By Staff
Thursday, July 10 2003 10:44 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,39139989,00.htm

Japanese authorities may consider switching to Linux during their next IT systems upgrade in 2005, a move which is expected slash maintenance costs by half.

The government has taken to a proposal by Fujitsu, IBM Japan and Oki Electric Industry which moots the use of open-source for managing salary and other personnel administration data for the country's 800,000 public servants, government spokesman Masanobu Arao told Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

While finer details of the deal are still being discussed, the paper said the 188 million yen (US$1.6 million) contract will halve maintenance fees for government IT systems because Linux is free.

Japanese authorities first sneaked details of their Linux plans in November last year. At that time however, security issues were cited as the key impetus for considering the open-source move as hitches in platforms such as Linux are thought to be easier to fix.

Besides Japan, India and China are two other Asian strongholds for open-source software.

Officials in India's Department of Information Technology in New Delhi disclosed details of a move called the Linux India Initiative just weeks before Microsoft chairman Bill Gate’s visit to the country last year.

In China, Linux has already made inroads into a slew of government ministries such as the National Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Statistics and the National Labor Unit.

To curb the spread of Linux, software giant Microsoft has started to reveal its closely-guarded Windows source code to authorities around the world as part of its Government Security Program (GSP).

In Asia, the company has opened its code to the China and in other parts of world to Russia, NATO and the United Kingdom. Microsoft said it is also in discussions with more than 30 countries, territories and organizations regarding their interest in this program.