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Indonesia Adopts Java Desktop System on Linux

Posted by Zonk on from the it's-nice-when-a-country-and-an-os-can-get-together dept.

UltimaGuy wrote to mention a DesktopLinux.com article discussing Indonesia's adoption of a Java Desktop System on Linux as a national OS. From the article: "This desktop software will be a major component of the new Indonesia Goes Open Source (IGOS) program that aims to help eliminate the "digital divide in the world's largest archipelago," the ministry and Sun Microsystems said in a joint announcement. The ministry said it will develop its own IGOS-branded software stack using JDS on Linux as the base platform. The agreement with Sun -- for an unspecified number of years -- has the goal of installing copies of the open source-based desktop across Indonesia, beginning with its government-affiliated offices, the ministry said."

13 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Informative Link by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Informative


    Here's an overview of the Sun Java Desktop System from sun.com.

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    1. Re:Informative Link by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Informative

      The long and short of it is that the Java Desktop System is a GNOME desktop that has been modified to function much like a Windows Desktop, but with Sun's own "flavor" of styling. (I hope you like purple.)

      Up until recently, JDS has been a commercial product intended to provide a common desktop across all of Sun's OS products. This ranges from Solaris Sparc, Solaris x86, to their own brand of Linux codenamed "Mad Hatter". Now that the OpenSolaris project is in full swing, Sun is releasing the JDS source code to allow their desktop to be portable across their OpenSolaris line as well. These steps to complete openness are probably what interest Indonesia the most, as they can have all the support of a big company like Sun, but none of the concerns about the product line being dropped tomorrow.

      (P.S. TMM, you need to do better than a quick link to something everyone already knows. Otherwise you're just karma whoring. You can do better than that! :-))

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  2. More of this is inevitable... by MarkEst1973 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...though maybe not the JDS, but open source certainly.

    Why any rationally thinking country would want to be at the mercy of a foreign owned commercial entity is beyond me.

    Why any developed country would want their critical infrastructure and national security owned by a foreign owned commercial entity is beyond me. If France really hates us, why on earth would they want to be locked in to MS?

    As countries develop and take control of their own infrastructure, I wager they will actually want to control it, which means access to the source code.

    1. Re:More of this is inevitable... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why any rationally thinking country would want to be at the mercy of a foreign owned commercial entity is beyond me.

      They're not. Sun has apparently released the changes to the GNOME source code used by the JDS desktop to support the OpenSolaris project. What that means is Indonesia will get 100% open source software, but have the commercial backing of a large, international computer company. Should Sun ever go "bye bye" (not as likely as Slashdotters would like to think), Indonesia can dust off the source and continue to maintain the software with help from the OSS community.

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    2. Re:More of this is inevitable... by hcdejong · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apart from the economical reasons other posters mentioned, there can be strategic reasons as well: the wish to have complete control of vital assets is not uncommon. One example is the defence industry many countries maintain, even if this is more expensive than buying equipment abroad.
      If you end up on the wrong end of a trade embargo, using foreign software could mean you're up shit creek.

  3. Well D'oh by OzPeter · · Score: 5, Funny

    Java is part of Indonesia :-)

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    1. Re:Well D'oh by BlueTrin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Damn you, I nearly spilled out all my "java" on my keyboard reading your post.

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  4. All we need is .... Harmony :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://incubator.apache.org/projects/harmony.html

    For those who does not know it is Apache incubation for creating a complete Opensources implementation of the Java Standard Edition platform.

    So let's hope this will boost FSF in improving resources to GNU's Classpath as well ;-)

    And maybe one day RMS will stop Java bashing ... ok, well this one I doubt :x

  5. Official Website by karvind · · Score: 5, Informative
    Official Indonesia Go Open Source website. (in english)

    IGOS weblog

    INDONESIA GOES REMOTE SENSING OPEN SOURCE (IGORSOS). Not in english.

    A quick google search also pointed to SUN Microsystem's press release regarding this effort.

  6. Re:Taking bets on when it'll be reversed... by MrWiggum · · Score: 4, Informative

    Now this may not count but I work at Novell and we are transitioning to being an all linux company every one in my department is running NLD or Suse 9.3 Pro. and have been for almost a year. Obviously we are a linux company and you would expect that we used linux for our desktops. But it just goes to show that a large corperation can do it.

  7. Following other OSS moves in Indonesia by linumax · · Score: 3, Informative

    More on Indoneia's open source efforts could be found here
    http://www.asiaosc.org/enwiki/page/Indonesia.html
    They are one of the most active in ASIA but they usually do it on their own while others like Japan, Korea and China are workng together on nice things like Asianux

  8. Re:Open source?! by benjcurry · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ummm...because Java Desktop System is the name of Sun's Linux distribution. Parent ain't insightful.

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  9. JDS the Phoenix? by WidescreenFreak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sun announced back in June that it was putting JDS on the low priority list. That alone makes this deal surprising. More than that, getting Indonesia to switch to JDS is quite a feat considering what a failure JDS has been to this point.

    Failure #1: Bad PR from Sun's own supporters that the first JDS came out not on Solaris, but on Linux. It is also rejected by a great deal of the Linux crowd because they already know how to get just about everything that JDS provides, short of Star Office, which is of course the Linux crown simply replaced with Open Office.

    Failure #2: Sun partners with a virtually unknown PC company to sell JDS-installed PCs to the masses. The problem is that the PCs were sold only through Wal-Mart's web site. I don't know who the brain was who thought such a distribution method was viable, but I hope that person is now unemployed. Who the HELL would possibly think that tech-minded people who are looking for a Windows alternative would think, "Oh, yeah! Let's check out Wal-Mart! They're just so techie! Hey, get those Best Buy, NewEgg, and Circuit City web sites of my screen!"

    Failure #3: PROFIT!!! Er ... wait ... wrong list ...

    Well, I certainly hope that this works out for Sun. I love Sun hardware and Solaris. But thus far their foray into the "Windows desktop replacement" genre has been a great deal less than admirable. These Asian deals are their third attempt at raising this phoenix from its ashes. If JDS doesn't pan out this time, Sun needs to enforce a "three strikes, JDS is out" rule.

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