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South Korea Jumps To Open Source Software
mormop writes "Following on from the news that a far-eastern Linux distro is on the way, silicon.com is carrying news that South Korea is switching $300,000,000 worth of PCs to Open Source Software.
The only question now is will Steve Ballmer be capable of covering the sort of distance needed to pull back all these switching governments before collapsing with exhaustion, or is he en route for the Air Miles record?"
Finally, a large government has adopted this kind of standard. Hopefully more countries and more companies will join the bandwagon after seeing such a large example of free software implementation!
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artlu.net
I am in a position of managing development and procuring hardware and software. I have used Open-Source Software (OSS) instead of Commericial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications recently; I have moved some of my development overseas to India recently.
In hindsight, what I notice, is that I did both for the same reasons. While the COTS applications have lots of advantages (support, professional services, a vendor to yell at), OSS' price was right, and it was good enough. There are a lot of problems with off-shore development (time, politics, control), but, its good-enough, and the price is right.
I know of COTS software companies whose chief competitors are OSS solutions. As a customer, I have picked OSS over COTS. The companies have had layoffs. Imagine if lots of people decided to work on auto assembly lines in the spare time; what would that do to the gainful employment for auto workers?
I'm not advocating anything, I just think that it is important to remember that jobs are lost due to OSS as well as foreign outsourcing. On /., we focus on losses due to outsourcing, but ignore the OSS losses (because this community, including me, tends to be pro-OSS and anti-offshore). In some cases, those losses are the same, when
OSS work is done in foreign countries. If you want to be
protectionist by making it harder to off-shore work, shouldn't
you also be trying to limit OSS?
On the other side, if you want openness, shouldn't we have openness in labor markets as well as software?
Just food for thought...
Sarcasm and hyperbole are the final refuges for weak minds
... will take the lead in this do you think? Hyundai, Samsung or LG?
S.Korea had a similar plan during the 70s when they subsidized the big three to each develop and market their own version of Unix in the hope that they would be able to undercut the Americans.
Remember the big power outage in the northeast a month ago? (of course you do)
Well, the next day while I waited with a bunch of other folks in the sweltering subterranean heat of Penn Station, I was horrified to see that all the ticket machines had friendly little Windows dialog and error boxes popped up, screaming about not being able to restart properly.
What a ubiquitous piece of software.
I bootleg Fizzy Lifting Drinks.
But I would suspect that with Korea, China, and shortly Japan moving to Linux, that the game companies will start producing native Linux version.
Loki was just ahead of their time.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I'd really like to see ministries/departments of education across the english speaking world get together to create open-source textbooks for elementary & highschool subjects.
The effective cost of an OS is now $0
That's wrong. I gladly pay for my W2K licenses because it helps me get more work done quicker. For me to learn how to use Linux, it would take me many, many hours. Time is money, kiddo. No OS is free.
Makes it seem like all the pundits who called the browser wars OVER were a bit premature in their declaration. With non-U.S. governments going whole hog to non-proprietary products, Mozilla, Konqueror, and other open source products will finally see their share rise at the expense of IE (what else is there to rob from?). When the U.S. becomes a small subset of web users, IE's market share will be less like a monopoly and more like a realistic competitor.
I've just been to two websites in the last five minutes (www.iams.com and www.thefermentedgrape.com) that did not cooperate with Mozilla. Iams' had a text version; the other is a wine brewing store just down the street, so I'll be able to talk to them directly (gak! RealWorld!). Perhaps -- I'm the overly optimistic sort sometimes -- a country with 48 million people switching to Mozilla (yes, government != joe user) will make the odd web developer realize that not fucking everybody uses IE.
(ObDisclaimers: I realize that two web sites are not a huge deal. Most of the time I'm happy to write off the site in question and move on. The instructions did specifically state that I shouldn't taunt Happy Fun Ball.)
Carousel is a lie!
Wouldn't it be great if state governments ...
Did you read about Oregon's open source bill? It didn't make it through the legislature but it came pretty close. One great thing about the bill is that the actual wording mentioned not only cost savings, but the issues of local control, of keeping public information resources accessible, of preventing spyware or adware being installed and others. More info here
I'm not quite with the "governments should make laws forcing Open Source down people's throats"
No person may have Free Software (or opensource code) shoved down his throat. Companies may have "Free Software" forced on them - but they're not people, and their interests in this case do not coincide with those of the people.
