Korean Linux distributor Haansoft has joined the OSDL, and will contribute to the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) working group. Haansoft developes its Asianux distribution in collaboration with Red Flag Linux in China and Miracle Linux in Japan, and says the next version will comply with the CGL specification.

Haansoft, Red Flag, and Miracle Linux announced in March that the 2.0 version of Asianux would reach availability in July of this year.

Haansoft claims to dominate the market for Korean-language office software, with 70 percent of the Korean market for word processing software. In the past, it has marketed Asianux primarily as an enterprise server operating system.

According to the OSDL, Korea launched a $50M project in 2004 to switch more than a thousand government IT projects to Linux. The OSDL gained its first Korean member in March, when the government-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) signed on — ETRI is perhaps best known as the originator of widely used cellular phone protocol CDMA (code division multiple access).

Red Flag Linux joined the OSDL in January of 2005. Miracle Linux has belonged to the OSDL since its earliest days, and was a member when the organization launched its Carrier Grade and Data Center working groups.

Haansoft GM Jaykay Kim said, “Haansoft is joining OSDL to strategically work with Linux vendors worldwide. We look forward to contributing our expertise in Asian software development.”

The OSDL's Asian director, Masanobu Hirano, said, “There is a huge opportunity for Linux across the Asian continent.”

 
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