Cary,
Before making any investment in MSFT, you may want to take this into consideration:
Japan, China, Korea to Jointly Develop Windows Replacement OS
September 1, 2003 (TOKYO) -- The governments and private sectors of Japan, China and Korea are set to jointly develop an operating system to replace Microsoft Corp's Windows, sources close to the matter said on Aug 30.
The plan is to be advocated by Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma at a meeting of economic ministers from the three countries to be held in Phnom Penh on Aug 27. Participants at the gathering are expected to agree to it, the sources said.
If they actually do, it will be the first such accord among major economies.
Under the expected tie-up, the partners are expected to improve open-source OS, like Linux. To do that, they will first hold a ministry bureau chief-level meeting in mid-September in Seoul, to be followed by the establishment in mid-November of a joint private-sector promotion committee.
Japanese private-sector participants will likely include NTT Data Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, NEC Corp, Hitachi, Ltd and Fujitsu Ltd.
Computer viruses targeting Windows' defects have been rapidly proliferating since early this summer, awakening global industry officials to the need for reviewing their heavy dependence on Microsoft's operating software.
To develop a Windows replacement, the partners will make improvements to Linux or other open-source programs, using their basic designs, and develop their own unique application software programs, including those for word processing and spreadsheets.
The governments of the three countries will consider subsidizing the project, and if a new OS is developed via the scheme, the three governments are expected to use it in some of their computer systems, the sources said.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun) |
