What I don't get is: what is there to fix? Linux is my everyday operating system, and, aside from a paucity of games and a somewhat limited selection of applications, it's perfectly ready already for the desktop. I'd be highly surprised if KDE haven't localised all their apps into japanese and chinese already. So what is this new project intended to produce?

So what is this new project intended to produce?

Profits for the Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese firms. Any benefits to endusers will be incidental.

"So what is this new project intended to produce?"

It will produce what government programs usually produce: a lot of jobs for 'our' guys, a lot of grants for our cronies, which will be partially recycled into political donations.
Governments never produce anything else, though examples of more wasteful and ridiculous projects abound.

It looks to me like it's more a matter of promotion, rather than development. Something like subsidies or tax breaks for companies that use Linux instead of Windows, I'd guess. The goal seems sensible, though I'm no more optimistic about its success than anyone else here.

I probably shouldn't bother to comment, because my recollection is too vague (and I'm too lazy to google), but didn't Microsoft recently enter an agreement with (I think) China to provide some of its Windows source code?

(If I'm not totally incorrect in this memory) could this play into the news item?

cj -

I heard the Chinese requested some Windows source-code, but when it came for Bill to deliver - he didn't. As I recall it, there was *technically* some code shared, but the Chinese called BS on Redmond and demanded to see what they wanted.

Bill told China "No" and that was the end of the deal.

It seems like the project will provide advertising and perhaps create an asian focused distribution of Linux, something like the current PRC origin Red Flag Linux.

I can see the need for an asian focused distro but I question why it needs government money.

More technical comments:

Notice that if you ignore the commentary, the article doesn't actually say they will focus on Linux. I assume they will, but there are other possibilities. BSD is apparently pretty popular in Japan (a relatively large portion of BSD developers are Japanese, anyway). BSD could certainly use the funding, if for no other reason than to level the playing field with Linux, which has benefitted (yes, really -- look at SELinux) from more than a little government money in the last few years.

There's also a home-grown Japanese platform, TRON, that is really, /really/ popular, holding about 50% of the embedded market in Japan (but roughly 0% of the desktop market). It's already gov't funded insofar as it's the product of researchers at a public (I assume) university, and is available in open source form. It's also an exceptionally nice platform from what I can tell (unfortunately there's a dearth of English documentation, and not so much as a good screenshot of the desktop environment).

Sheesh! If you're going to use Linux then it should be Security-Enhanced Linux.

Why don't they just license Lindows? That'll piss Bill off.

I haven't used Lindows, but I've read from very technically oriented people that it's very close to the user friendlyness of Windows (or rather it has similar UI, so the learning curve isn't as steep). Bottom line, wether it's Lindows, Red Hat or any other distribution, there is plenty of work going on to make it a better and better desktop environment.

But, yes, as many have said, this is probably just a government boondoggle that is meant to create jobs and help cronies, but also provide resources for localizing the OS to the various regions (something that a vibrant private market would be able take care of).

BTW, another good example of Japanese top down style of "innovation" was High definition TV. Remember, that the U.S. was supposedly going to lose out on this technology if we didn't have a government committee doling out subsidies for this next gen stuff. And didn't that technology languish in Japanese labs for nearly a decade. It wasn't until, after determining that demand was finally there, that the big American media companies got together with RCA, Sony and other (mostly Japanese) tech giants to figure out how the technology REALLY should work. So, I wouldn't hold out much hope for this doing anything. I would expect Microsoft to give massive discounts to companies in those markets however. Maybe that's their goal after all (except for China, who I believe wants the technology for themselves).

Bill told China "No"

I like him better already.

One of the great strengths of the open-source movement is that it is largely undirected, except at the lowest level of project management of individual modules. If the Asian governments are simply going to throw money into development, but otherwise leave well alone, then this project has a fair chance of making a positive contribution. More developers means more stuff. Of course that would go against the grain of anything that governments typically do, so I'm not holding my breath.

Market share is the dominant factor in determining whether a piece of software will be developed/ported for a given platform. As a Linux user, anything that gets more people using Linux is good for me.

I'd also be very interested to know how such an effort would impact on the coming digital rights management era. If the big media producers get their way, DRM will be a disaster. Any countervailing moves are to be welcomed.

If those government guys are smart enough to pick up a winning technology, why don't they go out into the market and make a bundle for themselves ?
They are politically smart - they manage to live the good life on other people's money, but that doesn't prove that their technology judgements are good.

I seem to recall reading that someone from Microsoft said this venture could 'harm competition' in the operating systems market. Typical.

Of course the idea is to go ahead with some sort of merging of Linux and Tron for all sorts of FUTURE applications, including the desktop, the server, networked devices, etc. This is the project, more or less, the US used Super 301 threats to squelch back in the 1980s. The world got lousy Windows computing and ultra-reliable Japanese devices with the 'underground' version of Tron. The future is here and it isn't MS.