Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the hope-you-have-better-luck-than-Munich dept.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190517000378

The government will switch the operating system of its computers from Windows to Linux, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said Thursday.

The Interior Ministry said the ministry will be test-running Linux on its PCs, and if no security issues arise, Linux systems will be introduced more widely within the government.

The decision comes amid concerns about the cost of continuing to maintain Windows, as Microsoft's free technical support for Windows 7 expires in January 2020.

The transition to Linux OS and the purchase of new PCs are expected to cost the government about 780 billion won ($655 million), the ministry said.


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:34AM (11 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:34AM (#845168)

    An announcement like that is usually a negotiating tactic to get better prices out of Microsoft.

    I hope they do switch to Linux, but they probably won't.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:46AM (4 children)

      by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:46AM (#845172)

      If their only concern is "expense", you are probably right. They should be much more concerned about being dragged down a dying technological shit hole. The only reason Windows 10 looks "not bad" to most people is because Windows 8 was worse.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @09:36AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @09:36AM (#845211)

        I have been asked to look into making a development VM based on Linux to replace the existing Windows 7 dev VMs. A lot of movement is being made now to shift to Redhat where possible to replace existing Windows development. I don't see any reason why in future we can't have a Linux based desktop machine to replace the existing machines. With the desktop locked down most users only get Office, a web browser, and a few specific programs anywhere. Anything truly esoteric is delivered via Citrix as a virtual connection. Do we even need Windows anymore on the desktop?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:52PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:52PM (#845247)

          The last windows I used on the desktop was windows 2000. I have only one regret, not switching over earlier.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @11:21AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @11:21AM (#845221)

        They should be much more concerned about being ...

        Oooh, oooh, I know this one! They should be much more concerned about being victims of North Korean hacking again, like their banks and TV stations were back in 2013.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @08:57PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @08:57PM (#845332)

        and they are ignorant slaves who live in a false reality.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Sunday May 19 2019, @03:23AM (4 children)

      by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday May 19 2019, @03:23AM (#845180)

      ... and a new Microsoft head office appears in Korea in 3 2 1 ...

      Actually, even Microsoft seems have pretty much given up on Windows ... they're just still taking money from people stupid enough not to have switched to something else.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @06:31AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @06:31AM (#845194)

        ..even Microsoft's own internal build system, runs on Linux.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:20PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:20PM (#845243)

          Proving that even Microsoft is not immune to being infected by systemd
          Well, they should be used to this by now.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @07:37AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @07:37AM (#845201)

        If Samsung were smart, they'd start leaking rumors of their own line of AMD or ARM Linux machines. Samsung represents a huge chunk of the Korean GDP, and even if it only lead to even more pressure on Microsoft to drop their prices, I'm sure Samsung would see some other quid pro quo later.

        But really, as you said, Microsoft doesn't really care about one-time bills for Windows. They'd much rather get people (usually businesses) into support contracts or subscribing to Office365. The latter can be done even without Windows and works good enough for most purposes.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @08:58PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @08:58PM (#845333)

          Uhm, don't they already have that? The Samsung Galaxy for example and a huge part in the Tizen OS of the Linux Foundation.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @07:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @07:11PM (#845298)

      Hmm, I wonder which distro of the 1,000 varieties and sub-flavours of Linux? Big Blue's new Red Hat? I think that may be a good candidate with enough "corporate chops" not to get bumped off by Redmond as Munich did. I think this is a good thing. We need more government to make such moves.

  • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @04:52AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @04:52AM (#845186)

    It's all a question of who you wanna be back-doored by, the Americans (Microsoft) or the Chinese (Huawei).

    Interesting story: During the last war that John Bolton got the US into, the CIA had a bunch of Microsoft PCs delivered to a warehouse in Bagdhad, loaded with all the latest and best CIA hacking tools. Then the US Airfarce bombed the warehouse. This is why the US lost the Gulf War, and will loose it again.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @05:12AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @05:12AM (#845188)

      you say that like it was an accident

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @07:39AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @07:39AM (#845202)

      a link please -- sounds like good reading ...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @12:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @12:15PM (#845223)

      A threat from Windows Defender was detected and notified the sysadmin to nuke the hard drives.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @01:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @01:30PM (#845233)

    probably not enough time. less then a year and there's "testing" before hand?
    we can hope but it will probably not happen ... also usa allied governments are "required" to use "winblows".
    considering a modern war, the invader ..errr ... ally needs a quick way to interface all pertinent burocrazy datas
    for the case that the "guys with lead throwing devices" have to take over governance of the population.

(1)