meeting." A few weeks ago, I spoke at the Asia OSS meeting in Hanoi of which the three gov'ts above are also members. There's a very serious commitment to OSS especially among the governments represented there.
Re:It really says something (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Yay! (Score:2, Insightful)
These 3 countries are out to save a buck and at the same time try to get a bit of traditional American IT industry, OS making.
I think Americans in generally should be less worried over telemarketing jobs going to India, this is the real threat, the risk that high tech IT jobs moves east, far east.
Re:China as a Linux maker (Score:5, Insightful)
You will find that all governments (especially the US government) feel "pissed" when they are not "in control", and will use whatever tools at their disposal to gain as much control as possible. The US Govt is a prime example. Look at how they have used tech to gain control of their environment.
So, The advancements that China/etc can make to Linux to make it a better tool for them are going to be used to the collective benefit of ALL linux users, (and I imagine that the BOFH Firewall admins will be especially happy). As for how the tech is used in China as opposed to the rest of the world, well, that is for the Chinese to determine.
So, a government, whether Chinese or not, will always want control... it is their job. Linux, whether modified by the Chinese/etc or not, will be better for the experience.
As for human rights, etc. Well, first you have to ask yourself
gus
Re:China as a Linux maker (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:China as a Linux maker (Score:3, Insightful)
People that took mainly them for granted, and then lost them.
See -
Germans under Hitler
Hong Kong Citizens after the turnover.
Re:Yay! (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing wrong with that.
and at the same time try to get a bit of traditional American IT industry, OS making.
Since Linux is not traditional American IT industry software, there is no technological drain happening here. This decision does however have the potential to shrink the market share of a certain technologically stagnated and sloppy American OS vendor but that is only to be expected when this American OS vendor's product sucks bigtime. Another factor is the simple fact that given the USA's obsession with intelligence gathering nobody trusts this American OS vendor not to cave into the pressure to spike its product with backdoors
Another example of Microsofts big fear. (Score:5, Insightful)
Kind of an interesting analogy. This could be similar to the Big Iron vs PC issues that happened during the 80's. Everyone wants the speed, responsiveness, and immediate feedback of the PC. From a core OS standpoint, Microsoft just doesn't provide this. If you want a change, such as how it handles your system of written communication, you either pay the big bucks and DIY or wait for them to do it for you. Security issues tend to take longer with Microsoft. Etc, etc...
Microsoft won't ever go away. But I fee that they will become less relevant.
Re:But will it be OS (Score:5, Insightful)
At least... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's good news and no mistake.
Re:But will it be OS (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Governments don't write code (Score:2, Insightful)
So the Monopoly is now..... where? (Score:-1, Insightful)
3 countries have different causes (Score:5, Insightful)
For Korea, the most wanted is cheapness of Linux, that will help the country to grow without paying licence fee to the US company.
For China, to kill rampant piracy to meet global standard, Linux is ideal solution, and of course it is free of security backdoor that may be present in software made in the US as GNU/RMS repeats it. You may worry about China use Linux as a tool to suppress free speech, but considering this is a project of 3 countries, such aspect won't be in its contents.
Though 3 countries have different causes, as the initiative of so-called Open Source development is still in the hand of the Western people and internationalization of current OSS is poor, it is no wonder those countries start their own movement.
Re:It really says something (Score:3, Insightful)
What are you talking about? (Score:1, Insightful)
It was Sun that sued Microsoft in Europe.
Re:So the Monopoly is now..... where? (Score:4, Insightful)
Still, no monoculture is good. I don't think it'd be good to see Linux everywhere, I'd like it if there was more than one tool to do the job.
Re:But will it be OS (Score:2, Insightful)
And with a billion+ people, you don't think that these 3 countries will be able to keep up with all of the OSS developments? The question is not *if* the countries may produce closed software, but *why* may they want to.
Re:But will it be OS (Score:3, Insightful)
PRC policy is that Tibet is a part of China and happy about it. PRC policy is that Falun Gong is a dissident organisation that must be suppressed. PRC policy is that the events of Tiananmen were justified. And PRC policy is that open source will be kept open source.
