Tokyo, Sep 01: Japan, China and South Korea are likely to agree soon they will jointly study computer operating systems to give consumers other options than the dominant Windows by Microsoft, an official said today. Japan's trade and industry minister Takeo Hiranuma is to propose the study on open-source operating systems when he meets his Chinese and South Korean counterparts in Cambodia on Wednesday, a trade ministry official said.

The three economic powers of Asia are to hold the Phnom Penh meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) trade ministers' meeting.

"The state (of Japan) has no intention at all of rejecting one specific product, but Microsoft's Windows is totally dominant despite some people's wish to try other products' functions," the Japanese official said.
"It is important to provide (electronics) users' with options - some people may want to use windows as it is convenient while others may want an open-source software due to concern over security and costs," he said.

Open-source systems such as Linux cannot be a serious alternative to Windows at present, he said.

"Open-source software represented by Linux is solid in terms of their core software, but their peripheral software for such functions as word processing, spreadsheet and printing are not," he argued.

The Central Governments need to promote the development of more user-friendly peripheral software for open-source operating systems, he said.
Bureau Report