Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Linux Initiatives
where_is_my_mind writes: "IBM, NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi agreed to join forces to speed up development of Linux apps. Check it here." Another submitter sent in a Japanese story which said they were specifically working on building banking applications.
Without question.
Linux is the #1 developed-on OS here. There are about 15 Linux magazines ib print, and most big bookstores have a Linux section.
Not only that, many hardware components in stores have "works with linux" or "works with Turbolinux" stickers on them (if they're compliant, of course, which most are).
Linux is not a "revolution" here. It's taken very seriously. When I take out my Linux laptop at work, the American engineers chuckle. The Japanese engineers ask me what distribution I run and wether I have the latest version of Nautilus.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
I cannot say if Japan is where Linux is thriving most. Many Japanese kids who think they are into computers dream of being employed by Microsoft.
Microsoft is so big, and Bill Gates is (was?) the richest man on the planet, therefore, it must be good, kind of logic. Japan has had a tradition to view Big Company == Good. But it's more or less present in most cultures.
On the other hand, the Japanese have been much into technologies. Just take a look at all the gadgets a Japanese kids have. This is because anything new is viewed as good. Many think that they have to get that ``new'' stuff at any cost. Here New == Good.
Japan at some point was where Mac had the biggest market share (~20%?). When I went to Akihabara in the summer of '97, there were huge piles of boxes of OS-2 Warp!
Already in '93 or so, a magazine called Unix Magazine had a CD-ROM each month loaded with Slackware and FreeBSD. (Ironically, when Windows NT was getting mature, the magazine became a WinNT magazine, without changing its name. I do not know the current state of affairs.)
As with most other countries, information from the US flows to Japan in a skewed manner. When someone reports that Linux is big in the US, then most Japanese think that everybody in the US must be using Linux. They assume that the Linux is the future. In order not to be left in the dust of the US, they think, we have to do everything to catch up. This mentality also is in the works, I assume.
Thus, it is not that the Japanese are objectively evaluating the alternatives. But it seems to me that Linux's seemingly thriving in Japan is a combination and/or balance of all the cultural tendencies mentioned above.
Off course the all the above are my personal view.
No "Cowboy Neal" in the poll ....
Srashdot? Rinux?
My head hurts...
Tux will spend half a season as a character on the ever-popular Pokemon before spinning off into his own show. Special Powers: Stability, Scalability.
As Ash shouts out "I chose you, Tux," the tiny penguin grows to the size of a house and attacks his opponent with the grace of a ballet dancer.
The promotional poster for the show features the penguin chomping down on some sushi with the caption, "I always did like raw fish."
In other news Greorge Comes to Play at Gray's House
It would be another great irony if Japan does for Linux what it did for the automobile industry. Imagine a sleak, efficient little OS, well supported out of Japan, competing on equal footing with bloated and proprietary WinXP. Wouldn't surprise me in the least.
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Just curious. I'd actually be interested in hearing pro-Microsoft sentiment coming from other countries -- if for no other reason than novelty.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
VA Linux Japan quietly started "Slashdot Japan!