OSS in One-Fifth of Japanese Businesses 99
WillAffleck writes "According to a recent Infoworld article, one-fifth of all Japanese businesses now use Open Source operating systems. From the article: 'By contrast, 33 percent of U.S. companies have adopted open-source operating systems in at least some of their servers, MIC said. Among the companies polled by the MIC, 66 percent said open-source operating systems have low initial costs, while 47.8 percent said the software has low operating costs '"
So in other words (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:So in other words (Score:1)
But since the article is trying to make a contrast and a comment on a growing trend, it seems to make a lot more sense if you read it as Japan being behind the US.
Re:So in other words (Score:2, Informative)
"The use of open-source operating systems in enterprise servers is growing in Japan"
and
"So far, 21 percent of Japanese companies have already introduced open-source operating systems including Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD systems"
and
"Open-source operating systems are used with much less frequency in applications for financial, payment, distribution and customer service applications, the report said."
It seems to me that the article i
free oss? (Score:1)
Re:free oss? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Until OSS nuts realise that, they are just ranting.
Re:free oss? (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed it does. Until MS nuts realize that MS products need support as well, this arguement is not valid.
Re:free oss? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:free oss? (Score:2)
Re:free oss? (Score:1)
Re:free oss? (Score:2)
Impartial is almost impossible to find in IT.
Re:free oss? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's all about opportunity cost: What do you give up by running this OS?
The business might save $120M a year by switching to Linux from IBM, but if that translates into $1B loss of profits in three years, then Linux was not the right choice.
Likewise if a business spends $10M/year on windows systems and nets $100M/year in profits, and they could spend $12M/year on Linux (better admins, yadda^3) but generate $400M in net earning
Re:free oss? (Score:2)
Here OSS costs less. Mostly cause I'm here and can build OpenBSD and/or Debian boxes to do just about any job I need them to do and they just sit there and do their job. Contrast this with the attempts at doing anything with Checkpoint/Cisco that always seems to devolve into support calls.
Clearly it's going to depend on the skillset of your people but I can almost promise that in the year of our lord 2000 and 5 that almost any IT shop is going to have at least one geek who already
Re:free oss? (Score:1)
Hahahahahahahahahaha... was Re:free oss? (Score:1)
Re:free oss? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:free oss? (Score:1)
Re:free oss? (Score:2)
As the baby eventually gives up the bottle, so the workforce can wean itself from the help desk.
Unless we're talking about one of those bottom-feeder outfits that just wants to bring in entry-level fodder, chew them up, and spit them in the direction of better companies.
Re:free oss? (Score:2)
An all windows shop is probally going to have some issues integrating linux and open source into their daily routine, especially if the admins don't have some experience with it.
A unix shop can integrate and probally has integrated some open source solutions for years, even moving to linux from unix is trivial.
The expense of opensource/linux/*bsd can really be mostly determined by the quality of your administration staff and programming staff dependin
Re:Linux? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Linux? (Score:1)
Uhoh (Score:5, Funny)
Opps I am sorry, I had a momentary bout of insanity there
Re:Uhoh (Score:3, Funny)
1/6th of Slashdotters don't really care... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Who cares if it's less than what the US has? Maybe if the numbers were *higher* than the US then I'd be interested. "Look, foreign companies are adopting Linux faster than American companies."
That's not the case. Move along.
Re:1/6th of Slashdotters don't really care... (Score:2)
Yes, but there was nowhere near 20% of Japanese companies using it in '99.
Face it, a lot of people on Slashdot are interested in seeing how much adoption of Linux and other things are out there. If for nothing else than to refute some of the TCO studies paid for by/about Microsoft.
Re:1/6th of Slashdotters don't really care... (Score:2)
It's grown about 10% in 5 years whereas in 1999/2000 it grew from less than 1% to 10%.
The other four fifths are running BSD :) (Score:2)
Wow - I'm an idiot (Score:2)
Re:The other four fifths are running BSD :) (Score:1)
Re:The other four fifths are running BSD :) (Score:1)
Re:The other four fifths are running BSD :) (Score:1)
Sadly, the Open Source OS was defined in the survey as including Linux, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD, so my guess is that it's not quite that big.
And the other 33%? (Score:1)
I can understand OSS having potentially high operating costs from failures and training, but how can you justify high initial costs for something that is free?
