Posted on 01/19/2005 11:18:26 AM PST by ShadowAce
Leading Chinese Linux software maker RedFlag Software Co Ltd expects to achieve a 50 per cent growth in sales revenues this year, pinning hopes on Asianux 2.0, a new product to be jointly launched in July with Japanese and Korean partners.
"We expect our sales revenues to increase by 50 per cent," said Bai Ke, RedFlag's marketing supervisor. "Asianux 2.0 will be a great impetus."
The company's board has not approved this year's sales target, "but they will probably raise that figure," he added.
According to Bai, the company made a profit last year for the first time since its founding in 2000. The firm's sales revenue last year is believed will hit US$4 million.
RedFlag is a partner of Japanese developer Miracle Linux and major South Korean software company HannSoft.
The alliance aims to grab a market share of Asia's rapidly-growing Linux market, competing with world-leading developers including RedHat Linux and Novell.
Bai confirmed reports that the three companies will jointly launch Asianux 2.0 in July, two months ahead of schedule.
"Each company will sell the product in their own brand, and within their own country," said Bai. "So far we (the three companies) have no plans to tap other Asian markets."
Bai said the alliance is striving to build a renowned Linux brand, and possibly a Linux standard in Asia, which is yet to be dominated by a single software maker.
Currently RedHat and Novell dominant Linux brands in the North American and European markets, and have become the de-facto standards in their own regions. "Asianux 2.0 will put pressure on the non-Asian players," he said.
As a local vendor, RedFlag can provide better services, which is vital to Linux developers, as they share similar technology behind the software, said Bai.
RedFlag commands about 40 per cent of China's Linux market, and the remaining stake is almost all shared by domestic firms, he added.
However, RedFlag's foreign competitors do not feel threatened by the new product.
"The Asian companies' alliance is unlikely to grow into a third powerful force in Linux," said Lolley Luo, marketing and channel director of Novell China.
Novell is the world's No 1 Linux developer, thanks to its acquisitions of two Linux solution providers - Ximian Inc in August 2003 and SuSE Linux in January 2004.
Indeed, the absence of a major player makes the emergence of a regional brand possible, but "the alliance won't work well," he said.
Unless one of the companies plays a dominant role in the alliance, the three members will face direct competition when they expand into markets outside their own, although this is unlikely to happen soon, Luo said. "And this is proven by the failure of UnitedLinux," he added.
UnitedLinux, formed in 2002 by four Linux vendors - Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE Linux and Turbo Linux - and committed to building a single, worldwide Linux standard, disbanded "as a result of such internal conflicts, "Luo said.
Moreover, world-leading IT product vendors do not often certify many Linux brands.
"But a single company brings a monopoly. Therefore two is enough, and now the consumers have Novell and RedHat," he said.
However, a number of IT hardware providers including IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and NEC have showed their support for Asianux and have agreed to certify the product.
Novell signed an agreement last Wednesday with leading Chinese IT solutions provider Neusoft Group on promoting Novell's professional Linux training programmes in China.
"Despite the fast-growing demand for Linux talent in China, employers still find it hard to find qualified Linux engineers," said Greg Embleton, vice-president of professional services and solutions at Novell Asia-Pacific.
"In 2005, we will continue to invest heavily in the Chinese market and remove enterprise barriers on Linux's deployment," he said.
Novell entered China last March. To date, it has set up a Chinese subsidiary, headquartered in Beijing, and an office in Shenzhen.
Meanwhile, Chen Shi, general manager of RedHat's Greater China Region, said: "we are glad to have counterparts in East Asia; they are not rivals."
The Linux industry is still in its infancy in China and RedHat has been stressing co-operation among developers to expand the market, he said.
RedHat set up a Chinese subsidiary last November to help tap the country's booming Linux market.
Commenting on RedHat, Luo said: "the company seems to have achieved little so far... but we have made breakthroughs in the government, banking and telecoms sectors."
Novell last year secured deals with leading Chinese telecoms equipment vendor Huawei Technologies on Linux solutions. RedHat and RedFlag were among its competitors.
