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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."

28 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Asianux by pheared · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess that's better than Lasia. Not much better though.

    1. Re:Asianux by brett_sinclair · · Score: 5, Funny

      And it is (ever so slightly) better than Anux.

    2. Re:Asianux by davidhan · · Score: 5, Funny

      C'mon, no one said "It should be called Rinux" yet?

  2. More open source in Asia news... by tcopeland · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...can be found on AsiaOSC.

    There's a note on the front page there about a recent Mongolian Linux release, too.

  3. Cooperation! by TwistedSquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

    1. Re:Cooperation! by t0ny · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cool! Now that countries like India and China are starting to move toward Linux, they can stop writing Windows viruses and begin writing them for Linux.

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  4. Chinx by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    was just too politically incorrect.

  5. Complete with by gwayne · · Score: 5, Funny

    keystroke-logging lib_bigbrother.so.0 no doubt

  6. Maybe I'm just ignorant but... by Michael+Crutcher · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Why the hell does the asian market need its own linux distros? Isn't there asian character support in current linux distros?

    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?

    1. Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... by geoffspear · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why the hell does the US market need more than one Linux distro? Wouldn't all the developers be better served working on just one of them?

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    2. Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Stick a Linux distro CD in a drive and boot. What do you see? If you answered "English words" then you win.

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    3. Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Consider this:
      - Japan has two character systems
      - China is using different character system
      - AFAIK South-Korea is using another different character system
      - Thailand is using completely different character system

      So now we have at least 4-5 different character system in south-east Asia (not counting India). I seriously doubt that any wester n distribution provides excellent support to all those characters.

    4. Re:Maybe I'm just ignorant but... by Dan+Ost · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably, but only if you could get everyone to agree on the same distro.

      If you tried, you would probably find yourself ham-strung by people like me
      who use different distros for different purposes. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

      --

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  7. What???! *Outrage* by curtisk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't you mean GNU-ASIANUX? *Hrmmmph*

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  8. common kernel? by brondsem · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All linux distros have the same kernel: linux. You need more than a common kernel to get a high degree of interoperability.

    --
    "a quote" -me
  9. This makes a lot of sense by MarkWatson · · Score: 4, Informative
    .. to both cooperate on Linux and base their IT on Linux.

    Personally, I now use Mac OS X (after about 10 years of enthusiastic Linux use :-) but there are several reasons for non-U.S. companies to standardize on Linux and cooperate on region specific versions:

    • Cost savings
    • increased security - not trusting a U.S. company (Microsoft)
    • improved CS education: really learn how an OS works in school by having the ource code
    • good performance on lower end computers
    • easier to create new inovative IT applications when you have control over the entire software stack

    -Mark

  10. And for France by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    And expecially for France, we will have Asterux.

    --
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  11. misleading writeup by kisrael · · Score: 4, Informative

    Using Oracle software to create the product

    More like "making use of Oracle's software development centre in Beijing"--its a kind of important distinction, otherwise I was wondering what Oracle IDE they were going to use, or database they were planning to build into the distro...

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  12. Rice-Chex by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny

    After this is successful, this Oriental version of Linux will be combined with the one being developed for the Czech Republic.

    We wish the new "Rice-Chex" project much success.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  13. Sounds better than by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Funny
    Rinux.

    Hey, before you get all crazy, I learned it from South Park...

  14. GPL! Ha! by Gothmolly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let's just see how well the GPL does in these countries, especially in China where piracy is rampant, and there is no such thing as private property (it's the definition of Communism, get over it flamers). Human (property) rights have never been terribly important in Asia, maybe we'll have to send in Stallman and Theo to get pissy at them when they uber-up the Linux kernel and don't publish their changes.

    -1 Flamebat, +1 Cynical, or +1 Prophetic? You decide.

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    1. Re:GPL! Ha! by The+One+KEA · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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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    2. Re:GPL! Ha! by dmaxwell · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:GPL! Ha! by deanpole · · Score: 3, Informative
      China where piracy is rampant, and there is no such thing as private property

      Funny you should mention that as they are about to vote on a constitutional amendment for it.

      Nonetheless, they already have private property except from the government who can basically take whatever they want. For the purposes of GPL and selling software, this is probably sufficient.

  15. I understand the Mongolian Linux by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Funny

    will sweeping through the rest of Asia's IT, crushing foes in it's wake. Hordes of people are using it, you know. (Sorry).

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    1. Re:I understand the Mongolian Linux by sofakingl · · Score: 3, Funny

      The Great Firewall of China should hold them back.

  16. There is a valid point here... by Draxinusom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...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?

  17. Re:but what's so bad... by Haeleth · · Score: 3, Informative

    An intelligent and knowledgable post, with one nit I'd like to pick:

    However, it is quite difficult for someone using a phonetic system to learn an ideographic one.

    Believe it or not, this is not true.

    Readers of ideographic systems and readers of so-called "phonetic" systems like English actually read in the same way - first they try to match the abstract shape of a word, then they break it down into segments and try to match the sequence of segments, and they only become aware of the individual components if that fails.

    For example, if you see the word "Slashdot", you probably recognise that as a single entity. If you don't know what Slashdot is, you're likely to see it as "Slash" and "dot", those being two entities you do recognise. A kid might say "Suh-ler-ah-suh-huh duh-oh-tuh" as they read it, but I doubt you do.

    Likewise, a Chinese reader seeing a common ideographic compound will recognise it as a block. They will recognise a rarer compound as a sequence of familiar characters. Only when faced with a rare character will they actually notice the component parts of that character, and then they'll have to go and look it up - just like you, faced with an English word you don't know, will have to look that up.

    The two systems are, in short, of comparable complexity. You only think Chinese is difficult because you think of the characters as ideographs rather than words.