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Why South Korea Is Shackled To Windows
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:43 AM
from the monoculture dept.
from the monoculture dept.
baron writes with a blog post explaining in detail why 99.9% of S. Korea uses Windows. This amazing tale began in 1998 when Korea decided it couldn't wait for SSL to be standardized (which it was in 1999) and commissioned an ActiveX control for secure Web transactions. At first there was a secure Netscape plugin too, but we know how that story ended. Quoting: "This nation is a place where Apple Macintosh users cannot bank online, make any purchases online, or interact with any of the nation's e-government sites online. In fact, Linux users, Mozilla Firefox users, and Opera users are also banned from any of these types of transactions..." Now that Microsoft has made ActiveX more secure in Vista, every Web site in S. Korea is scrambling to get things working again and the government is advising citizens not to install Vista. At the end of all this work, they will still be a monoculture in thrall to Microsoft, with millions of users sitting behind some of the fattest pipes in the world.
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Why South Korea Is Shackled To Windows
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Shackled to Windows? (Score:4, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday December 04 2006, @04:08PM)
Laugh. Its funny.
Re:Shackled to Windows? (Score:5, Funny)
kekekeke
Re:Who are you laughing at, Popeye? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.rulingwars.net/)
Starcraft in South Korea (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
It's called World of Warcraft...
I don't think you realize the popularity of Starcrft in South Korea. It's almost a national sport, there are multiple cable TV channels that show tournaments live with play-by-play commentators.
How easy to give up Freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.engidea.com/)
and how difficult to get it back
This is not just for Computing but the concept is more important than ever now, in Computing
TCO Study? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.a4fs.net/blog/)
Re:How easy to give up Freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
Fattest pipes? (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Thursday June 30 2005, @09:48AM)
When in doubt, make up your own cryptosystem... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3675.html)
The Anti-Massachusetts (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday December 08 2005, @04:33PM)
be on to something. (If you we're already thinking that.)
Re:The Anti-Massachusetts (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://kamthaka.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 30 2005, @03:18PM)
Seoul: 37 34' N 126 58' E
Which explains a lot; 126 58' E - 71 2' W = 198 00'.
In other words, we're practically 180 apart.
Like Geek heven.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Kind of bashing Windows I guess, but it makes me wonder if it's even possible to convert to more open standards at a reasonable price? Even with the "more secure" ActiveX controls, its still easier to modify those existing controls in VS than it is to rebuild the site under OSS.
Sigh. Owning a Monopoly must be nice.
Re:Like Geek heven.. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.nine-times.org/)
The first thing I wondered when I read this was, "Did they learn their lesson?" They standardized their entire country on a closed system, and when the vendor of that closed system initiates an arbitrary change, they're pretty much screwed and forced to rebuild things. In my mind, the smart thing would be to bite the bullet, drop Active X, and switch to Firefox and have a true multi-platform solution. Hell, if they can't do everything they require in an extension, they can go as far as making their own fork, and they'll retain that option in the future.
Really, this should be a lesson for everyone.
That's what you get (Score:3, Insightful)
Apparently (Score:2, Funny)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/24/21023
too bad kdawson just upgraded to vista
Diversity (Score:5, Funny)
Botnet and FatPipes (Score:2)
Also, a major flaw in MS-Win could render this country's Internet infrastructure and systems useless.
They really should reconsider this decision. Strategically it isn't a good one. And I don't mean creating another monopoly with Linux or whatever, just give the users a choice, so that their OS environment gets more colored.
Shackled to...windows? (Score:5, Funny)
Alternatively... (Score:5, Funny)
wait? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://web.lemuria.org/)
Re:wait? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday February 20 2007, @11:21AM)
Well said.
This tale still might have a silver lining, though. A single security vulnerability, properly exploited, could turn the entire economy of South Korea into a cautionary tale. For a decade afterward, at board meetings where purchasing or standardization decisions are being debated, people will randomly interject "But we could end up like South Korea!".
This is slashdot. Do we believe what we say about the perils of vendor lockin and closed-source? If so, then we should also believe that South Korea's predicament will eventually become a clear and obvious error.
Re:wait? (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Friday August 18 2006, @11:17PM)
Not a dupe, merely... (Score:1)
This is MS's fault how? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I'm not getting how this is anybody's fault except S. Korea's. SEED is an open specification. There is no reason the Korean community can't develop a plug-in for other systems. All that is required is for the S. Korean CA to allow it. Again, that's S. Korea's fault.
The only fault of Microsoft's lies in an area that the author is grossly misinformed. He says "In IE 7 and in Vista, Microsoft has re-architected Active X controls in such a way to make them 'more safe' by requiring a user action for the control to run", and then links to a page about the Eolas patent resolution. Many places have had to recode websites and controls after this change. While it is Microsoft's fault for the implementation, the impact on S. Korea is entirely up to them.
Sorry, you made your bed.
