BW Online | January 12, 2004 | Asia Loves Linux — And Microsoft Scrambles

China, Japan, and South Korea, for instance, are working to develop an operating system more attuned to their character-based languages that will likely be modeled after Linux.

And if they’re careful, it will still work with western computers, giving them the best of both worlds.

To address concerns about security, Microsoft has started sharing parts of its code with government programmers in China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. That allows them to write in extra security and “gives them peace of mind,” says Mirchandani. These days, though, plenty of Asians such as Chen, Wan, and Sharma are finding even more peace of mind using Linux.