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>From http://www.middleeastwire.com:8080/storypage.jsp?id=11361
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Main Story
Wed Jun 12 03:51:03 EDT 2002
Arabic alternative to MS Windows & Office
Publisher: ArabNews.com
By: K.S. Ramkumar
Posted: 2002-06-11
JEDDAH — Arabic speakers now have a “cheap, user-friendly” alternative to
Microsoft Windows and Office, according to a Korean claim. The Fakhir Arabic
edition of Hancom Linux is a powerful and complete native Linux-based desktop
bundle that includes both an operating system and an office productivity suite,
explained Thomas Sanghyun Park, CEO and president, Hancom Linux, Inc. “Two
hundred million Arabic speakers finally have an affordable, high-quality alternative to
Microsoft and can save 90 percent in the process,” said Park in his presentation held
at Jeddah Inter.Continental Hotel on Saturday night.
Hancom Linux is not well known in the Saudi market. Founded in December 1999,
Hancom Linux’s core business is software development and distribution. The Seoul-
based company has branches in the US and Japan and liaison offices in Beijing and
Taipei. Its mission: To be a leading provider of productivity solutions leveraging its
experience in developing Linux-based, multilingual software applications.
Hancom Linux OS 3.0 Arabic edition is a Linux-based desktop OS fine-tuned for
Arab users. It is the first Linux OS that fully supports Arabic language input and
output. It includes the most recent 2.4-series kernel and Hancom KDE 3.0 Arabic
edition, providing a user-interface that is very user-friendly and similar to Microsoft
Windows. Because Hancom Linux is based on Red Hat Linux, all Linux applications
will run on Hancom Linux.
Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student,
Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linux is based on the UNIX
system. The current full-featured version of Linux is 2.4, which was released in
January 2001, and development continues. Due to the very nature of Linux’s
functionality and availability, it has become quite popular worldwide and a vast
number of software programmers have taken Linux’s source code and adapted it to
meet their individual needs.
Linux is considered to be great for 10 reasons. A Linux distribution has thousands of
dollars worth of software for no cost.
It is a complete operating system and comes with a complete development
environment. It has excellent networking facilities and is an ideal environment to run
servers such as web or FTP servers. A wide variety of commercial software is
available for the operating system that is easily upgradeable.
Linux supports multiple processors as standard and has the ability to run more than
one program at the same time. It has an excellent window system called X — the
equivalent of Windows but much more flexible.
According to Park, Hancom Office 2.0 Arabic edition is a powerful, Microsoft Office-
compatible office productivity suite for Linux that includes word-processing,
spreadsheet and presentation applications. “It’s the first complete Linux-based office
suite that’s fully localized for the Arabic language. It’s easy and has a convenient
user interface, and is similar to that of other popular office suites allowing users
to be
productive and quicker; no special training is needed,” Park commented. “Couple
that with the best inter- application compatibility in a Linux-based office suite, and
there is no better choice.”
This new product has come at a time when the United States and countries in the
European Union are conducting studies to explore the adoption of open source
technologies. Other nations, such as Korea and China, are placing major orders for
open source desktop solutions. Still others, such as Brazil, are passing legislation
ordering official purchasers to first consider open source alternatives. The interest
in
Linux from various countries is prompted by concerns about being overly reliant on a
single monopolistic provider. There is also a desire to create a level playing field
for
the local software industry by using open standards and of course, in these difficult
economic times, a need to reduce software expenditure.
With a desire to enable the Arab-speaking world to join the Linux revolution, Hancom
has invested heavily in the new software. Hancom believes that the Arab world is
sure to be highly interested in an open standards-based alternative that will provide
them with major cost savings.
“Until today, only Microsoft’s products fully supported the Arabic language. Many
Arab countries like the Kingdom have been waiting for a low-cost, high-quality
alternative to Microsoft products for years, and this new product is in response to
this
demand,” Park remarked.
As a result of these developments, industry analyst IDC recently revised its forecast
for Linux desktop adoption, and is now predicting that by 2006, some 25 million
people will be using Linux-based desktops.
“With our sale of 120,000 desktops to the Korean government, Hancom Linux closed
the biggest single government purchase of Linux systems,” Park said. “Now we’re
eager to share that experience by working with our partners and governments in the
Middle East and elsewhere to deliver the freedom, flexibility and cost-saving that only
Linux can provide. All of our products are now both double-byte and bi-directional,
which means that, working with partners, we can easily localize our software for
virtually any country in the world."
© 2002 [ArabNews.com]. This news item is distributed via Middle East News Online
(MiddleEastWire.com).
End<{{{
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