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Korea Replacing 120,000 Windows with Linux
The Korean government has just signed a contract with Hancom to purchase 120,000 copies of HancomLinux Deluxe 2.0 (which is basically Red Hat OS + tweaks + korean language support + KDE localized) and HancomOffice 2.0. Thats quite a big achievement. Here is Hancom's Press Release about it.
This is a major achievement for the free software world. Let's hope that other enlightened governments will do the same, instead of helping support the American monopoly.
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Sorry to be such a poopy-pants. (Has anyone heard any more about Mexico's initiatives?)
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Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
i wonder if, when a redhat employee reads that, if they feel like they should get a piece of that pie.. or if they all genuinely think "yay, good for them!" i mean 120,000 copies is quite a shot in the arm. open source rules but this must make some people jealous. maybe its just commercialism's power of me :-D
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
This is a great win for the Linux community. This does bring up an interesting point. What kind of internationalization packages are available for Linux? The main reason for asking is, with an ever growing intall base in Asia, there will be more and more applications developed and contributions made to open source software with a need to be ported from English to say Korean or Chinese and vise versa. How easy is this to do?
--I don't mind the school of hard knocks, it's those darned refresher courses I hate. =)
When I got my first computer... it was a windows 95 machine (yes, I know, i'm a very late bloomer)... and I learned that thing inside and out to where I just *knew* windows intuitively. When I learned that the entire computer world was not windows... I took my first oppurtunity downloading the slackware disksets. It was more difficult I think, because I was so used to the windows point & click interface. Now I run a combination of BSD/SlackWare/Win2k all intuitively... but I would have rather been introduced to any of the unices as my primary introduction to computers.
As for these Koreans, I think this is a major step in computer education for those new to computers. Those who are not familiar with computers whatsoever will have no problem adapting to Linux, since they know nothing else. When learning any non windows operating system... you get so much of a better feel on how computers actually work. I think it's a great tool to learn, and even as just a user... I've noticed RedHat is great for that purpose.
Hmmm I see 2 scernario's here.
1)Govt. official goes and buys one copy. Makes the required hundreds of copies(there is a huge chunk of time) and then team of people installs hundreds of copies, another huge chunk of time. Now who wants to be the company doing support for these 120000 suddenly gained users?
2)Govt. buys contract for software/manuals/training/support.
Which option is gonna be a pain in the neck, and which option won't?
1 tequila 2 tequila 3 tequila floor
Me the techie does. Me the consumer does not. In 1995, most major dummy computer stores (where regular consumers get their stuff) offered computers with either OS/2 Warp 3 or Windows 95 preinstalled. Now, it's just Windows.
So while Microsoft has no monopoly in the techie market, they do have one in the thousand times larger real consumer market.
I've noticed that it's governments, more than any other institution or demographic, that seem to latch on to Linux the most (witness adoptions in Scandinavian countries, the NSA in the States, China and so on). However, most distributions don't specifically target government at all; they generally either go after the serious Linux user or try to focus on user-friendliess (Corel and Mandrake, as examples).
What if focusing on government demands was the answer? Ask them what they want, or develop with government needs (security, administration, etc.) in mind. If you do it right it shouldn't be hard to convince a government, be it municipal, provincial/state or maybe even national, that it's in their best interest to use a very cheap OS with few security holes and entertainment-based distractions (as much as we love Solitaire).
If you can get government workers to be exposed to Linux every day at work, it would encourage them to use it at home (though some might try to avoid it if the experience is unpleasant). That would then increase the general user base and give more reason for civilians to use it (as their friends would use it).
hey folks, aren't there still two Korea's?
I wonder how many of those copies of windows were legally purchased licensed copies? Thought so. Not even our government pays for all it's software. We're going to see alot of this as M$ cracks down on unlicensed copies, and tries to exrtort more and more money from it's customers. More and more businesses at the top level where only one thing counts (the bottom line), are going to go with whatever can even theoretically get the job done as long as it's cheaper. Of course you say "Well why haven't they done it yet? Linux is so ready for prime time." Lets face it, as much as I love it or you love it, it still isn't ready for the masses. But soon, my pretty, soon... or somethin' like that...
Shift happens. Fire it up.
Linux is definitely much more of a "do it yourself" system than Windows is. That's viewed as a liability by most corporations in the US, but it's an advantage where skilled labor is cheap.
There's a parallel in the construction industry. In US, labor is more expensive in comparison to construction materials than in, say, Mexico. In the US, construction uses as many prefabricated, pre-assembled components as possible in order to minimize on-site labor. It's cost effective to manufacture, stock and transport a large variety of pre-fab parts to minimize on-site assembly. In contrast, where labor is cheap in comparison to materials, you find that it's more common to bring raw-materials on-site and create what you need from them, since it's cheaper to pay a skilled laborer to do it as-needed rather.
The same thing applies to software. It does suprise me that countries like Korea and China like Linux where having skilled on-site talent is more cost-effective than paying large license fees to MS.
It depends on your goal. If you want 100 percent scores on the FSF Purity Test from everyone who encounters or uses any OS/FS, then you're correct.
