Taiwanese Government Says All New PCs Must Be Linux-Friendly

[RAV TUX]

form OS news
Linked by Thom Holwerda (http://www.osnews.com/editor.php?editors_id=11) on 2006-06-03 16:15:51 UTC, submitted by Moulinneuf (http://www.osnews.com/user.php?uid=266)

The government-run Central Trust of China has mandated for the first time that all desktop computers purchased from now on must be Linux-compatible (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/06/03/2003311446), demonstrating the Chinese government's desire to widen the nation's usage of open source software. "It is a global trend that Linux is gaining wider adoption due to its lower costs and better adaptability," Mike Lin, a consultant at the Taipei Computer Association, told the Taipei Times yesterday. Note: This article is about the Republic Of China (Taiwan) and not The People's Republic Of China.

The complete article from the Taipei Times is below:

Government says all new PCs must be Linux-friendly
By Jason Tan
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Jun 03, 2006,Page 1 The government-run Central Trust of China has mandated for the first time that all desktop computers purchased from now on must be Linux-compatible, demonstrating the government's desire to widen the nation's usage of open source software.
"It is a global trend that Linux is gaining wider adoption due to its lower costs and better adaptability," Mike Lin (林智清), a consultant at the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Taipei-based Central Trust -- whose operations include banking, insurance, trade and warehousing -- is in charge of purchasing computers and other equipment for government agencies and schools.
Central Trust commissioned TCA to run compatibility tests on desktop PCs manufactured by bidding vendors to ensure their products are able to operate on the Linux system.
The new requirement is in effect as of the 11th tender, which began last month and runs through September, according to a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily yesterday.
About 120,000 desktops will be procured during the 11th and 12th tenders, the report said.
"In the past, some of the procured computers did not support Linux, therefore this new mandate signifies the government's push to reduce reliance on the Windows operating system," Lin said.
Thirty-three desktop models from hardware vendors including Acer, Asustek, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard Taiwan, were certified Linux-compatible, while four models each from Gigabyte Technology and Synnex Technology International were still under evaluation, according to the newspaper report.
In the legislative session held late last year, legislators reached an additional consensus that there should be a 25 percent cut of procurement budget on Microsoft's products across all government agencies, citing that the solutions — which monopolize the market — are too expensive. In response, Microsoft Taiwan Corp yesterday said that it respected the government's decision for the Linux inclusion into desktops, as long as the market is competing on a fair ground.
“Consumers are free to choose their preferred products, and will find ours more user friendly,” said Vincent Shih (施立成), a legal director at Microsoft Taiwan.
He added that prices of the company’s solutions here are not higher than those selling in other countries.
“As a whole, the total deployment costs of open source do not necessarily lower than Windows’. We will continue to negotiate the rulings with legislators,” he added.

__________________________________________________ _




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[Engnome]

I see a bright/brighter future for Linux and open standards. The Open format that became an ISO standard and the Danish goverments decision that by 2008 all documents produced by them will also be available as open formats are steps in teh right direction.

[RavenOfOdin]

“Consumers are free to choose their preferred products, and will find ours more user friendly,” said Vincent Shih (施立成), a legal director at Microsoft Taiwan.

HA!

User friendly. . .yes, right, THIS from the company that brought us ME, XP (which STILL breaks in all manner of ways) and Vista.

Such arrogance.

[mostwanted]

Looks like I'll keep buying ASUS computers from now on. My new ASUS laptop works absolutely perfectly with Ubuntu and that was before this statement was publicised :)

Note: ASUS is Taiwan-based!

[Donshyoku]

What do they mean by Linux-friendly?

Is it possible to make a computer that is not Linux-friendly? Or are they referring to a BIOS that can be accessed/modified freely?

[jc87]

What do they mean by Linux-friendly?

Is it possible to make a computer that is not Linux-friendly? Or are they referring to a BIOS that can be accessed/modified freely?

I think they mean hardware made by manufacters that make quality drivers for the Linux Kernel , or that releases the specifications so the community can do it themselves.

[RAV TUX]

Looks like I'll keep buying ASUS computers from now on. My new ASUS laptop works absolutely perfectly with Ubuntu and that was before this statement was publicised :)

Note: ASUS is Taiwan-based!

do you have a link for ASUS?

