Joint effort on operating system

Officials from Korea, China and Japan agreed over the weekend to jointly develop a Linux-based operating system. Choi Jun-yeong, a senior official at the Ministry of Information and Technology, confirmed that on Saturday the top working-level officials of information and communication ministries from the three nations signed an agreement in Beijing to develop and standardize operating system. This is the first time for the three countries to work on a joint information technology project. “Korea’s software development industry is not well developed yet, unlike its information technology industry,” Mr. Choi said. Linux is an open-source operating system that can be copied and modified freely, and, unlike Microsoft Windows, its source code is available at no cost. “With a Linux-based operating system, it is relatively easier to prepare security measures against computer virus attacks because of open source codes,” an industry official said. “When Linux-based software is developed, Microsoft Windows’ market dominance is likely to be weakened.” According to the agreement, the three nations will promote the use of Linux-based software they develop; research Linux-based software for cell phones; and establish an open-source software forum for the Northeast Asian region. The three countries came to the conclusion that open-source operating systems are more effective in protecting computer systems from hackers and developing the software industry, the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese daily, said. In other technology news, the three countries recently concurred in Seoul to develop a fourth-generation cell phone communication standard. The information ministers of the three countries will sign an official accord in Japan in July. Cell phone users in the three countries account for a third of all such users in the world, and if the three nations choose a common cell phone standard, it is likely to become a world standard, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. Third-generation cell phone standards in the three countries are different. Third-generation cell phone service, which is about to begin in some countries around the world, can deliver multimedia content much faster than current services. Fourth-generation cell phone service is expected to be 50 times faster than the third-generation service. by Kim Hyun-ki, Chung Sun-gu