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2 Koreas, 1 OS North, South unite on GNU/Linux
Red Hat is top IT choice in Japan
Malaysia gets it
MS buys China
Japan OKs open software standards
China makes $130 computer Sichuan based computer maker Sinomanic launched production of a series of low-end computers for the less developed regions in China. Priced as low as 998RMB ($130), these computers will include a GNU/Linux operating system, MIPS processor, multimedia and network supports. Internet browsing and document processing software will also be packaged into these systems. More on the story from Redline China here. Konnichiwa, Foxkeh  Mozilla Foundation international affiliate Mozilla Japan has launched an English language website for Foxkeh, its cartoon mascot for promoting Mozilla Firefox. The site has English translations of some of the content already available on Foxkeh's Japanese website, including introductory Firefox videos, monthly calendar desktop wallpapers and an amazingly detailed flowchart illustrating the history of Firefox. [While the use of such a mascot may be met with bemusement by many in the West, it's not out of place in Japan, where cute imagery permeates the culture to such an extent that even the military is represented by a cartoon character] More on the story from MozillaZine here.
Japanese schools may switch 
Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to introduce the open-source operating system GNU/Linux for use within classrooms across the country in the near future. A conference held in Tokyo attended by around 2,000 government officials, teachers and education board members considered the option of using open source in reclaiming older computers by switching from unsupported and out-of-date versions of Windows to GNU/Linux. A teacher from a high school in Fukuoka Prefecture explained: "Having to always install the latest software is costly, and it makes things very difficult for us. From now on, I want to actively move toward the use of free open-source software." More on the story from Ohmy News can be found here.
Ambitious goals await India's BOSS The development team at BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) has announced the release of BOSS GNU/Linux 1.1, India's first operating system with the ambitious goal of supporting all official languages in the country. More on BOSS Tarang V1.1 here.Korean professor takes on MS monopoly 
A Korean law professor is leading a civil rights movement of computer users, pressuring the unresponsive government to lessen Microsoft's monopoly on Korean Web sites and to give breathing room for non-Microsoft users. Kim Kee-chang, left, who teaches at Korea University's law school, is filing three compensation and criminal suits against the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Korea Financial Telecommunication & Clearing Institute (KFTC). Kim claims that the agencies have neglected their duty of preventing a monopoly for Microsoft's Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser. More on the story from the Korea Times in English here.
In Asia? Write about Free Sofware/Open Source Software? OSR invites writers in Asia -- from Turkey east to Japan -- to submit stories about free software/open source software news and developments for publication. Contact us here. |
People in South Korea speak of folks in North Korea more as lost brothers moreso than bitter enemies. While the two nations have made various rapprochements over the years, it now appears that North Korea and South Korea are teaming up on a new joint project: a Korean-language GNU/Linux distribution called Hana Linux. More on the story from Information Week 
Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Red Hat's operations in Japan has been named the number one vendor that customers intend to conduct business with in the future by Nikkei Market Access' "Industry Trends in Intended Use of Products/Services of Major Vendors" study. More on the story from Yahoo! Finance 
The Malaysian government today announced plans to adopt open standards and the Open Document Format (ODF) within the country's public sector. The Malaysian Administration Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) last week issued a tender for a nine-month study to evaluate the usage of open standards in its information communications technology (ICT) deployment. More on the story from ZDNet Asia 
Fortune reports that Microsoft Windows is used on as many as 90 percent of China's 120 million PCs, because of piracy and because Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low that a student can now buy a combination package of Windows and Office for $3. By hook or by crook, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols shows how Microsoft bought China in his latest column. More on the story from DesktopLinux.com