Anyhow, counter this with:
* I am not quite with the "governments should make laws forcing Freedom down people's throats"
The negative association is only added by the "throats" part, and there's no real reason not to force Freedom of (modifying and redistributing) Software, like other freedoms.
Would you rather pay a bunch of money for an encumbered proprietary tool or get an approximately equivalent unencumbered tool for close to free? I don't see how MS can defend itself in this battle.
...that I am currently re-writing proprietary applications bought from vendors, (one client-server app based on Oracle powerbuilder and another 32-bit windows-based). Once my team is done, we will own the code but the technology underneath (I'm thinking of Oracle specifically and other middleware applications) will still be owned by someone else. Once say Oracle decides to no longer support whichever of their products we are using, we have to upgrade and re-program it again if necessary, etc...
Basically, I think the cost-effectiveness will be recognizeable in the longterm because of the total ownership over the technology and investment made into resources so I understand your point in regards to open source by itself not necessarily being cost-effective. I have worked in the state government for 5+ years which, while not an extraordinarily long period of time, has revealed to me the expensive process that is endured with throwing money into "current" technology only to have it fade away within a few years and require replacing.
But you are quite right in that open source does not guarantee anything but it does offer great potential.
- tokengeekgrrl
the next 10 years will be very interesting.
I do not see how microsoft will survive..
I mean they are and arent like IBM, see, IBM had much more going for it than an operating system.
they had PC's, servers, and all kinds of hardware, they flopped in the PC and OS category, and microsoft and independent PC makers kicked them aside, IBM has thrived on helping opensource, manufacturing computer hardware, etc. they have a survival plan. now they back free software, because hey, it's just software, you gotta have a machine to run the software.
microsoft is mainly software and stock shares, they do make computers, but they're just as shoddy as the software they make, when microsoft falls, they're going to fall VERY hard. IBM fell, but they had plenty of padding to help them surive, I suggest to Mr. Gates that he better start saving up his money and start looking for a place to retire, because his time is coming up.
but then again, let's not too cocky, because you never know what will happen, thus why I say the next 10 years will be interesting.
I bet in the end, all the other countries, except the US will have freedom to choose what software they want to use, while the us has to use microsoft as their operating system, the way special interest has a stranglehold on the government.
it's gonna be a wild ride.
After all, why should the asians buy from MS anyway. They are already using cheap asian labor to make the software then sell it back at inflated american prices. Why not just skip the MS middleman and "pay" their own people..and save a buck or two. When American companies pay cheap labor in asia it's "outsorucing", when Asian companies pay cheap asian labor in asia it's "unfair" competition...see.
I think you're right on about Globalism though. American companies aren't making JOBS for americans, they're just using it as an excuse to get free work. OSS changes the focus [back] from buying a canned "product" to buying experience and know-how. Corporations like MS have spent years trying to "bottle" knowladge from others and sell it real cheap. OSS lets YOU use knowladge to improve your situation. MS is really in the same racket as the RIAA or MPAA. While they are really popular, they don't make anything people can't live without. That OSS is even an issue shows how quickly software became "Corpratist". After all, we don't have debates about independant music or film, yet independant [free] software is somehow inferior or wrong? It's a great brainwashing job!
I just love the business atmosphere here in the U.S. where everyone without high-paid lawyers gets to lick the shit off the Big Players' shoes, or get bullied out of business.
Seriously, why is it that here in America people aren't more inclined to switch to lower cost solutions? I mean, if you think about it, with the money that companies and government spend on software, they could collaborate and develop their own software and never have to pay out the ass for software again.
Everywhere else in the world, companies and government are realizing this.
I just don't get it.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
S Korea may just be using this as a threat to get MS to negotiate on price and/or features. Until recently, govts (and large companies) haven't really had much of a credible alternative to Windows, so they haven't been able to use their incredible scale as purchasing and negotiating power. I wouldn't be surprised to see MS and S Korea come to a deal in six months time...
Oh I don't doubt that MS will discount heavily over the coming months, but if you have any knowledge of Korea at all, you know that there are two prime motivators: efficiency and freedom, especially the latter. Yes, Koreans are a freedom-loving people. Open source gives them the tools they need to be independent in software, and not only that, it gives them the tools to build a new software industry.
Just watch what comes out of korea in the next few years, prepare to be amazed.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
hmmm... It seems to me I had quite a few textbooks in elementary school that misspelled colour, flavour, etc. If the books are open source, the local governments would be free to localize them to their spelling or other concerns, and could either print them themselves or contract out the printing to the lowest bidder.