"Japan, China, South Korea to jointly study Windows contender" AFP 03/09/02

[Max Blanco]

Note instructions at end. It sounds like David Ticoll advised them.



   Tuesday, September 2, 2003
     _________________________________________________________________
   
       Japan, China, South Korea to jointly study Windows contender 
   
                            TOKYO, Sept 1 (AFP)
   
   Japan, China and South Korea are likely to agree soon they will
   jointly study computer operating systems to give consumers other
   options than the dominant Windows by Microsoft, an official said
   today.
   Japan's Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma is to propose the
   study on open-source operating systems when he meets his Chinese and
   South Korean counterparts in Cambodia on Wednesday, a trade ministry
   official said.
   The three economic powers of Asia are to hold the Phnom Penh meeting
   on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
   trade ministers' meeting.
   "The state (of Japan) has no intention at all of rejecting one
   specific product, but Microsoft's Windows is totally dominant despite
   some people's wish to try other products' functions," the Japanese
   official said.
   "It is important to provide (electronics) users' with options - some
   people may want to use Windows as it is convenient while others may
   want an open-source software due to concern over security and costs,"
   he said.
   Open-source systems such as Linux cannot be a serious alternative to
   Windows at present, he said.
   "Open-source software represented by Linux is solid in terms of their
   core software, but their peripheral software for such functions as
   word processing, spreadsheet and printing are not," he argued. The
   central governments need to promote the development of more
   user-friendly peripheral software for open-source operating systems,
   he said.
                                      
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