Why are you assuming that they're only going to change their mind about the last of the above policies?
Potential Target (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:China as a Linux maker (Score:4, Insightful)
Who would be able to prosecute them? Who would care enough?
The chinese government will do with linux what they want. And no-one wants to stop them, because you can't piss of the Chinese Government, as its too big a market for imports and exports.
If they wanted to keep their code to themselves, then they could just as easily use a BSD as a base, where the license expressedly permits people to take the code and do what they like with it without giving anything back to the community.
Instead, they've chosen Linux, with its more restrictive license, and they've announced they'll be honouring that license.
The Chinese are humans with a capacity for logical thought, not aliens or robots. You can be sure they have considered the benefits and disadvantages of the various options - Linux and the GPL, BSD, or Linux and no GPL leading to conflict with the US and EU. I find it hard to believe they've chosen the last.
Re:Can we please stop saying MS has a monopoly? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft are considered to have a monopoly because any new OS is caught in the chicken-and-egg problem: nobody will use the new OS because it doesn't support hardware/software, but nobody will code hardware/software support for it because - since nobody is using it - doing so doesn't gain them any customers.
Microsoft may not have acted to create that monopoly, but that isn't necessary for a monopoly to thrive. The last mile problem is still grounds for monopoly regulation of telecoms even though the telecom firms didn't invent the problem.
Re:Potential Target (Score:2, Insightful)
just becuase the software is made in that country (by the PRIVATE SECTOR, only aided by the gov. like it says in the article) doesn't mean that everyone in the oountry will instantly switch..
I've liked in Japan for two years now, I personaly knew only a handful of people that ran any for of *nix on their home computers, and I have met 0 people in Japan that do. People wont just switch, particularly people in asia were it takes decades to change any laws or ways of thinking...
and if you assume that all 1.2billion ppl in those three countries will be ussing that os becuase it's made in that country, then you'd have to say that EVERYONE in america uses microsoft windows no matter what becuase their are american and it is an unwritten law.. if you said that, i'm pretty sure some people would not be happy.
Re:Asian-language localized UNIX tools (Score:3, Insightful)
Bob
Software as a Public Good (Score:3, Insightful)
Being virtually freely copyable, software is coming close to fitting economists' definition of a public good [auburn.edu] - something that can't be provided to one person without providing it to everyone.
Government action is the only sustainable way to fund public goods, because of the free rider [auburn.edu] problem. This announcement was only a matter of time - and it's only the beginning.
Andrew Klaassen
Why all the negative comments about the news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Some have gone as far as calling this unamerican, thereby furthering the hollow arguments put forth by C. Mundie and co. just a few years ago.
There is a lot to be happy about:
*More bug fixes and more features
*Wider and larger hardware support
*Better internationalizaton support
And for those of us that also care about free software, I think the OS will have a slow ripple effect throughout the respective societies of Korea, China and Japan.
Eventually, it will take time, students will be empowered to start their own businesses by having the right tools at their disposal; those in Civil Society will also have an easier time finding likeminded individuals and building issue communities that use the power of open source software to coordinate their activities. All of this will take time, but it is possible.
I think FLOSS, if nothing else, opens a window into altruism and the opportunity to build a more open tomorrow. Those ideas will be the seed of change over a few generations.
Re:China as a Linux maker (Score:3, Insightful)
Does the Chinese government have problems? Yes. Do they restrict people's rights more than they should? Yes. Would the Chinese people have been better off if the Guomingdang has won? No.
I have spent almost half of my life in China. I recognize the problems. I'm critical of many things the Chinese government does. I am also very impressed by how much progress has been made without violence.
Gradualism is necessary.
And the Chinese government ISN'T a group of people who follow the devil. Each generation is more and more moderate. Anything else would cause many more problems than exist today.
As for OSS, the Chinese would love to have China become a tech hub with an OS that was not under someone else's control. In the same way that the U.S. would support OSS if the roles were reversed.