Posted on 09/20/2003 8:59:06 PM PDT by yonif
TOKYO -- The threat to Microsoft from the free Linux operating system could intensify with the help of a powerful Asian triumvirate: Japan and South Korea are prodding China to join an effort that promotes alternatives to Windows. Japan has earmarked $8.6 million for the project and will hold a meeting in November for the three governments to strengthen research in Linux, including versions that better handle Asian languages.
Like some European countries, Japan, South Korea and China have long been wary of leaving too many government computers and networks dependent on Windows. Many experts see Windows as too prone to computer viruses and hacking.
In China, programmers developed a homegrown Linux version called Red Flag Linux a few years ago. That software has been touted by Beijing as a secure alternative to Windows.
But the latest multigovernment attempt to promote Linux is unprecedented in its scope, although some remain skeptical about its prospects.
"Linux is about to become an explosive hit in Japan," said Hajime Watanabe, chief executive of Turbolinux, a Tokyo-based Linux supplier. "The Chinese are determined to say goodbye to Mr. Bill Gates. The South Korean government is thinking seriously about it. And the move is starting to take off in Japan."
Any expansion of Linux overseas could give a boost to Red Hat, a Raleigh company that develops the software. By 2005, the company wants foreign sales to account for half of its revenue. In its fiscal second quarter, such sales accounted for 30 percent.
"It's all positive," said Gabriel Szulik, director of investor relations for Red Hat. "It's another sign that the market is expanding and looking for alternatives."
He said company executives have worked with government officials in Asia and Europe to expand the use of Linux.
Microsoft spokesman Mark Martin said the company shares the Asian governments' desire for strong technology industries.
But the company, based in Redmond, Wash., said "consumers and market forces, not government preferences, should determine software selection and development."
The company said it has been offering governments access to its secret Windows code to alleviate their security concerns.
Microsoft has identified Linux as one of the biggest threats to its success, as businesses, governments and others around the world try out or switch to the open-source software.
In the past year, in addition to allowing access to Windows code, Microsoft has also offered steep discounts to government agencies and school systems to buy its software more cheaply.
Takashi Kume, a deputy director at the Japanese Trade Ministry, stressed that the Linux effort is mostly about sharing research findings and encouraging exchange among experts, reducing government outlays on Windows license and maintenance fees, and promoting Linux use in the private sector.
The goal is to make a Linux standard that can be shared in the three markets, although specific targets and areas of cooperation are still undecided, said Sangjin Lee, a director at the South Korean Information and Communication Ministry. Proponents say the initiative makes sense because of the common software requirements to handle Asian languages, which have more characters than Western alphabets.
Even so, whatever technology standards emerge would be available outside Asia as well.
The collaboration comes as analysts are predicting rising Asian sales of networked gadgets that increasingly use Linux -- such as cell phones and Internet-connected household appliances.
The talks are expected to include representatives from electronics makers such as Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial, or Panasonic, and Samsung Electronics of South Korea.
Yoshiaki Kushiki, the Panasonic managing director overseeing the company's Linux projects, said Panasonic is already developing digital TVs that use Linux.
The disadvantage , he acknowledged, is that companies are going to have a hard time differentiating their products through open-source systems.
The Linux project may be Japan's biggest software challenge to the United States since the 1980s. Then, Japan's Tron standard was criticized as a possible trade barrier by the United States and viewed as a potential target of sanctions.
Versions of Tron are still used in coding and other software, but it never developed into a major challenge to Windows. Its use is minuscule compared with Unix or Microsoft products.
"If they were to try again, Linux would be a great place to start," said Benjamin Wedmore, an analyst with HSBC Securities in Tokyo.
But Wedmore remained skeptical, because standards tend to emerge from companies -- not governments -- even though companies have great difficulties in trying to agree.
Staff writer Jonathan Cox contributed to this report.
Turbolinux is truly a Japanese-developed flavor of Linux... But it's a bad joke to say that Red Flag Linux is 'home grown' in China. They took Red Hat Linux (American) and made a few modifications.
I think that the next beig thing will be something along the lines of "grid computing" where computing applications are shared between multiple boxes across the net. Whoever builds this into their OS has a good chance of making it.
These companies are hardly providing competition to MS here in the US... at least not with me. (I can't read Chinese or Japanese.)
But by your comments I suppose you would prefer to see the American-made Microsoft products shut out of foreign markets? And by Red Flag Linux, no less... a company which lifted its source code from Red Hat, an American company?
Like you, I prefer strong competition too, but when we reach the water's edge, I back American companies with very few exceptions.
The graver danger to US technology is the outsourcing of US IT engineering jobs. If something is not done about that then we will lose leadership in yet another industry.
It is deeply difficult to control technology, I do not have much faith in the abilities of governments to do so. It will be interesting to see how "freeware" plays against proprietery software. I do not think anyone knows. As capitalist I am all for competition, and no sector is more brutal than IT.
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