Japan, China and South Korea will jointly research and develop non-Windows, open-source operating systems, sealing a much talked-about deal and provoking a reaction from Microsoft.
The project is intended to raise the popularity of Microsoft Windows' rivals, such as Linux, and increase their market share in embedded systems, such as digital cameras, mobile phones and car navigation systems, reported wire agency AP.
Firms should make more use of non-Windows operating systems such as Linux, rather than developing a totally new operating system, according to Japanese officials quoted by AP. The aim of the project is to offer more choice to users and manufacturers and increase anti-hacker and anti-virus security.
The pact was announced by Japanese trade minister Takeo Hiranuma at the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) economics ministers meeting in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
The Japanese government has already reserved 1bn yen (£5.5m) for the project, and plans to support an open-source software forum to be established by major Japanese electronic firms such as Hitachi, Matsushita, NEC and Fujitsu.
The three North Asian countries will meet in Seoul later this month to discuss details of the project, and again in November in Osaka, Japan, for private companies that might be interested in participating in the project, according to other reports.
China needs to be involved early as it is a big market, and the pooling of efforts of three countries will accelerate the development process, a spokesman from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said in a report from CNET Japan.
Linux allows more complete security as it is an open-source system which allows complete control over the source code, unlike Unix and Windows which are proprietary, he said.
There is a limit to the role played by the government, and the industry has to continue efforts to promote the project, the spokesman said.
Early this week, Japan news daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the three North Asian giants were close to signing a deal to co-develop an open-source operating system that will rival Windows.
A Microsoft official has refuted the charges against its Windows operating system made by Japanese officials.
In a Reuters report, Tom Robertson, Microsoft's Tokyo-based director for government affairs in Asia said that the Japanese government had been given ample opportunity to inspect Windows source code for security holes under his firm's Government Security Program.
He also felt that governments should not be involved in helping one product succeed over another in a free market.
"We'd like to see the market decide who the winners are in the software industry," Robertson told Reuters. "Governments should not be in the position to decide who the winners are."
Talkback
Free market fundamentalism may work on the
morons in American society, but it is way too simple-minded to play well in Asia.