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:2)
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:2)
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:1)
You can't unless you have cash to burn. Every time I look at it, I'm ahead by less than 5% with Linux over Windows and that is totally outweighed in my book by the need for productivity being held up by dependency Hell, needs to modify source and rebuild, endless configuration that requires pounding a keyboard to dust faster than a data entry clerk
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:2)
I don't know where you're drawing your conclusions from. It takes me just as long to configure Windows Server out of the box as a network server as it does Linux. The gains for Linux are greater, because configuration information is more portable than in Windows (it requ
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:2)
When you have a bunch of people in your IT department who are used to clicking on the start button to get anywhere, it's actually going to cost something to retrain them or to hire people who actually have some technical intuition.
Additionally, remember that just because it's open-source doesn't mean it's free of cost. Red Hat's enterprise-lev
Re:And the other 33%? (Score:2)
At some point, when your organization becomes larger than a single linux server handling all tasks, you might consider investing in infrastrucutre. Some components that you would probably include:
1. nim server (makes installs on new systems less painful)
2. mame service (Likely LDAP)
3. name service (replicas)
4. print server of some variety (maybe cups)
5. DMZ, screened network, etc.
6. web server / secure ftp server, etc.
7. Add specialized
Take that microsoft marketing dept (Score:2)
Servers... (Score:5, Insightful)
someone slap the editors with a cluestick please...
Re:Servers... (Score:2)
Re:Servers... (Score:2)
enterprise servers...web-based poll...no mention of how many companies participated in the survey, their size, or business.
Re:Servers... (Score:2)
not desktops... so this could be as little as 1 machine per business...
someone slap the editors with a cluestick please...
Why? What's inaccurate about the article? It doesn't say anything about what percentage of the computers in those companies run Linux, does it? If you were making assumptions then that isn't the editors' fault. The persons who modded you "insightful" are the ones who should be slapped with a cluestick...
OSS Spreading (Score:4, Funny)
* - Many viruses are open source either by design (VBS) or through reverse engineering.
Re:OSS Spreading (Score:4, Funny)
Re:OSS Spreading (Score:1)
1. Write virus
2. Copyright virus
3. Send it into the wild
4. Virus propogates
5. Sue everybody for distributing my copyrighted works!
6. Profit!
Re:OSS Spreading (Score:2)
Well, they aren't written by the RIAA, MPAA, BSA or Microsoft, are they ? The virus writers aren't buying laws from US or EU government, are they ? So why would the viruses be protected by copyright ?
Re:OSS Spreading (Score:2)
It has come to our attention that your computer system with IP address 192.168.0.5 has been participating in illegal Peer to Peer network activity. We have witnessed this internet host participating in the unlawful distribution of "W32.Mydoom.CF@MM", which is protected under international copyright law by our client, Mr l3et hax0-r of Plumbeckistan.
We therefore demand that you immediately cease distribution of this copyright software and provide a list of all IP addresses to which it h
Re:OSS Spreading (Score:1)
1) Write VBS virus that installs peanut linux
2) Make amazingly large zombie server farm
3) ???
4) Profit
Probably not as easy as Depenguinator http://www.daemonology.net/depenguinator/ [daemonology.net], but still entertaining.
What about both? (Score:1)
I'm curious what percentage said both initial costs and operating costs were low... I think putting companies into only one category leaves out a lot of information.
The Government is helping too (Score:5, Informative)
The m17n library allow you to view and type complex text languages like Indic, Arabic, Hebrew and other languages. While this is possible by using QT3.2+ & GTK2.0+pango, this restricted one to just 2 toolkits and to two heavyweight desktops(XFCE4 is the exception though). The library [m17n.org] is also a good compromise between a toolkit dependent solution like pango/QT3.2 and Server based solutions like the doomed Indix and STSF.
The screenshots here [m17n.org] show firefox and magicpoint, applications that use different toolkits displaying multilinugal texts. I have even seen but not used windowmaker rpms compiled with m17n support.
A very practical example would be something like Damn Small Linux, which is a pretty lightweight live CD in both disk size (~50 MB) and Memory usage (runs on 64 MB RAM). This was ideal for a school near my place that wanted to use it as a teaching resource but wanted it in their native language. I finally am settling for XFCE4 and GTK2 applications like OO.o, Firefox.
The keyboard solutions were too rudimentary, in the case of xkb for phonetic keymaps for indian languages or too buggy and complex, in the case of IIIMF. M17n was a joy to use from day one and rpms for Mandrake 10.1 & debs for Ubuntu/Debian unstable are available.
