Beaverton, Oregon-based OSDL is also gaining considerable support for its Linux promotion activities in China, according to its CEO, Stuart Cohen. The OSDL announced its first Chinese member, the Beijing Co-Create Open Source Software Company Ltd, in January 2004, and has more in the pipeline.
They are very much interested in Linux on the desktop and an OSDL facility, said Cohen. We have one Chinese member. We will announce another one shortly and I would anticipate a few more in the next quarter.
Cohen spoke to ComputerWire from Japan after a quick visit to China. OSDL’s presence in Japan is already more established, with a test facility in Yokohama and several big name members in the OSDL Japan working group, including Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Miracle Linux, Mitsubishi, NEC and Toshiba.
Internet Protocol network software and services provider IP Telecom, which also distributes Nature’s Linux in Japan, will join those organizations and will participate in OSDL’s Data Center Linux and Carrier Grade Linux working groups.
OSDL is also looking to create a Customer Advisory Council in Japan after the successful first meeting of its European CAC last month and several meetings of its US equivalent. The council acts as a business voice for the OSDL, reviewing reports and recommendations from the technical and marketing boards of the organization’s Data Center Linux, Carrier Grade Linux and Desktop Linux workgroups.
Cohen said the first meeting of the European CAC in Germany attracted 15 companies from six different countries with an agreement reached to expand the membership to a maximum of 20 with a second meeting scheduled for May. We’re looking at setting up a similar end-user council in Japan, said Cohen, and I anticipate that coming together in the next quarter.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
