A plan by Japan, China and South Korea to develop an operating system alternative to Microsoft"s Windows software could raise concerns over fair competition, Microsoft said Friday.
Japan, the world"s second-largest economy, made a proposal at an Asian economic summit this week to build an inexpensive and trustworthy open-source operating system that would be based on a system such as Linux, which can be copied and modified freely. "We"d like to see the market decide who the winners are in the software industry," said Tom Robertson, Microsoft"s Tokyo-based director for government affairs in Asia. Microsoft prefers competition between software applications to be determined in the free markets rather than by government agencies. "Governments should not be in the position to decide who the winners are," Robertson said.
Robertson said Microsoft, the world"s No. 1 software maker, had a "direct and open line of communication" with Japan"s government over software security, standards and development. Japan"s computer and consumer hardware industries--which include global heavyweights Sony, Matsushita Electric and NEC--have long searched for an alternative to Windows, which they contend gives the Redmond, Wash.-based software company too much control over the personal computer industry. Japanese media have reported that the government would spend 1 billion yen ($86 million) on the project and endorse an open-source forum Japan"s electronics makers set up.