THE DOMINANCE OF MICROSOFT SOFTWARE IS ALL IN THE MIND

In his blog, Pandanomics Protectionism, blogger Big Dog wrote"


Pandanomics Protectionism
"Amidst a fast growing economy and prominence as an upcoming economic Super Power, China is still very uneasy of the great dominance of Microsoft as world’s most influential if not monopolistic computer software platform provider."

He went on to cite three western and Chinese articles, with his own comments in between.

"That is a grave worrying bit by the Chinese authorities, which is still subjected on absolute control of the Communist Party of China. An interesting story is about China raiding Microsoft office for alleged anti-trust practices"

And concluded:-

"Unless China is ready with indigenous operating system to replace Microsoft and thus having the control that she desires, then the Chinese have no choice but be dependent.

"It makes sense why China is very uncomfortable with inability to control the most widely used operating system and computer software platform. Even one time a visionary and advocate of the ‘Multimedia Super Corridor’, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad changed his mind about not able to exert control.

"The abuse of information democracy is just counter productive of moving the nation forward. The nation and its economy should not allow itself to be opened for being held for ransom, by oligopolists. Worse still, monopolists.

"True for Malaysia. True for China".


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To that I commented:-

Whilst I fully agree with the need for countries to have their own independent software, however dependence on Microsoft's Windows operating systems and Office productivity suites are more a matter of users' mind and habit, rather than dominance and coercion.

China already has at least three of its own Linux distributions:-

Red Flag Linux, an open source operating system and software suite  based upon Red Hat Linux, from Red Hat, an American product.

http://www.redflag-linux.com/


Deepin Linux based upon Ubuntu Linux from Canonical, originally a South African company now based in the Isle of Man, and Debian Linux by the US-based Debian Foundation.

http://www.linuxdeepin.com/index.en.html

Start OS also based upon Ubuntu and Debian.

http://www.startos.org/

India has:-

BOSS Linux based upon Debian

http://bosslinux.in/

SuperX based upon Ubuntu and Debian

http://superxos.com/

Matriux based upon Debian

http://www.matriux.com/

OpenLX derived off Mint Linux (from Ireland) which is in turn based upon Ubuntu and Debian.

http://www.openlx.com/

And, Rebellin Linux based upon Debian

http://www.therebellin.com/

Thailand has:-

Burapha Linux Server (though its website was not accessible at this time)

http://www.buraphalinux.org/

Indonesia has BlankON based upon Ubuntu and Debian.

http://www.blankonlinux.or.id/

The Linux aggregation portal Distrowatch.com currently lists 285 Linux and other open source distributions from around teh world.

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity

Malaysia and Singapore have none and that's despite Tun Dr. Mahathir having urged Malaysia in 2002 to adopt Linux for its greater independence and security, as well as low or no cost, but despite efforts by MAMPU (Malaysian Administrative Modernisation Planning Unit) to help promote the use of Linux, especially in Malaysian government and schools, Windows still dominates.

I have been using different distributions of Linux for my work since late 2008 and I've tried to introduce other users to it and found that especially working-age adults who use Windows and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) have difficulty adjusting to the slightly different layout of their open source counterpart LibreOffice and OpenOffice which comes with most Linux distributions. Children and very old adults have less problem and I believe it's because their minds are not hooked on Windows and Microsoft Office.

(Click on screen caps to enlarge)



Also, when most PCs already come with Windows and Microsoft Office, and most employers want people who know Microsoft Office, there's little chance of weaning people away from Windows and Microsoft Office, unless the government takes the "draconian" measure to mandate that at least government offices and schools use Linux. But unlike India,  does our government have the political will to do so and upset Microsoft and the U.S. government?

Does the Malaysian government have the will to do like India below?

http://bosslinux.in/BOSS-In-DIT

Or this:-

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/state-departments-asked-to-switch-over-to-free-open-source-software/article5798429.ece

Or this:-

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/04/tamil_nadus_xp_migration_plan_go_linux_like_a_boss/

Or this:-

http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/issues/article2423376.ece

There's a huge choice of alternatives out there and most of them are just waiting to be legally downloaded and installed for free. So if Malaysia, China or any other country wants to be free of the dominance of Microsoft software, they can, but they must have the will to do so. Also users must also have the will to do so but go to any of the computer malls and emporia and its either legal Windows or pirated Windows.

Obviously, China's "monopolistic" "Communist" Party doesn't have the will to either.

Linux can be installed in multiple languages besides English, including Tamil, Malay, Chinese, other Indian dialects, Arabic, Thai and many other languages and scripts or it can be switched between them as shown below.



ஞறநசவலரஐோீூ}யளனக யழபகனஊஓண@#௫௬ லலல ***** அணகஅைொஅஎஅஅஉமடஉஉஉமஅஉமமஅமயயஅ்யமம்ய

ๆไาาาพสสสแดสสสหก ไ พยยด พพไฟฟห พพำไไกดดสส

Pardon me if I typed anything offensive and I neither read nor write Tamil nor Thai.





IT.Scheiss