Re:This is MS's fault how? (Score:5, Interesting)
You need to understand the Korean mentality. It wouldn't have mattered if the government made Active-X the standard, or if they outlawed it completely. Hell, it wouldn't have mattered if the government didn't do anything. This would've happened regardless. The reason is that unlike in America where it's cool to be different and unique, the Korean mentality is to be as homogeneous as possible. Anybody "weird" is singled out and alienated. This mindset is embedded in their society, culture, personal and professional lives, and everything else they do.
The mere fact MS bundles IE with XP pretty much ENSURED that IE would be used by the vast majority of users in Korea.
Even if standards were opened to allow Firefox, Safari, or Opera access to everything online, I will bet that IE will still have 99.9% of the market. Simply because it's what everybody else is using.
Not WIndows Fault (Score:2, Insightful)
No, the problem is that incompetently created websites use delicate nonportable nonstandard proprietary software that is only interoperative with one single obsolete platform.
Don't blame Vista; blame people who aren't responsible, experienced, or forward-looking enough to see why complying with standards is so necessary.
Now let's see how people will fix their glaring mistake. Will they "fix" it by repeating it (i.e. rewriting ActiveX controls to be compatible with Vista, so that they can get paid to screw their customers again in 5 years when the next version of Windows comes out) or will they fix it by removing the irresponsible dependencies?
Korean computers SUCKKKKK!!! (Score:5, Informative)
1. it's running Windows with IE and at least 3 extraneous toolbars
2. it hasn't been defragmented since the computer was first built
3. EVERY website HAS to install software to make it run properly
4. EVERY website the user has bookmarked has at least 5 megabytes of flash (and they're all advertisements)
Everybody in Korea signs up for everything, not knowing how useless the service is, how dangerous it is on their computer, and how much traffic it eats up. Just go to www.daum.net [daum.net] or www.naver.co.kr [naver.co.kr], the two most popular media portals in Korea. What's worse is that Koreans prefer that kind of interface over Google [google.com].
I'm not trying to bash Koreans, Windows, or Internet Explorer at all. It's just that when you put the three together, bad things are bound to happen.
Re:Korean computers SUCKKKKK!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Korean computers SUCKKKKK!!! (Score:4, Funny)
(http://pitabred.dyndns.org/)
ActiveX (Score:5, Informative)
A
Personnely I doubt that Vista will break these Korean ActiveX modules indefinetely, as MS can release a patch after the OS is releashed and selling, at their leisure. MS would never create a situation where an entire country is put off their flagship product, especially a country with 99.9% MS Windows usage, as stated in the article.
While I find the prevalent MS monoculture in South Korea in itself quite alarming and surprising, I don't think that the compatability issues with Vista are a cause for major concern. Nobody is foring anybody to upgrade to Vista after all.
Proprietary software (Score:5, Insightful)
It's that last part that freaks me out... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Just thinking about it makes me want to tell my firewall to shun all traffic from large swaths of the world...
Another question: Couldn't this be forced through liability? I.e. These companies need to switch to using the now much-more secure SSL to handle transactions, or find themselves liable when their customers identities are stolen through their weak quasi-encryption scheme. That's why US companies did it--they didn't want to get sued because a weak protocol was cracked.
other parallels (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://zooid.org/~vid)
The Government of Canada uses a public key infrastructure system, that only works in some browsers. Famously for the past census, only some people could access it.
Some important sites, such as banks and airlines, don't support other browsers or require plugins as well. It is getting better with the important cross platform critical mass of Firefox, but far from perfect.
Is it a public highway, or something designed only for Ford Explorers(tm)?
Re:other parallels (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.mcgill.ca/)
In fact the Canada Revenue Agency website even supports Opera, among other things.
http://www.netfile.gc.ca/browser-e.html [netfile.gc.ca]
CIBC, Royal Bank, ScotiaBank, TD Bank, PC Financial all support Safari and other minority browsers
http://www.cibc.com/ca/legal/browser-security.htm
http://www.royalbank.com/online/faqindex.html [royalbank.com]
http://www.scotiabank.com/cda/content/0,1608,CID4
http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/ebanking/sup-br.jsp [tdcanadatrust.com]
http://www.banking.pcfinancial.ca/a/security/what
I'm SO glad you clarified this (Score:3, Funny)
It's good that you put up this article for us, helping to clarify that we're talking about South Korea and not North Korea.
Thank you. My comrades in North Korea will be relieved to hear this.
uh? (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://www.livejournal.com/users/waspleg/ | Last Journal: Monday June 23 2003, @08:30PM)
maybe this has something to do with a fervent windows dedication? linux games are still limted to cedega, and no one wants to pay for play, although some people don't care, like my friend who pays their dev fee on top of his WoW subscription; i guess it depends on your disposable income.
what i'm saying is maybe ActiveX isn't the only factor here, maybe DirectX is a big (bigger?) one.
waspleg
this is a perfect indicator (Score:3, Interesting)
Shackled? And this has hurt them how? (Score:2, Interesting)
the perfect microsoft society (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Thursday July 22 2004, @11:14AM)
Broken, yes. But is it being fixed? (Score:2)
(http://foone.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday July 30 2006, @05:15PM)
That'd remove the cross-platform problems. (You'd still have the cross-browser problems, but IE+Firefox is infinitely better than just IE, even if Opera/Safari/etc don't work)
Patents, maybe? Or just lack of developer interests? Maybe there's no South Korean Firefox programmers.
