Boblet Learned things and Japan diary, by Oli Studholme

Microsoft and Competition

By Oli
At 5:17 PM · Friday, 12 September · 2003
To Japan · The ‘Net

I found the timing of these two events quite amusing (within two days of each other):

East Asia Plans Windows Rival

China, South Korea and Japan are to boost joint research into a new computer operating system to rival Microsoft Windows

Basically government-sponsored Linux, mainly because of security/virus issues, Microsoft’s slowness at fixing things, and an OS choice for manufacturers (read Japanese computer manufacturers don’t like Microsoft’s evil OEM contracts). Microsoft is (no surprises here) quite miffed.

Surprise! More Flaws in Windows

Moments before a top Microsoft executive told Congress about efforts to improve security, the company warned on Wednesday of new flaws that leave its flagship Windows software vulnerable to Internet attacks similar to the Blaster virus that infected hundreds of millions of computers last month.

Windows viruses cause havoc in business and government, and Windows security holes keep turning up. US Senator Candice Miller even thinks viruses on power company Windows OS might have contributed to the slow response to the USA power failures. Embarrassing.

I find it especially telling that the three countries announcing plans to help a competing OS are China, South Korea and Japan. CJK is an acronym for the languages of these three countries, especially in relation to using these languages on computers. I think CJK countries want their own OS, rather than being second class citizens for a version of an English OS that is always a little behind.