Yet according to Cao Kaibin, an analyst at leading research firm CCW Research, RedHat is much more popular among Chinese Linux users.
"But that contributes little to their revenues since most Chinese download versions of Linux free from the Internet."
Hmmm.
Linux ping!
You're not on my ping list. Do you want to be?
Sure, add me.
Thye should be delighted by this news.
After all, wouldn't it be a good thing if our biggest competitor adopts an OS which is so clearly inferior to Windows?
So they complain no matter what the news is.
Mostly, they're in turmoil. They can't decide which is better--them having an inferior product, or us selling them the technology.
Maybe you should ping the Brass Buzzard. He seems to have a problem with China.
Inferior for most things, but not for supercomputers. China is now in the top 10 in the world thanks to Linux, which they use for nuclear weapons design. And despite your claim, we don't get a dime for all those free copies of Linux they've renamed from Red Hat to Red Flag. With your blessing, of course.
You keep going on and on about this.
What exactly is it about Linux that makes it a weapons development tool, for heaven's sake?
I mean, it's a relatively simple OPERATING SYSTEM, it fits on a single CD.
Anyone sufficiently motivated to design nuclear weapons would have to develop all the apps regardless of OS, and I doubt that any OS's have a secret trap door that calls the NSA if anyone uses them to run a nuclear weapons app.
Suppose there were no Linux. Do you think the Chinese would have had to shut down their weapons programs??
I'm sure that somewhere a member of Al Qaeda has used Wordpad to put together a list of bomb making supplies, but I don't hold that against Microsoft.
A "supercomputer" is a system capable of massive computations, such as required in nuclear weapons design and equally important mission simulation and analysis. Modern Linux code is now being developed in the US and subsequently given in whole to the Chinese for free, as a download, which they are renaming to products that they now own and control, such as "Red Flag" (based on Red Hat) and now "Asianux", all legal according to the questionable linux software licenses.
Until recently, this level of computer horsepower required expensive and unique hardware from the US or Japan, and support contracts with entities in those countries. In the late 90's, and now more recently, "clusters" of cheap PC's running Linux were created that can now meet or exceed any other supercomputer design, based on technology contributions made by IBM, without anything of significance in return.
In a nutshell, supercomputers that were previously outlawed for potential US adversaries to obtain, are now being handed to them on a silver platter. It started when Bill Clinton removed practically all export controls on our software. Read more here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3713194926c5.htm
http://news.com.com/Defense+bill+could+stifle+computer+trade/2100-7341_3-5253873.html?tag=nefd.lede
In our company we installed three Linux servers last year. Pray tell me how our adoption of another OS would have enhanced national security.
An OS is a tool, just like a gun or a 767. It's what you do with it that's good or evil.
China built there first Nuclear BEFORE they had supercomputer.
You're beyond help, if you don't see the danger of giving supercomputer software to potential enemies free of charge. It's no accident that this free linux software is now powering the most powerful computers on earth, it's become the perfect vehicle for taking extremely advanced US technology out of the US and providing it to those that could have never developed such operations on their own, completely free of charge and with full support. What else should we be giving the Chicom military for free, just so you can share in the spoils?
So what, so did America. Don't let that stop you from rushing to the Chicom defense, as usual.
"if you don't see the danger of giving supercomputer software to potential enemies free of charge"
You use the term "free" no less than four times in your post,as if that aggravates the crime. What's that got to do with it? If Linus Torvalds had sold his system rather than giving it away, would the Chinese military be any less of a threat?
1) the original linux was nothing but a crude foreign copy of (US made and owned) Unix. Without the multiprocessor contributions etc made by IBM it had absolutely no value in regards to supercomputers.
2) what does GHW Bush have to do with anything, there were export controls on this level of software prior to Clinton?
3) the linux software is what allows the cheap PC's to actually become supercomputers, or do you not understand the fundamental requirement of linux in the equation?
4) Free means it's all currently being allowed, without export control, and without payment. Should we just give them the plutonium for free too, or should we export control it, or at a minimum sell it for a huge profit and have agreements that we can monitor its use? We used to do this with some technology, like small supercomputers, but now they don't even have to steal the designs from the Dept. of Energy instead of negotiating or paying for it, we just give it to them now, for nothing.
