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South Korean Gov't. Advocates Linux
Anonymous Coward writes "Korea has now taken the plunge on the Linux operating system, and is now starting to advocate Linux for use in government and public sector applications. South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communications announced the move today, which will result in decreased Microsoft market share in the region." According to the article, Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication "will provide a total of 3 billion won (US$2.95 million) for government agencies which want to use the Linux and other open-source computer programs this year."
Last month, they converted some of their assets in dollars, now they are getting away from USA's most fortunate software company ?
Is there some policy here ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Next we hear about this is that they have signed a 5-year contract with Microsoft to update all the state administration machines to latest Windows, after long and hard negotiations with M$. The price will not be disclosed.
Nah, communism=political monopoly (the "dictatorship of the proletariat"). On the other hand, free software is closely related to free speech, and free speech typically goes together with democracy.
What they call "people's democracy" is as far from "democracy" as possible. A popular Polish joke says: the difference between democracy and people's democracy is same as those between a chair and an electric chair.
It doesn't matter whether you're curbing free speech and free market because of extreme left-wing (communist) reasons or of extreme right-wing (religious) ones. The net effect is the same.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Don't you think this is simply the standard way of negotiating with Microsoft these days? Announce that you like Linux and they cut you big discounts. Certainly if I were about to place a big order with Microsoft, I'd make sure I let them know I had an alternative.
No communism is the utopian society where no state or opression exists of anyone - society of ultimate freedom - wich some people think can be reached by the dictatorship of the proletariat (russia, NK, etc). But others believe in other ways to reach the communist world through a evolutionary process. There has not yet been any country/society that has been communist. All examples many people have (north korea, soviet russia, china, cuba, etc) are in fact not communist only totalitarian states with "goals" to reach the utopian communist society - however, this "goal" is more or less just a smokescreen to make the people happy.
Soo, free software is pretty much like the communist society where everyone just lives in harmony with eachother - "to each according to need, from each according to ability" - just as OSS. However, free software is nothing like totalitarian dictatoriships, of course, which in turn has nothing to do with a communist society.
Is this because Asia wants to try Linux and thinks it's the best, or is it because of the anti American (And Microsoft is very American) feelings?
No. This can be the resukts of any of three reasons:
1) They calculated and saw that in the long run Linux is cheaper. Governements look normaly at longer periods.
2) They want to promote IT development in their own country. This will be good for finances. Instead of sending money out of the country, it stays inside.
3) They do not want to be dependent on only one company to deliver to them.
If there is any thought about Nationalities, it will be more pro-themselves then anti-anybody.
It is just that M$ is the only one having a monopoly (did I really write that?) and they are American. If they were Canadian, English, German or Navaran, they would do the same. It is left to the reader to think if there would have been a monopoly in those cases and if not, why.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
2.95 million buys a lot more Linux support than 2.95 million in Microsoft. The portion of money that would have paid for licensing can paid to developers, technicians, trainers. They can use this money instead of just earmarking it for Redmond.
In reality 3 mil is a small amount to 'test' Linux in the 'real world' and see how it goes. My guess, in years to come, judging the strong technology climate in SKorea there will be even more funding to switch from MS to Linux in even more government agencies.
just wanted to point out that it is a crime in the us doesn't mean it also is a crime elsewhere. Don't just think everything in the law is right either since some of them are pushed by parties and are not necessary
I am harvesting funny/good quotes. Please help by putting them in your sigs
I want to be freeee!
Nobody is forcing you to use Windows. You can be MS-free right now, if you want.
If you like a game that's only available to Windows, you basically have two choices:
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
This is an excellent point. I do IT for a company in Ukraine and our problem right now is that this country is starting to come around into the 21st century. Up till now it has always been that piracy is the norm (even for big companies). Everyone here uses windows, all our servers are windows, but I am not sure that the company actually owns a single Windows license. They hired me to try and switch EVERYTHING to linux. We are doing client machines first because thats where the huge costs come in. If they were to actually pay for all the software we are using right now it would bust the company (we are talking more spent on software than on employee salaries). So legitimacy is great and all but its a pain in the ass to switch to legitimacy after the fact. South Korea is probably in the same position, The US is riding them to get legit but the fact of the matter is no one can afford Microsoft's ridiculous costs. Sure its great for US businesses where there are millions just sitting around but in countries where the average person make $400 a year its just not feasable. Bah I will stop ranting and get back to this Gentoo install.
Crawl This - http://darkry.net/test/test.php
No, it's just because producing a multi-platform game usually increases development time and testing time by at minimum 1.5x.
The problem is that if you spent another 6 months on a project, the result of that additional 6 months of work isn't always justified by the increased number of sales or larger userbase.
This is true in almost all areas of multi-platform software development, so your assuption that companies who only release for the Windows platform are in bed with Microsoft is wrong. (Unless it's Valve or Gearbox your talking about..)
If the makers insist on Windows-only releases, why would you want to deal with them in the first place?
Maybe you want to play their games?
It means they're in bed with MS.
No, it means their profit margins are slim enough that they can't afford to throw money down the drain releasing a Linux port that nobody wants.
Seriously. Linux gaming was tried - by Loki - and it failed, because nobody wanted to buy Linux games. And even if a company did release a Linux version of their game, who would thank them? Slashdot would be as full of whining as ever, it's just that the whining would be along the lines of "Games want to be free! I want the source code!" and "It doesn't work on my PPC Linux, why is it only x86?!" and "I prefer Tux Racer, why did they port this Half-Life shit anyway" and so on.
This might be the first step in forcing those websites to drop ActiveX controls and make their sites work well in standards compliant browsers.