Biggest event for Linux and open source, ‘Linux World Korea 2006’ is opening at Seoul, from 5th thru 7th this month. CNET Korea conducted online voting in best customer support and service category. The tallied result, IBM and Redhat won for best companies representing hardware and software respectively. Besides giving out awards for solution category, the award ceremony also included honoring most influential people for active development and distribution of Linux systems.

Globally and industry overall, in embedded system appications, Linux and open source are showing rapid growth recent years. The growth is same for Korea and the opening of ‘LinuxWorld Korea 2006’ expo just made the realizing the vision of Korean open source and Linux business possible. With this in mind, CNET Korea prepared the award ceremony to better recognize present state of Linux and set future initiatives of Linux and open source business. The best Linux for hardware and software categories were selected for the award.

For this reason CNET Korea conducted online voting from ZDNET Korea (sister site of CNET Korea) for past two weeks. They picked winners from three voting categories; best product and support service for hardware, software and also appreciation award for individuals playing most crucial role in active development and distribution of Korean Linux market.


The winners from the online voting were IBM Korea for hardware and Redhat Korea for software categories. Also for the appreciation award, the winners were announced in five separate categories which included ▲ development and active distribution ▲ Application promotion ▲ Research ▲ Community ▲ overseas


CNET Korea’s president Moo-Kyung Yang who handed out the awards said “The awards were handed out to better realize and to promote more practical applications in open source, which is heart of IT business today. And because the winners were picked by the consumers we hope that this event could serve as promoting next business model for the open source customers out there. And CNET Korea will continue to work to bring better guidelines for the industry.”

List of CNET Award recipients in appreciation award category and their selection criteria were as follows.

▲ Development and active distribution category
Director Hyun-Jin Ko (Korea IT Promotion Agency, KIPA)
: For replacing KIPA’s overall system with Linux based system and laying foundation to public agencies and their systems and also paying a crucial role in distributing Linux and open source systems, which was the main focus during director’s term.

▲ Application Promotion Category
- Director Nam-Suk Kim (Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs – e-dept.)
: Bringing in and establishing Linux infrastructure and helped government agencies to implement effectively.

- House member Kyung-Jae Park (Former director of international education information)
: Played major role in adapting Linux to NEIS, popularize Linux and open source , planting Linux in national educational system, get government approvals for the Linux to promote related industry and technologies to build Linux infrastructure for future.

▲ Research Category
- Professor Gun Ko (Seoul University, dept. of Computer Science, Chairman- Korea/China open software forum)
: Serving the academic world, helped bringing up students in Linux and related technology.

- Dr. Myung-Jun Kim (Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institution, Head of Internet server Group)
: Contributed in standardization of Linux and related technologies in domestic Korea.

▲ Community Category
- Researcher (Samsung Electronics)
: Ran KLDP, which provided various technology documents to Linuxers from the onset of early beginning and on.

-Team director Suk-Chan Yoon (Daum Communication R & D center)
: Framed Mozilla foundation and written numerous open source texts, actively involved in running blogs and internet communities domestically.

▲ Foreigner Category
-Maddog Hall (Chairman of Linux International)
: Long time contributor to planting and spreading Linux, especially helped Korea through frequent Linux forum.

 [Award recipient interview]

"Joint effort from Administration and Private sector needed to expand open standards"
Development and active distribution category : KIPA director Hyun-Jin Ko

Linux was once on the rise until the downfall of dot.com era. And I believe, now is right time to apply it for users who really need it. And receiving this award with recognition of bringing up and spreading Linux system is very meaningful particularly in this stage. And I hope having the international Linux event in Korea can further promote developments in open source. To make this possible, all domestic industry needs further expansion of open standards. In areas of embedded and desktop, it needs to come up with practical ideas and same time work with the administration to coming up with open standard.

“Linux applications on the rise in various university R & D sectors”
Contribution to Research award: Professor Gun Ko, Seoul University

Unlike US or Japan, South Korea lacked in OS (Operation System) SW industry. It did not exist. But from now on, we should see more concentration in embedded system and we anticipate it to be the next main exporter for the industry. For that reason, further improving the Linux competition in the market is very important for the industry.

Windows CE or Simbia is commonly used in embedded system but these never reveal the inner technologies. However when you understand the Linux system with proper training can lead to easier understanding of Windows CE.
Reaching quarter finals to World Cup tournament can be important but domestic industry also need to do same and aim to be within world’s top four. For that we need to invest more in R&D for open SW. This will bring future opportunities for our industry. Current domestic open source manpower isn’t big enough but hopefully, this kind of events can change that.

One bright light in Linux is found in lecture halls, that empty seats are hard to be seen indicating more interests from current college students. Electronics, machinery, Automobile and variety of majoring students are all affected by Linux due to on going researches that are conducted with the Linux. For instance, the Linux software can be used in wide applications like, atomic power, medical, fiber and related fields. All these curiosity from the students are very encouraging sign indeed.

“Linux business isn’t in selling license rather in providing service!"
Best SW Firm : Director Joon-Kyu Park, Redhat Korea

I believe that Redhat received the award due to high popularity and demand in our products. I thank consumers for supporting us. They say that domestic Linux market is sluggish but in reality it’s not quite true. In Redhats case for example, previous year 2005 showed 100 percent growth and we forecast same for this year too.

If there’s one problem, I’m little concerned with the Linux being implemented in certain special fields for the public agencies and not enough in other sectors of industry. The quality of the Linux should be prioritized and rather spend less bureaucratic efforts of importing the system just to stop monopoly in the market. But fortunately, other industries are slowly but surely adapting to Linux.

Future strategies will be concentrated in spreading wide business application of Linux. In domestic open source market, license or intellectual property rights issues are the problems that still need to be solved. But Linux is selling the service not the license. And for that reason, it should eventually pay off. And to relay this concept to the consumers are the no.1 priority for the active growth of Linux.