Taiwanese Parliament votes Against Microsoft

linumax writes "Taiwan's parliament has voted to end its dependence on Microsoft software, demanding that the government reduce purchases from the software giant by 25 percent this year. The resolution, passed on Friday, is an attempt by the island's law-making body to end the near monopoly Microsoft has with local government offices, a legislative aide said. Local newspaper Commercial Times said however that the resolution may not be binding because it runs against fair trade regulations in Taiwan. Officials at Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission declined to comment."

Comments

And replace Windows with?

[Stan Vassilev]

They can replace it with OSX computers, thus spending a lot more money in the process, or they can use some Linux variety which will not support most of the software they need, requiring custom solutions and ports, thus spending a lot more money in the process.

So which one will it be?

Instead of dumping Windows randomly (wtf is getting rid of "25% of the monopoly"??) they could instead negotiate to get better deals out of MS. If they buy XP now, they're set with support and a modern OS for at least the next 7 years (I know Vista is coming, but XP will be a factor for a long, long time still).

Taiwanese Piracy & Red Flag Linux

[reporter]

The rate of software piracy in Taiwan is just under 50%; in other words, for each legitimate copy of software, there is a pirated copy. So, even if the Taiwanese government succeeds in reducing the use of Microsoft software, the impact would be 1/2 of what you would expect on Microsoft's bottom line.

Also, note that Taiwanese have already integrated their economy into the economy of mainland China although the political systems remain separate. There is the distinct possibility that the Taiwanese government may standardize on the Chinese version of Linux: that version is Red Flag Linux.

The Taiwanese have already invested more than $100 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. Following the example set by mainland Chinese companies, Taiwanese companies have also sold weapons technology to Iran: Washington slapped sanctions against both Taiwanese companies and Chinese companies. (My source is "The Federal Register" for January 2005.)

More than 1 million Taiwanese have already emigrated to mainland China. They voluntarily choose to live under the authoritarian rules of Beijing and view being ruled by Beijing as simply an inconvenience. I suspect that most Taiwanese have used Red Flag Linux; certainly, most of the Taiwanese emigrants to China have used it.

As a side note, we Americans should never sacrifice our time, our money, or even our lives to prevent a mere inconvenience for the Taiwanese, and we should terminate our support for Taiwan. The Taiwanese have manipulated us Americans completely. (The Taiwanese constitution even insists that Tibet should be integrated into "One China".)