[G Morgan]

As long as a major powerhouse like China (I know this is Taiwan but China has also taken many steps to promote Linux) continues to support Linux I don't think there will be much to fear in the long term future wrt hardware support.

Companies will want to trade in China, this means they must support Linux.

[christhemonkey]

http://www.asus.com/

[Engnome]

Heard some good stuff about Asus but are you sure that all computers they sell worldwide will be Linux friendly just because the company is registered in Taiwan?

[RAV TUX]

http://www.asus.com/
I've been looking at Fujitsu but the Asus looks good:

at 3.3 lbs nice ultraportable:

Z33A
http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/2651/606l2jd.th.jpghttp://img432.imageshack.us/img432/6632/z33alarge2qe.th.jpg (http://img432.imageshack.us/my.php?image=606l2jd.jpg)
Ultramodern Ultraportable

Move with Style, Think with Power
The Global Industrial Design Winner - German IF Award
The Z33A (M5A) recently won German IF Award, the foremost competition for industrial design. It integrated the unique rimless design between the touch pad and palm rest. With no rim dividing the touch pad and palm rest, typing and navigating the cursor is one fluid operation while making annoying dust accumulation a thing of the past.
Light yet Solid – Carbon Fiber Alloy
Built upon carbon fiber (CF) alloy, 120% stronger than conventional material , the Z33A brings mobility and dependability on the road. The M 5A is a lightweight device you can conveniently take anywhere and a tough machine for the bumps and grinds of mobile computing.
Performance Enhancement up to 30%
Incorporated with new 90NM generation Intel® Centrino® Mobile Technology, the all-new ASUS notebook provides enhanced performance up to 30% and wireless connectivity at lower power levels compared with conventional mobile solutions, offering excellent flexibility and freedom on the road.
Flexible Battery Packs for Longer Battery Life
To extend battery life, the Z33A offers three battery pack* options for your different needs. ASUS Power4 Gear intelligently adjusts CPU speed according to system load. Offering 4 different modes designed for different applications, this innovation maximizes battery life for reliable continuous operation.

* 3-cell, 6-cell, and 9-cell battery pack
Ultra-Slim Optical Drive Free your Shoulder
With an ultra-slim 9.5mm optical drive (conventional notebooks support 12.7mm drives) , the Z33A successfully slimmed down to a nimble 3.3lb * . Listen to your favorite music, play games, watch DVD movies, perform video editing or burn your data onto a CD with this lightweight notebook.
*With 3-cell battery pack
Advanced Chipset and DRAM for Easier Upgrade
The Z33A incorporates the Intel® 915GM chipset and DDR II 400 memory, a combination that delivers processor and hard drive scalability, improved reliability and enhanced performance up to 30% at lower power levels never seen before.
Intel, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo, Intel Centrino, Intel Centrino logo, Celeron, Intel Xeon, Intel SpeedStep, Itanium, Pentium, and Pentium III Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

[RAV TUX]

Nice to know you can order it with NO operating System:

AS-Z33Ae Asus Z33Ae $950.00 Hard Drive: - 120GB 5400RPM HD - 8MB Cache $180.00 Processor: - Pentium M 780 - 2.26GHz 533 FSB $734.00 Memory: - Add 512MB DDR2 400 for 1GB $179.00 Productivity Software: - None - - Warranty: - 3yr Parts/Labor $145.00 Operating System: - None - - Additional Battery: - None - - Grand Total: $2,188.00
http://www.rawpowerpc.com/laptop-44-AS-Z33Ae.php