Also, the information about the two plugins doesn't make sense. There used to be a Netscape plugin, but then IE won the browser wars, so it stopped being used.
Firefox supports Netscape plugins (I think), I doubt the bits have rotted.
Can you say "morons"? (Score:2)
I knew you could.
Give Gates a chance and the US will be "shackled" as well.
ActiveX controls - the SECOND biggest stupid POS Microsoft ever produced - after the Registry.
Or maybe it's the DLL - I'm currently fighting a client's ancient Windows 95 machine (don't ask!) that is locked in DLL hell with the oleaut32.dll crap...
Somebody put Microsoft out of business NOW! Please!
Fan Death? (Score:1)
(http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 09 2006, @07:45PM)
In Korea... (Score:2)
TCO will include this? (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Wednesday October 31, @08:33AM)
That's the explanation, what's the solution? (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 05 2005, @03:50AM)
It is worse elsewhere, almost ... (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://baheyeldin.com/)
The matter is worse in other parts of the world where many more were affected.
A while ago, I wrote about Microsoft and Arabization [baheyeldin.com] and the issue of browser independence [baheyeldin.com].
Remember that there are about 300 million native Arabic speakers, and it is the 5th language or so worldwide, spread over 20+ countries. Not to mention the many others who read or speak Arabic as a second language.
In the mid to late 1990s, Microsoft entrenched itself in the Arabic internet market. Most sites were just unusable form anything other than Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Since MS IE does not adhere to standards, and it became the dominant browser by the early 2000s, this monopoly further entrenched Microsoft as the sole technology provider for web sites in the Middle East.
Speaking to a developer at a fairly large company about it, he said : "forget Mac and Linux, we say the application requires Microsoft IE 5 [at the time]". I was flabbergasted by that attitude.
Not only is he mandating a certain browser, but an entire operating system and hardware architecture! And that went unchallenged.
Fortunately, things started to improve over the last year or two, with FireFox gaining ground, and there is no single government forcing a monoculture via banking security or something like that. Sites that used not to work (including Al Jazeera Arabic web site) are usable once more, perhaps with a few glitches here and there.
Still, most people use Hotmail for their email, and MSN for chat (voice and text). It may take time, but I hope the spread of FireFox, Mac OS/X and to a lesser extent Linux will continue to keep web site developers cross platform, and never force the monoculture that was prevalent up until a few years ago.
I thought North Korea was the bad one of the two (Score:1)
Skip the local browser (Score:2)
(http://www.thompsonhouse.org/)
OK, My South Korea Boycott Has Begun (Score:1)
(http://www.musingsfrommars.org/)
Hey, clearly the country sees no disincentive to being an IT fiefdom of Microsoft, but I certainly won't buy anything made solely with Microsoft software. I haven't bought Microsoft products in years as a personal boycott of the company. If everything imported from South Korea has been built by the Microsoft Monopoly machine, it simply won't be coming into my household. Obviously, one little guy boycotting Korean products isn't going to make a difference. But the same is true of my Microsoft boycott, yet I continue to hope that one day more of my peers will realize that we have a government-sponsored monopoly running our computers, and all the money for the monopoly is going to that monopoly company. Is this right? Can anybody still say, "free enterprise" with a straight face? IT, computers, and software now touch everything we touch, and it's just not right to let it be controlled by a single private entity that has no accountability.
Oops... this really got me started. But I need to stop before I spend the next hour here. :-)
I'm IN South Korea (Score:2)
Trust Koreans (Score:1)
Haven't they learned anything ? (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Monday January 23 2006, @02:12AM)
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/slammer.
It completely dropped out of internet because of this SQL Server worm.
This should have made Korea realize that depending on one technology (especially MSFT) is a death knell to their online experience.
Instead these guys have gone ahead to make it more dependent on MSFT especially ActiveX which has been proven it is unsafe on 'net.
Haven't they learned anything at all.
Microsoft won't delay vista for Korea, how rude! (Score:1)
(http://trimbo.blogspot.com/)
Gee, because Korean websites had absolutely no advance notice that Vista was coming out. Nope. No one heard about that one in advance.
I'm getting really tired of Slashdot publishing vendor complaints about Vista catching them all by surprise. Vista's anything but a surprise.
& I thought N Korea was a barbaric dictatorshi (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Korea is stuck using Microsoft (Score:3, Informative)
(http://paperlined.org/)
Re:Korea is stuck using Microsoft (Score:3, Informative)
(Last Journal: Saturday July 02 2005, @10:09AM)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=218612&cid=17
Re:Korea is stuck using Microsoft (Score:2)
Now we know where all those spam-distributing botnets are located. Bring out teh bombers! :)
Re:Korea is stuck using Microsoft (Score:2)
So I can use any operating system.
So I can use any random computer anywhere (friend's, work, library, random internet kiosk at the breckenridge ski resort up on the mountain)
And that I never considered that amazing before today.