News
ADT at Comdex: Chinese firm buys into Java Desktop System
- By John K. Waters
- November 18, 2003
Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, did have one surprising (read: mostly
unleaked)announcement to deliver with his keynote: Sun has agreed to work with
the China Standard Software Co. Ltd. to develop desktop computers based on Sun's
Linux-based Java Desktop System. This deal could lead to the installation of the
software on hundreds of millions of computers in the People's Republic of China,
McNealy said.
''We're going to immediately roll out the Java Desktop System to between a
half million and a million desktops in the coming year,'' McNealy disclosed.
''This, I believe, makes us instantaneously the number one Linux desktop play in
the planet.''
China Standard Software -- a consortium of Chinese government-supported firms
-- was established to bring a Linux-based desktop to 200 million Chinese
computer users.
The China deal could be the first of many to bring the Java Desktop System to
government agencies around the world, McNealy said, hopefully. ''We're out
calling on every ministry of IT on the planet, so stay tuned,'' he said. ''There
should be some more interesting data there.''
Sun has been demoing the Java Desktop System for about a year. The company
expects to begin shipping the product in December of this
year.
About the Author
John K. Waters is a freelance writer based in Silicon Valley. He can be reached
at [email protected].