The news item below was certainly news to me.

I can understand the Chinese governments reasoning in wanting to have as much knowledge on their own operating systems 'in house' so to speak.
Open source code is the best wasy they can achieve this.

Does anybody know what direction Japan is heading in with regard to OS, this will be important with China taking the stance they are
Japan seems to view MS as enemy number 1 of late, the head of Sony describing Bill Gates as a "Dinosaur" and other unflattering remarks.

hmmmm

Billosaurus Rex


HONG KONG (IDG) -- It is now government policy in China to use the Linux operating system across all government ministries, according to Jon "Maddog" Hall, the executive director of Linux International, a non-profit group that distributes information about the open-source operating system


http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/14/china.linux.idg/