>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [osol-discuss] Re: new community for
> Chinese users
> Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:30:05 -0700
> From: Teresa Giacomini <Teresa.Giacomini at Sun.COM>
> Reply-To: Teresa.Giacomini at Sun.COM
> To: W. Wayne Liauh <wp at HawaiiLinux.us>
> CC: edu-discuss-subscribe at opensolaris.org,
> opensolaris-discuss at opensolaris.org
> References:
> <27706977.1121970368942.JavaMail.suncom at oss1>
>
> Hi folks,
>
> Taking the opportunity to cross-post to the
> edu-discuss list. Might I
> suggest that we continue the conversation there?
> Unless folks feel it
> is broader than the edu community....
>
> T
>
> W. Wayne Liauh wrote:
> > <propose to set up a community specifically for
> users in China especially those in Chinese
> universities. As China is a fastest growing market
> for Sun, there should be a lot of opportunites for
> Sun in general and Opensolaris in particular.>
> >
> > Fedora Core, arguably the most popular Linux
> distro, was started by a college student Warren
> Togami when he was a sophomore at University of
> Hawaii. I have been following RedHat/Fedora Core for
> quite a few years, and Fedora Core is a prime reason
> why Redhat can maintain its status as a standout
> among all the Linux distros. (As we all know, the
> great Billy Joy wrote BSD when he was a grad student
> at Berkeley.)
> >
> > All things considered, SOS (Solaris/OpenSolaris)
> provides a computing platform that may happen to be
> most uniquely suited for the huge Chinese market.
> But this message needs to be quickly and effectively
> y promulgated. Chinese universities seem to be a
> perfect battle ground.
> >
> > We have quite a few clients in Taiwan, mostly in
> the high-tech area. I personally have been very
> diligent trying to interest them with Linux desktops,
> but nothing happened. Then suddenly, late last year,
> a major Taiwan company, CTS, China Television
> Station, one of the three major TV networks in
> Taiwan, decided to switch away from Microsoft
> Windows. But it did not choose one of the Linux
> distros; rather, it went with the JDS/Sunray combo.
There are reasons for one not to adopt linux-based (or other OS based)
desktop environment, the foremost of them, I would say it's application
compatibility.
OpenOffice/StarSuite/StarOffice does not cover 100% of frequently used
applications in a typical manufacturing/ODM/OEM business. In these businesses,
the ability to "exchange" information with their suppliers, buyers, partners is
crucial. For example, if I am going to persuade my manager to switch to an
exclusively Linux (or *nix) desktop environment, I will have to provide
solutions for my manager to read/write MS Project or MS Visio documents from
other companies. With Linux/*nix desktop environment, you can always have
70~80% of functionality of a Windows desktop, but the missing 20~30% is there,
and as a critical factor to prevent the adoption.
However, I do think JDS/Sunray can take some niche market like computer
kiosk in classroom of primary schools. For that in these places, Sunray's
manageablility/TCO advantage will shine. Though JDS will have to integrate more
multimedia capability to attract ISV of educational software to migrate their
products to JDS.
Anyway, maybe Sun TW can probe primary schools for interest in kiosk type
of application?
Ivan.
> >
> > What attracted CTS to JDS probably has a lot to do
> with cost relative to Windows (& support relative to
> Linux) . But, IMHO, SOS can be particularly
> appealing to Chinese university students due to two
> interrelated factors: (1) Unlike Windows but similar
> to Linux, anyone can (supposedly and eventually)
> build, distribute, and sell an SOS-based system; (2)
> Unlike Linux but similar to Windows, SOS has a very
> resourceful creator/benefactor?most people are not
> aware that at one time Sun was indeed bigger than
> Microsoft.
> >
> > A delegation from China?s Ministry of Science and
> Technology visited us last year. They mentioned that
> if someone can develop a low-cost Linux-based system
> and charge, say, $10 US a year per person, in
> Shanghai alone this would come to in access of $100M
> per year. Substitute Linux with the more probable
> SOS, and that probably will make Sir Scott very
> happy. Freeloaders like myself will be very happy,
> too. :-)
> >
> > Hallucinations aside, SOS also has a strong
> advantage that I have not seen mentioned in this
> forum. In Windows, you need multiple computers to do
> multiple locales ("languages"). This is a royal pain
> in the 8th. Many Linux distros allow a user to log
> into various locales, but at least as far as the
> Chinese language is concerned, the JDS version of
> multilingual capabilitty is far more polished than
> those in Linux. But Linux (especially Fedora Core
> and Debian) is catching up very rapidly.
> >
> > Anyway, I am very interested in your proposal,
> please let us know how we can participate.
> > This message posted from opensolaris.org
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