[tlug] Linux on Japanese TV News

[mcooper <mcooper@example.com>]

Since no one else has posted on this, I guess I will. On Close-Up ç 
ä Tuesday or Wednesday night, the topic was the recent government  
move to reduce dependency on çåããã (monopoly software). They  
went to one local government in someplace in Japan (forgot where)  
that is using Novell Linux on the workstations in the City Hall. They  
are using OOo, but they still have to have one Windows machine in  
each department because documents from the national government  
agencies does not always open on Linux.

The reporting was very much focused on the movement toward open  
document formats, and they stated that MS Japan promised to make  
Office compatible with open doc within months. The program also made  
very clear the advantages of using open document formats that can be  
used in Windows, MacOS, and Linux environments. It was quite  
interesting to see how they made the subject easy to understand, and  
the focus was very much on the civil servants using OOo in the City  
Hall. The head of tech there is holding plenty of workshops to help  
the workers get used to the new interface.

All in all, it was completely positive about Linux, and it really  
made Linux, and even more so OOo, look like something that the viewer  
really needs to look into.  I am sure that this will prompt smaller  
organizations to look into using OOo, if on Windows at first.