Japan, China and Korea join forces to ditch Windows

Three North Asian countries are closer to signing a deal to co-develop an open source operating system to replace Windows, according to the Japan news daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The agreement is likely to be announced this week by Japanese Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma at an economic ministers' meeting in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, said the report, quoting unnamed sources.

The deal will tie China, Japan and Korea in efforts to develop the software. Representatives from both private and government agencies will meet later this year to discuss the terms of the collaboration, said the report.

As in other parts of the developed world, in Asia, open source platforms such as Linux are used mostly at the edge of the data centre, in smaller, non-critical file, print and email servers.

It is likely that this new effort requires international co-operation because it aims to develop open source operating systems for non-traditional sites. Critical database and transaction servers at the core of the data centre and the desktop PC are areas dominated by Unix and Microsoft Windows respectively.

The reliability, scalability and security of open-source platforms in critical servers are largely untested, though firms like database software maker Oracle have been touting the suitability of its own versions of Linux. On the desktop, user-friendliness and file compatibility issues dominate when firms think of moving away from Windows.

As reported in CNET Asia earlier this year, the move to jointly develop a server operating system based on Linux began in March with a meeting in Thailand of over a hundred software engineers from the three countries.

The group includes representatives from universities and regional companies like Sharp and Toshiba.

All three countries involved already have thriving Linux software developer communities, especially in embedded Linux, the small-footprint operating system used in devices such as set-top boxes and industrial machines.

The three governments have previously pledged support for open source software, citing security and cost concerns. The current row over claims by The SCO Group that Linux uses code lifted from SCO-owned Unix does not seem to have dampened official enthusiasm for the platform, though it is expected that officials will continue to monitor the situation closely. Japan has this month reaffirmed official support for the platform and encouraged its industries to continue using it.

A recent survey by research firm IDC revealed more than 50 per cent of Asian servers run some flavour of Microsoft Windows. Although installed on only six per cent of Asia-Pacific servers, Linux enjoyed the highest growth rate last year, more than double that of the next-fastest, Unix.