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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$2.95 million) for government agencies which want to use the Linux and other open-source computer programs this year."
Oops, I meant not in but from Dollars to Euros.
And no, it was not meant to be a flamebait but just a question.
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Oh, I hope my man Ballmer is awake. He should grab his bags and prepare to leave for Korea. We surely live in interesting times don't we?
Microsoft is failing to compete, and thus their market shares are declining. It's simple buisness here. What... do you want them to get a federal subsidy? Those poor innocent submarine patent people...
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Didn't they read that report by those two professors that got Microsoft funding about how Linux is plagued by security holes, higher ownership cost, and a swarm of locusts? I hope they can right the ship before it's too late.
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That 2.95 million dollar figure from the article seems very tiny. Wouldn't be surprised if they still pay orders of magnitude more for proprietary stuff.
Next we hear about this is that they have signed a 5-year contract with Microsoft to update all the state administration machines to latest Windows, after long and hard negotiations with M$. The price will not be disclosed.
That cry of anguish is all the South Koreans trying to get WINE to work so they can play StarCraft. (I have done it, it just took a lot of messing with settings.)
Centralization breaks the internet.
Just browsed around their site a little bit and I see lotsa positive open source-ish things.
.which is open source and sits on Apache (though it *could* be run on Win32 or Linux).
The Korean Friendship Association USA branch on the DPRK official site uses CMSimple .
This Trip thing they are talking about here has a bit at the bottom of the page that "This webpage and its images is released to the internet community under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License" (with link). Not a Linux endorsement, but definitely in the right ball park.
I doubt they'd ever come out and advocate something that isn't homegrown . . . you don't hear much about DPRK linux users, but somehow I bet they are out there since there's lotsa open source type stuff sitting on their primary web presense.
Or I could be wrong . . . but I'd bet there are some communist linux boxes out there . . .
Yes, I believe it was once known as "enlightened self-interest."
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
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?
Erm... no. The South Korean government is pretty friendly towards the US compared to other countries, both in Asia and internationally. The population gets a little annoyed with the excesses of some of the soldiers here and the United States government's abrasive approach to North Korea, but that in no way is going to translate to the South Korean government, in a country historically devastated by war that's now more than happy to take slow, gradual steps when it comes to international diplomatic situations. As such, suggesting that Korea is dropping Microsoft as some symbolic slap in the face is a really silly way to look at it. Even if the average young- to middle-aged Korean would like to tell the U.S. where to get off, the government isn't going to. Besides, the average Korean also LOVES their Windows-based games. Linux has very little fame over here.
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it has more to do with the fact that a long-term relationship with Microsoft involving Windows XP might seem too expensive for the government. Windows 98 is still the popular OS of choice over here, so if they're worried that dropped W98 support means migrating to either an updated Windows or another OS, it might be worth throwing a few million at Linux to see if it can be adopted on a broad scale.
As an aside, related to the parent's false dichotomy, why do so many Americans see anti-Americanism everywhere?
Actually, KIPA (Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency), an organization funded by the Korean government, switched all its desktops to Linux, and that news was around about 8 months ago. I remember, that the purpose KIPA switched all its desktop to Linux (around 100+ desktops), was to test the possibility of Linux desktop in Korean goverment agencies. The biggest problem of using Linux in government agencies, was the vast amount of in-house tools plus special applications that didn't exist for Linux, and staff training issues. I remeber a KIPA staff screaming for help on a LUG webboard, due to l10n issues. They seemed to have some problem because of inadequate Korean support in Linux.
:)
Something that may be ironic, is that KIPA's current president, Hyun Jin Ko, is the former president of Microsoft Korea.
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.
Exactly, so:
Incidentally given that the North Koreans have heavily into personality cults, claiming credit for everything, and heavy propaganda they would be a good fit for MS.
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
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Microsoft has finally come up with a plan to supress Windows piracy in the south-east : Widescale Linux Adoption.
;)
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Actually, the Nobel prize was Alfred Nobel's attempt to make up for his regret about the fact that dynamite was used by terrorists and governments in war. Dynamite had plenty of legitimate uses in construction but he was uncomfortable with the uses of it for violence, and gave the fortune that he made in dynamite to the fund for the Nobel prize. So while dynamite doesn't tarnish the Nobel prize, its use by terrorists actually did tarnish Nobel himself (at least in his own mind), and the Nobel prize was sort of a way of redeeming him.
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.
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I've been teaching in Korea for two years so far and the average Korean could not use Linux productively. The reason being is that almost every web site requires ActiveX to do anything; logon, make purchases, check email. Even on the sites not requiring ActiveX, they look like garbage on anything but IE. One plus is that MS office is not nearly as intrenched as it is in the States with many Koreans preferring a Korea Office suite (I cannot remember the name as I do not use it myself.) And, of course, you cannot play Kart Rider on linux.