Re:The Government is helping too (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason American OSS geeks should be happy Japanese OSS is starting to take off (despite the barriers like language and etc -- keep in mind that Windows took a while to hit 20% penetration here, too, because like half of the Linux distributions it didn't ship with a way to natively input Japanese text) is that Japan exports technical knowhow like crazy. Our last OSS conference had delegates from governments in about six countries (Phillipines, India, etc) who we were telling "Hey, you can save yourself a heck of a lot of money and you'll never have government continuity threatened by loss of a key vendor ever again... Did we mention you save a lot of money?" Obviously, countries take their cues from US usage too, but as the biggest foreign aid donor in the world when the Japanese government says "Hey, we'd appreciate if you economized on our technology funds we're giving you -- here are some ideas on how", people tend to listen.
OMG (Score:3, Funny)
Re:OMG (Score:1)
Only the ones being piloted by teens with big eyes.
The rest are dubbed into English with the wrong accents for their characters.
Re:OMG (Score:2)
Note: if you're planning to run your giant robot on Linux, be sure to select a strong password for the root account. Preferably something not a dictionary word, and for the love of God make it longer than two letters. Otherwise Ritsuko's gonna pwnz j00.
Japan is beating us (Score:2)
Secretary: I can't believe it.
Boss: What?
Secretary: 40% of all sick days are on Monday and Friday.
Boss: What!?! Do they think they can really get away with that?
Secretary: No, they can do math.
Re:Japan is beating us (Score:2, Informative)
Now, perhaps they're ahead of us on the residential adoption - I couldn't say.
Re:Japan is beating us (Score:2)
Re:Japan is beating us (Score:1)
In my submission I said Japan has 21 percent and the US has 33 percent.
Maybe in your world 33 percent is not obviously much more than 21 percent, but in mine it's fairly explicit.
Re:Japan is beating us (Score:2)
I trust everyone noticed that the original posting was a joke and aren't getting all bent out of shape because they thought it was serious. That said, the part of your posting that made it to the front page said 1/5, 33%, 66%, and 47.8%. The article itself said 21%, but the joke was about the pointy haired bosses thinking that 1/5 is bigger than 33%. Alas, it's lost all humor now. Time to go find someone with bad morale and flog th
Re:Japan is beating us (Score:1)
for really large values of 21
Japanese language support (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Japanese language support (Score:1)
Re:Japanese language support (Score:2)
What about other OSS (Score:3, Insightful)
Bad article!!!! (Score:2, Informative)
Here is the bottom of it. 21.0 % of Japanese business currently use OSS for server, 7.6 % of Japanese business is planning to introduce OSS for server, 14.6 % of Japanese business is considering to introduce OSS for server. In the same white paper, they have the figures for USA and South Korea. According to the white paper, the figure in the US is 33.0 % currently use OSS server, 5.7
Bad article!!!! ... or is it just it disagrees? (Score:1)
As we all know, all Linux machines have giant neon signs on them, so they can be clearly identified, and servers are always conveniently located in the middle of reception areas, just to satisfy the needs of the curious OS geeks.
Not.
So, you don't like the article. So, as I stated in my summary, Japa
best selling PDA in Japan is linux based Zaurus (Score:3, Interesting)
I've heard it from a reliable commentator that the Sharp Zaurus is the most popular PDA in Japan...
My own guess is probably due to the fact it comes with built-in Japanese-English dictionary/translation software (I don't speak Jp so I can't tell you anything about it, I blatted over my Japanese ROM with the Cacko distribution within hours of receiving it).The interesting thing is that the latest Zaurus, the SL-C3100 [gizmodo.com], the successor to the C3000 (which was the first ever PDA with a built-in hard drive), is marked as FCC approved. Hopefully Sharp will bring the Zaurus back to the North American market sooner than later, to make up for pulling the much missed 6000L model (which they initially rebutted [infosyncworld.com] but later turned out to be effectively true when they disappeared from retail sellers like amazon [amazon.com]).
Survey Underestimates Popularity of OSS (Score:2)
http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/ [nikkeibp.co.jp]
They also have a site dedicated completely to OSS. [nikkeibp.co.jp]
In other news, there was a thirty-minute report on OSS on the news after Bill Gates' Japan trip earl