The Central Trust of China (Taiwan) has mandated for the first time that all desktop computers purchased from now on must be Linux-compatible, demonstrating the government's desire to widen the nation's usage of open source software. Central Trust is in charge of purchasing computers and other equipment for government agencies and schools.
About 120,000 desktops will be procured by the Central Trust under this new guideline.
"In the past, some of the procured computers did not support Linux, therefore this new mandate signifies the government's push to reduce reliance on the Windows operating system," Mike Lin, a consultant at the Taipei Computer Association said.
Thirty-three desktop models from hardware vendors including Acer, Asustek, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard Taiwan, were certified Linux-compatible, while four models each from Gigabyte Technology and Synnex Technology International were still under evaluation, according to the newspaper report.
In the legislative session held late last year, legislators reached an additional consensus that there should be a 25 percent cut of procurement budget on Microsoft's products across all government agencies. In response, Microsoft Taiwan Corp yesterday said that it respected the government's decision for the Linux inclusion into desktops, as long as the market is competing on a fair ground.
View: Taipei Times
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