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Linux for Asia: Asianux
kiwimate writes "Two Linux distributors (one each from China and Japan) are building a common Linux platform for Asian companies. Using Oracle software to create the product, which is dubbed "Asianux", they have declared they'll create a common kernel so that the two companies' offerings can interoperate with ease."
And there was us thinking Asia couldn't teach us anything about how to do IT, but then they turn out to have companies that actually agree on common standards at the outset!
Is this just a national pride thing designed as a big middle finger towards western development? Wouldn't they be better served if they helped make current distros better?
Aren't you tired of stupid questions?
Why would it do any better or worse? Unless China completely airgapped themselves from the Internet, then the code written for Asianux will find its way back into the greater consciousness - not only does the GPL demand it, but the human race's general tendency to try to get away with disobedience wherever possible will almost guarantee it ;-) I don't think the GPL will suffer in China, but we'll see.
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There are perfectly pragmatic reasons why this isn't likely. Private forks of large OSS projects become harder and harder to maintain over time. The fork has to be regularly ported to new versions of the public project or fixes from the public project have to be ported to the fork. Either way, it starts out being a little bit of work and turns into a lot of work. Alternatively, the fork could be turned into a different animal altogether. The last option would need a dev team comparable in size to Linux itself. Every package in the distro that is forked adds to the difficulty and expense even more.
Sure, these two companies could do exactly what you say. But how long would they be able to keep the product fresh and relevant? Continually maintaining the fork is usually going to be less costly than just passing your changes to the upstream project.
...hidden underneath the ignorant ranting, which is that the GPL requires strong enforcement of licenses to function. It has nothing to do with Communism, piracy, or human rights. Countries like China simply don't have the legal infrastructure to deal with license violations. There are some indications that companies are getting away with GPL violations in the U.S.; how much easier will it be for them to do so in China, where the FSF has no legal representation?