Newsmaker: The business of Linux in China

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As the desktop was for use by students, we didn't encounter many problems with the migration. But the project took a huge amount of energy: For example, we had to work with different hardware vendors to get support for different drivers. The effort was worthwhile, though, as the features we worked in are now in our new 1.5 release (launched last week).

Have you worked on any desktop migrations within enterprises?
Chung: One of our customers is a national cinema chain in China, where we are rolling out Linux-based point-of-sale systems. The group has about 30 cinemas across China and about 20 point-of-sale systems in each cinema.

We have tuned the system so it not only handles the basic functions that a point of sale system has to perform, but still has computing power left to do other things. For example, the system displays advertisements to customers on a separate screen.

Do you think Linux is ready for the desktop market?
Chung: It depends on what kind of market. In the consumer market, there is still some work that has to be done. When you use your PC at home, you want to play multimedia and games, and this is still a weak part of Linux.

But if you are talking about enterprise use--particularly for systems that only perform limited functions, such as point-of-sale systems--that is where Linux works well. Businesses are starting to use Linux, especially now that China is entering the World Trade Organization, and there is a licensing problem.

Are you making a profit from selling Linux desktops?
Chung: We are making a profit, but not from selling Linux desktops. We also do software outsourcing and consulting work that makes more money.

For a pure Linux desktop business it is quite difficult to earn much money. You need a mix of products and services.

Qinghua Hu, general director, Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center

Q: What does the Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center do?
Hu: The goal of the center is to promote the software industry in Beijing. We are helping Linux companies in Beijing develop Linux and office products, and are helping companies develop Linux solutions for vertical industries, such as e-government, education, agriculture and SMEs.

Is the Beijing government using Linux?
Hu: Quite a few government organizations are using Linux on their servers, especially to run their e-mail servers, Web servers and databases. Our statistics show that over 80 percent of government servers within Beijing are using Linux. Some of the public administration agencies in Beijing are running Linux on the desktop as a pilot project.

Are the companies in Beijing also using Linux?
Hu: Right now, a lot of enterprises are using Linux, but not on a big scale. Most are using it for e-mail, Web servers or databases. In terms of big migrations, there have not really been any.

Why do you think that few companies and government agencies have moved to Linux on the desktop?
Hu: Because Microsoft monopolized the desktop. Migration is still very difficult, because customers have got used to Microsoft. Companies still feel that the Linux environment is quite different.

Also there is a problem with the device support and application availability. What happens quite often is that a vendor provides a Linux solution to a company, but the printer the company is using is not supported on Linux. Also many companies have already developed Web sites that are not following W3C standards or are tailored to (Microsoft's) Internet Explorer. If companies use Firefox, they cannot read these Web sites properly.

More Newsmakers

[FutureGuy]

How about US mandating...

...locally produced goods???

[Captain_Spock]

The "US mandating locally produced goods???...

... no, that would not be necessary since we are operating within a global economy (village) and it will be that freedom (of choice) loving 90% world market share (that control the wallets) that will be making this determination about the entire question of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Just ask yourself this question; which do you prefer easy to use software for which you do not pay for services or free software for which you you have to figure out months after the services costs whether or not the system/s is/are working for you?

[rcrusoe]

Right, like that's going to happen.

U.S. corporations are grabbing their ankles at the slightest possibility of Chinese dollars.

If it's still they way it was a few years ago, most of the police cars (Ford) used in the U.S. are imported from Canada with only the "final assembly" aka attaching mirrors done in the U.S.

Heck, 80+ percent of all the merchandise sold by Wal-Mart is made in China. That whirring sound you hear is Sam Walton spinning in his grave.

No way the U.S. government can mandate locally produced goods when most of the goods "produced" by U.S. companies are actually made elsewhere.