[Fsf-friends] LINK: GNU/Linux in China...

[Frederick Noronha]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

>From the Mauritius GNU/Linux mailing list. Thanks to Kwang Poon. FN

Message: 1
   Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 09:03:50 -0000
   From: "kwang_poon" <kwang_poon@yahoo.com>
Subject: Linux in China

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: 11/11/02
Today's focus: China developers embrace Linux, study finds

By Phil Hochmuth 

A recent survey by research group Evans Data shows that Linux 
is running away with the nascent Chinese IT market. 

The survey was completed this month and asked 1,000 
applications developers based in China questions on trends in 
programming and technology being used there. It was found that 
44% of the developers said they had written code for the Linux 
operating system, while 65% said they expected to write a Linux 
application in the next year. 

Linux is a hit in China because of its open-source licensing 
structure, which allows the software to be reused and installed 
on limitless machines without recrimination or copyright 
enforcement laws. This helps keep costs down for the hundreds 
of thousands of machines the various government agencies must 
deploy in order to support the government, which runs a country 
of 1.2 billion citizens. 

Another driver of Linux in China is that the country has its 
own homegrown brand - Red Flag Linux - which was created by the 
Chinese Academy of Sciences. The PC Linux flavor is a staple on 
the desktops in many Chinese government agencies, observers 
say. Last year, the government of Beijing awarded IT contracts 
to six local IT providers, but rejected a seventh IT proposal, 
which came from Microsoft. 

Linux is also making inroads into servers in China. According 
to Evans Data, 11% of Chinese developers said they will use 
Linux servers next year, as opposed to only 4% who use Linux 
servers now. 

_______________________________________________________________
To contact Phil Hochmuth: 

Phil Hochmuth is a Senior Writer for Network World, and 
a former systems integrator. You can reach him at 
mailto:phochmut@nww.com.


Related links
http://www.evansdata.com/
http://www.redflag-linux.com/
________________________________________________________________________