[Fsfe-uk] Official east-asian free OS on the way?

[Paul Mobbs]

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Microsoft to Asia: No Fair! 

Reuters ,
02:51 PM Sep. 05, 2003 PT


SEATTLE -- A plan by Japan, China and South Korea to develop an alternative 
operating system to Microsoft's Windows software would raise concerns over 
fair competition, the world's No. 1 software maker said on Friday.

Japan, the world's second-largest economy, made a proposal at an Asian 
economic summit this week to build an inexpensive and trustworthy open-source 
operating system that would be based on a system such as Linux, which can be 
copied and modified freely. 

 "We'd like to see the market decide who the winners are in the software 
industry," Tom Robertson, Microsoft's Tokyo-based director for government 
affairs in Asia, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Governments should not be in the position to decide who the winners are," 
Robertson said.

Robertson said that Microsoft had a "direct and open line of communication" 
with Japan's government over software security, standards and development.

Japan's computer and consumer hardware industry -- which includes global 
heavyweights such as Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial and NEC -- have 
long searched for an alternative to Windows, which they contend gives the 
Redmond, Washington, software company too much control over the personal 
computer and electronics industry.

Japanese media have reported that the government would spend 1 billion yen 
($86 million) on the project and endorse an open-source forum set up by 
Japan's electronics makers.

But Japan's trade minister, Takeo Hirunama, took a different tack at the ASEAN 
economics ministers meeting in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh by raising 
security concerns over Microsoft's software.

Citing the recent high-profile virus attacks by the Slammer and Blaster worms 
against Windows-based software, Hiranuma told reporters it would be useful to 
"pursue a new kind, a different kind, of software code."

Microsoft's Robertson said that all governments and consumers were concerned 
by security and that it was an industrywide issue.

"Pointing to a particular software vendor and to a particular software 
(standard) gets you nowhere," Robertson said.

Robertson said Microsoft has been working to have Japan participate in its 
Government Security Program, which gives national governments and 
international organizations access to Microsoft's source code, the underlying 
blueprint for its programs.

China and Taiwan have already signed on to Microsoft's government security 
initiative, as have Australia, Britain, Russia and NATO.

The Government Security Program, launched in January, aims to address concerns 
by governments over the reliability and security of Microsoft's software by 
providing source access as well as technical advice on security.

"We are in discussions with Japan about the (Government Security) program," 
said Robertson, "And we're eager for them to join the program."

Asked if the establishment of an open-source initiative by Japan, China and 
South Korea would raise international trade concerns, Robertson, a former 
U.S. Trade Representative official, said that it was too early to determine 
any course of action.

"You would have to look at what a government does, whether it's a 
protectionist issue," Robertson said, "As with any trade-related issue, 
Microsoft would look to its peers and colleagues in the 
information-technology community for guidance."

End of story


==========

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for
this party nor against the other but we are for justice and mercy and
truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation,
and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity
with God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burroughs, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')


Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations,
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864

email - address@hidden
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