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Sun Selected to Power Desktops in China

By David Worthington, BetaNews

November 20, 2003, 2:53 AM

Sun Microsystems has struck a deal with the People's Republic of China, granting it the right to establish its Java Desktop System as the nation's standard desktop software.

The agreement was reached with two government ministries and the China Standard Software Co., Ltd. (CSSC), a consortium of state run technology companies assigned with the task of bridging the digital divide among China's 1.3 billion residents - specifically between the eastern and western portions of the country.

The technology licensing agreement allows CSSC to brand its own products using Sun's Java Desktop System as the foundation of its desktop standards. By the end of 2003, the Chinese government plans to install approximately 500,000 to one million seats per year, with the ultimate goal being a massive roll out of 200 million machines.

Sun's desktop sports a similar look and feel to Windows. In addition, the software offers document and printing interoperability with Linux, Solaris and Microsoft Windows environments.

According to a report in eWeek, the Java Desktop Systems will be powered by a customized version of Linux supported by the Chinese government and its technology partners. In January 2000, China mandated use of its home grown Red Flag Linux distribution.

In previous releases, the Java Desktop System has been traditionally stacked on top of SuSE Linux. SuSE has since been purchased by Novell, which is now facing threats of legal action by SCO as a result of the acquisition.

Commenting on the deal, Sun's executive vice president of software, Jonathan Schwartz, said, "Open standards are at the very foundation of Sun Microsystems - enabling connectivity, communication and community. The alliance with CSSC, in concert with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Information and Industry (MII), creates a vast opportunity to use the Linux and Java Desktop System standards to bring information technology to hundreds of millions of citizens across China."

According to Sun, the price for the Java Desktop System is $100 USD per desktop user or $50 USD per employee, priced annually. However, terms of Sun's deal with China remain closed and confidential.

Add a Comment (11 Comments)

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By staramb

posted Mar 19, 2004 - 6:07 PM

Score: 0

By hummy

posted Nov 25, 2003 - 11:09 AM

Please refer to last week's article in US News & World Reports, "Microsoft makes nice in China" http://www.usnews.com/us...124/biztech/24china.htm

"Last month, Beijing put Windows under the magnifying glass for the first time. China says it wants to make sure Windows does not contain "back doors," or security holes, that could give spies, competitors, or hackers access to Chinese databases and national secrets."

"The Chinese lottery, the post office system, and Guangdong province's accounting system all use Linux. IBM is working with Beijing to put China's social security system on Linux, a huge data undertaking. And Chinese Linux software companies are even luring native programmers back from Silicon Valley. More important, since 1999 the Middle Kingdom has endorsed its own version of Linux called Red Flag, and in a widely watched August announcement, the Procurement Center of the State Council mandated that by year's end only computers with Chinese-produced software would be purchased by the government."

Score: 0

By Sephirstein

posted Nov 25, 2003 - 10:48 AM

We should take extreme action.

Any company supporting the Great Firewall of China must be dealth with violently, swiftly, and ruthlessly in the name of liberty and progress.

Any liberal who supports the CCP should Shanghai themselves...

Score: 0

By moneycat

posted Nov 24, 2003 - 3:54 PM

I love how every solutions is "Better than MS", yet whole economies have collapsed using these "superior to MS" solutions. MS is dominant for a reason! There are very smart people from many of these competing companies that work at MS and they are there for a reason!

Score: 0

By Scipio

posted Nov 23, 2003 - 9:32 PM

Bad idea. The Chinese hate to pay money to the west for intellectual property. But they are going to end up with a second-rate system that will leave them out in left field.

Score: 0

By george_ou

posted Nov 22, 2003 - 6:59 PM

Windows XP cost me $120 OEM and I've used it for over 2 years and will continue to do so until Longhorn. That's $120/ 4 years.

Score: 0

By lynggaard

posted Nov 23, 2003 - 6:27 PM

But you are only counting the OS, you forgot all the extra software. besides XP you have to buy:
- An office product:MS office
- An image tool: Paint shop pro / photoshop
- C++ development environment: Visual c++
- All the little things like winzip, mirc, ftp client, etc.

It all adds up. Sun's offer is cheap

Score: 0

By skybluesmurf

posted Nov 23, 2003 - 9:49 PM

and you seem to be forgetting that there is a huge base of free software that replace all thoes things on windows also

Score: 0

By mailman76

posted Nov 25, 2003 - 7:27 AM

Lets be realistic. Using free software. Try to make some research. People who use Windows aren't the kind of people who look after new software very often. Or maybe a small group of them. Most windows people use "free" (hear warez) versions. I think if your really believe in free/open source software you have to tryout linux or even others os.
I don't understand why people say Windows or linux is better, windows or linux is cheaper. I don't think the question here is cheaper or not at a personnal level. Each of them has his own advantages. Windows is very user friendly, very easy to set up and to configure. Linux is less user friendly but more safe and besides you can improve it yourself (But that means for experienced people). So i think it's just a question of choice. ANd i think China decided to use this solution because it is based on linux and so open source, they can change it and adapt it at will.

Score: 0

By zissop

posted Mar 19, 2004 - 5:03 PM

Look, let's be realistic. Sun wants to gain back a market by claiming that its software it's free. It will not be free my friend when a certain base of Linux machines are used to everyday practices. Sun is a company like Microsoft and wants to get money from its products. Up to day Microsoft has better, more stable products and continue to enhance them. Microsoft always has an answer. To tell you the truth Microsoft wants other software to exist; they learn their lesson few years ago with the monopoly lawsuit. My opinion is that Java is a pice of crap. It needs processing power, huge memory and resources. Try to run a decent development environment in Java and you will see.

Score: 0

By ironchef1196

posted Nov 27, 2003 - 4:26 AM

Just had a thought.

200 Million Linux Boxes.
That is possibly the largest linux farm in the world. What do you think China will do with that kind of computing power? They should call it Skynet.

Score: 0

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