here are the specs:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M Processor with 2MB on-die L2 cache
Speeds at 1.6Ghz-2.13Ghz (Dothan), 400 & 533Mhz FSB Memory: On board 512MB DDR2-400 DRAM
1 x uSODIMM socket for expansion up to 768MB DDR2 DRAM support Chipset: Intel 915GM & ICH6 Hard Drive: 2.5-inch 9.5mm HDD w/ Ultra DMA/100, capacity of 30/40/60/80 GB Graphics: Embedded Intel 916GM Shared up to 128MB Display: 12.1" XGA (1024x768) Active Matrix TFT Optical Drive(s): 9.5mm 5.25"aTAPI 24X/24X/16X/24X DVD+CD-RW combo drive Included
Networking: Integrated RealTek 10/100 Ethernet
Full and Half duplex mode support for 10/100Mbps Modem: Integrated MDC Fax/Modem Azalia Compliant and
V.90/K56flex support PCMCIA Slots: One PCMCIA 2.1 compliant Type II slot Pointing Device: Built-in Touchpad Keyboard: 83 keys with WinXP function key17.6mm ergonomic & 1.8mm travel Sound: Built-in High Definition Audio compliant audio chip, with 3D effect & full duplex
Built-in speaker and microphone Memory Readers: MMC, SD, MS, MS PRO flash card slot WiFi: Wireless 802.11a/b/g Included Operating System: Available with no Operating System, Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home Edition I/O Ports: 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port
1 x DDC2-B compliant VGA 15 pins
3 x USB 2.0 Ports
1 x RJ-11 Modem Port
1 x Headphone/Line-out
1 x Microphone/Line-in
1 x 1394 (Firewire)
Battery: Standard 24 WHr 3-cell battery pack, 2-2.5 hrs run-down life
72 WHr 9-cell battery pack, 6.3-7.9 hrs run-down life (optional) Dimensions: 10.8" x 9.25" x 0.96-1.17" (WxDxH) Weight: 3.3 lbs __________________________________________________ __________________________________

Look I have to do more research on Hard ware does anybody know if these specs are good or should I be looking for other Hardware....This computer will mainly be for my wife to do homework at here University. She wants Ubuntu, does this Hardware seem like it's compatible with Ubuntu?

[Iandefor]

This is really cool! Let's hope the trend towards adopting Open formats and software continues.

[leech]

The only things you'd probably have problems with, Yozef on that laptop would be the card reader (I havent gotten mine to work on my Asus z71v either, but supposedly kernel 2.6.17 added support for it, tried it out, but I think there is more I need to do to configure it) and the modem I havent gotten to work, more than likely the modems are about the same between mine and the laptop model you were looking at.

Love my laptop by the way, and Asus make great products, I've been using their motherboards for years, until my newest one. I went with MSI simply because Asus for some reason didn't make a nforce 3 board with AGP at the time. Now of course everyone has PCIe, but I still haven't upgraded and I've had more problems with this one MSI motherboard than I ever have with the 4 or 5 Asus boards I've owned.

Leech

[MetalMusicAddict]

I'd like to see the response from MS on this.

[Carrots171]

I'd like to see the response from MS on this.

In response, Microsoft Taiwan Corp yesterday said that it respected the government's decision for the Linux inclusion into desktops, as long as the market is competing on a fair ground.

“Consumers are free to choose their preferred products, and will find ours more user friendly,” said Vincent Shih (施立成), a legal director at Microsoft Taiwan.

He added that prices of the company’s solutions here are not higher than those selling in other countries.

“As a whole, the total deployment costs of open source do not necessarily lower than Windows’. We will continue to negotiate the rulings with legislators,” he added.
************************************************** *****************************


As long as a major powerhouse like China (I know this is Taiwan but China has also taken many steps to promote Linux) continues to support Linux I don't think there will be much to fear in the long term future wrt hardware support.

Companies will want to trade in China, this means they must support Linux.

Taiwan isn't the economic powerhouse that China is, but it still does have a large economy. It is one of the world's leading makers of LCD screens, motherboards, and other electronic items. Acer (http://global.acer.com/) is also based in Taiwan, and they have pretty nice computers, too.

[leeyee]

Aha...I'm using ASUS laptop too! It has a VERY nice support to Linux, and fortunately I bought it without any OS pre-installed, so I knew and installed Linux after owned it.

Besides that, I'm a Chinese, from P.R.China. I do feel well that our compatriot Taiwan has gotten such a great achievement within 57 years. Chinese mainland should learn from them and we do need to help each other!

[benplaut]

yup... asus is my top pick for my next laptop :D

[mcduck]

This is nice to hear.

And I just ordered Asus A6Ja laptop yesterday.. (and that thing should even be able to run XGL :o)

[BWF89]

I think they mean hardware made by manufacters that make quality drivers for the Linux Kernel , or that releases the specifications so the community can do it themselves.
I was wondering that myself. Good to know some governments are going to keep making the push for compatible drivers.