News: "Under the banner of 'Hana Linux' - literally 'One' Linux - the two countries [North and South Korea] have agreed to work on a groundbreaking IT development project that might shatter the final Cold War boundary. South Korea is one of Linux's biggest converts. Since discovering the free operating system in 2003, officials have unveiled plans to switch all government-run offices to Linux. Now under the terms of the agreement signed between the two states, South Korea will set up Linux training centres in North Korea."Good foresight. With increasing inter-Korea exchanges and trade, it may be imperative that the two sides of Korea develop and utilize compatible technologies and standards. Using the free operating system would benefit cash-short North Korea tremendously. It is this kind of long-term vision that would bring closer and help facilitate Korean reunification.
[Photo: North Korean students learn how to use computers.]
2 comments:
How is the South Korean government going to switch to Linux when the entire South Korean Internet utilizes an encoding system that only works with Internet Explorer? The dirty little secret behind all the hype about South Korea's Internet success is how the impatience to start e-commerce 10 years ago before encryption codes were available created an MSN monoculture which to this day prevents users of Linux, Mac, or Mozilla from accessing Korean websites for shopping, banking, or other transactions. Hopefully the South Korean government will use this Linux initiative as an impetus to correct its past mistakes and finally get the country's Internet onto the global standard.
Thanks for your comment. I was not fully aware of the technical issues and controversy, but the low-cost route of Linux seemed promising.
Post a Comment