If your goal is to give as many people as possible a taste and gentle introduction to OS/FS because you reason that "you catch more people with honey than with vinegar", then you should support this move.
I think the second approach will make for more people using OS/FS in the long run, simply because more of them will be exposed to it.
Sure, they're using a proprietary program on top of an OS/FS system, but it's better than a proprietary system on top of a proprietary OS.
The world will be a better place when nongeeks at least know about OS/FS so they can decide if they want to use it or not. Beating someone over the head doesn't work unless that person is already one of the converted.
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
and at that staples, there dont seem to be any linux preloads, and in fact, that is impossible to get at staples, or at any large retailer (where most machines are bought).
so i can get linux, but i have to pay for windows first on that new computer.
and why cant i get it preloaded, because MS has the computer mfg's by the balls
I can get a computer without windows, but it wont be at Best Buy, Compusa, Circut city, etc etc etc.
Dude, if you own something it doesn't get taxed unless it is generating dividends and/or interest, which is what he would pay when necessary. It's when you sell it that you get hit with all the cap gains.
This is NOT what Linux needs
Oh? And what does Linux need? Only open source programs that are free? Are you saying that people can't make an honest living programming and selling their closed source software? I agree that it sucks that it uses a closed file format, but that's the way it works sometimes. With any luck maybe that format will be opened some day. Does it matter though? They can't be worse than Microsoft who makes it a point to constantly change their formats mainly just to screw everyone else.
Realistically I think you might be comming at this from the wrong angle (as many of us tend to do). What does Linux need? Who cares? They didn't purchase those licences because they neede Linux, they purchaced it because they needed superior software that did what they wanted it to. If Hancom makes a better product and they sell it, then more power to them. I'd like to see more corporations drop their closed source ways too, but right now that's not going to happen, and unless some of these companies start making things for Linux, Linux will be sitting in obscurity for quite some time. If open source alternatives are going to take over, then they must be better products - and unfortunatly right now Star/K office only get "close but no cigar". Right now open source is only making strides because of those products which truley are better, like Apache. Closed source isn't all that great, but right now Linux could probably use a small crutch like this. I mean really, what's the alternative: use MS Office on Windows like every other goverment...
How about paying for 1 copy (or, say, 10) and copying it to all the machines that need it?
The excess money can go to pay for a real service, like to employ free software programmers.
Actually, Unicode does have different glyphs for the different forms of the same character, for example:
Traditional:
Simplified:
Japanese:
And without Unicode, you wouldn't be able to see all three characters in one page without doing a lot of messy stuff. Also, most chinese can usually read both sets, and many write simplifed on a daily basis (the difference is just like handwriting/printing, with thousands of variations, not just 52 alphabets :)
In the later versions of Unicode (3.x), almost ALL necessary characters are included, including obscure cantonese swear words... If you are concerned about how the fonts are shown based on the different cultures (like missing a dash here and there), you can use a japanese font instead of a chinese font, and just map to it.
The main problem is that Unicode CJK characters usually take 3 bytes while other character sets like Big5 and GB only takes 2. And also, almost all legacy systems, including many business and especially cargo shipping software in south east asia uses their local character set, not Unicode. This will not change for a long time. However, the trend is to use UTF8 in the data storage layer and converting it to the local set (and just replacing a character not in the local character set with a '?') for the user in the display layer.
I'd like to see more corporations drop their closed source ways too, but right now that's not going to happen, and unless some of these companies start making things for Linux, Linux will be sitting in obscurity for quite some time. If open source alternatives are going to take over, then they must be better products - and unfortunatly right now Star/K office only get "close but no cigar". Right now open source is only making strides because of those products which truley are better, like Apache. Closed source isn't all that great, but right now Linux could probably use a small crutch like this.
This is the very mentality that is holding Open Source back from total domination. It is the view that free software can only be produced outside of business because there's no money in it. Therefore, as the thinking goes, proprietary software is ok because it produces solutions that people need right now, while free software must wait for volunteers to make slow, steady progress.
The reality is that customers will pay for whatever solution is cheapest and does the best job--whether they are paying for licenses or the labor of free software programmers. It is the fault of Open Source developers for not capitalizing on this to provide themselves an income and allow them to work on their pet projects full-time. There's no need for proprietary licenses whatsoever in this model. Consider this scenario:
Business customer needs software solution X, to be rolled out in 6 months.
Seller A will provide X by means of licenses for $2 million, plus extra for priority support services as needed. New versions of X with cost future licenses fees. Customizations will also cost extra.
Seller B will provide X by negotiating a contract for a complete solution: provision of all software, support services, and desired customizations, for $1.5 million. All new versions of X are free. Seller B ensures that customer's needs are met precisely and in time for the rollout date. Customer is treated as a peer in the development cycle, resulting in more personal service and higher quality software.
A is proprietary solution provider, B is Open Source. The choice is obvious, given that geeks will get off their respective arses and bring B into fruitful existance instead of moping around complaining that there's no money in free software blah blah blah.