Yet you seem in favor of the practice, so what else do you wish to give them for free is what I want to know? What is next? Our nuclear designs, so they can plug them into their free linux supercomputers we've already given them?
You may not understand the significance of that question, but the military has a term known as "opsec", or operational security. One of the basic principles is to deny the physical, because once the enemy has the physical they can exert enormous pressure on the virtual. That is, once they have the free linux supercomputer (physical), all they need are the nuclear designs (virtual). And is is exponentially easier for an adversary to obtain the virtual via espionage than to covertly build the physical. But you're giving them the physical, for free. Yet, you'll still argue, I'm sure. Why? One has to wonder.
(A) One specific open source application (IBM Linux) is being used for military purposes by our enemies. OK - if you have a plan to stop that particular technology transfer while leaving the civilian users of (non "supercomputer") Linux alone, I'll support it.
(B) Linux (and/or open source in general) is stolen code. OK - it's quite proper to let the courts decide that. But anyone who thinks that that their code has been stolen should either bring a case (as SCO has done) or shut up and go away. The Microsoft strategy of intimidation through veiled threats is not appropriate.
(C) Open source is taking jobs away from American programmers. Sorry - this is basically just tough rocks unless (B) above can be proved in court. And this particular claim deserves a more in-depth response....
Eagle, I'm the assistant director of IT for a medium size American company (6000+ employees), privately owned, which as a "face to face" service business employs all Americans in our regional service area. (We employ American citizens only, which is more than I can say for the closed-source software industry).
Every dollar I can save by using Thunderbird instead of Eudora, or OpenOffice instead of MS Word, goes to our owners as profit/reinvestment, or to our employees as higher wages, or to our customers as lower prices. I have no obligation to take from any of those three to subsidize the software (or any other) industry. Particularly in light of some of the unsavory licensing tactics that industry has now adopted.
The proprietary software industry is going to have to demonstrate sufficient added value to justify itself to any business. I have no doubt that in many industry specific, vertical situations it will continue to do so. But general purpose desktop applications and clients will essentially be commoditized within the next few years.
Doesn't work that way, what IBM has contributed to the world for free is now included in every copy of linux.
(B) Linux (and/or open source in general) is stolen code.
It's apparently infringing on the patents of others, according to lawyers at open source advocacy firms like the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Open Source Resource Management (OSRM).
(C) Open source is taking jobs away from American programmers.
Most definitely, US Unix vendors have been the first victim. SCO, who everyone seems to now hate even though they have been a victim, lost their former 30+% of the *nix market and are now down to basically zero. Sun Microsystems has laid off tens of thousands. Look at the articles on linuxtoday.com from yesterday, even small companies like Autodesk and Business Objects are facing a quote "threat". If you can't see that US jobs are being lost to foreign clones being given away for free, it's because you refuse to look.
You can continue to sell your cloneware to your customers, but in my expert estimation (I work for one of the largest defense contractors, and design/implement networks of thousands of clients) it's no different than selling them cheap foreign knock offs like we see for sale in tijauanna mexico.
It's a second rate product, pure and simple. You may be comfortable recommending such things to your customers, and able to ignore the obvious side effects to the developers and owners of the original products, and the lost tax revenue to our government and more importantly our level of national security, but obviously I am not. I feel I have strong justification for my level of concern, why you are so interested in pushing these inferior products on Americans despite such side effects, you'll have to answer for yourself. And saving your customers a few dollars so they can run products that violate our intellectual propertly laws and jeapordize the jobs and security of Americans isn't good enough, in my opinion.
Have a great day!
No proof of that.
...lost their former 30+% of the *nix market and are now down to basically zero.
Wrong again. SCO sold their business and name to Caldera, who never had a *nix market, other than a small Linux market.
If you can't see that US jobs are being lost to foreign clones being given away for free, it's because you refuse to look actually look at the facts.
Fixed it for you
It's a second rate product, pure and simple.
Which is why, of course, you always seem to have a bee in your bonnet about it.
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