The formal establishment of China Open Source Software Promotion Alliance, the first open source software (OSS) organization of China, was announced recently. It indicates that the open source software with Linux as the representative has developed into a new stage.

Relevant experts hold that the OSS is a trend of the future software development. To take Linux's open source as a point to break through in the promotion of the industry's core competitiveness and the formation of an independent development system for the software industry has become an important strategic issue for the development of China's software industry.

It is introduced that the alliance is a non-governmental combo made up of enterprises, non-profit organizations, representatives from non-governmental societies, and individuals following a voluntary principle under the guidance of relevant departments of the Chinese government. The objective and the tenet in the foundation of such an alliance are to unite the strengths by an extensive combination and strengthened exchanges for the sake of corporative development, promote the OSS development and application in China, drive the exchange and cooperation of the OSS circles in Northeast Asia, and make contributions to the international OSS community.

The strong lineup of enterprises in this alliance implies that the commercial prospect of Linux is evaluated highly. Domestic and international magnates, such as Beijing Co-Create Open Source, Zhongbiao Software, Red Flag, Wuxi Evermore Software, Kingsoft, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000, IBM, HP, Intel, and Novell, are all initiators of this alliance.

By investing RMB 50 million to establish 5 academes that each accommodates 400 to 600 people, Thiz Technology Group Limited, the third largest Linux manufacturer in the world, began to challenge Microsoft through a mode of talent cultivation.

Recently, the Linux software service provider, Thiz Technology Group Limited from Hong Kong, has established two respective large Linux software academies in Beijing and Dalian. It is known that the two academies each has gathered over 100 Linux software R&D talents in their first sessions. Yet, this is only a part of Linux "1+1+1" Project launched by Thiz and Beijing Software Industry Promoting Center in their effort to push forward domestic operating systems.

It will be possible for Thiz Technology Group Limited, who focuses on personal desktop operating systems, to make its assault on Microsoft in the desktop field. The first step that they choose to take is talent cultivation, which has never happened before.

It is well known that at present there are two mainstream computer operating systems in the world, namely Microsoft's Windows and the globally open Linux. Among them, Windows that is familiar to personal computer users has been monopolizing the computer desktop market for almost 10 years, while Linux, which has been forced to simply cooperate with some corporate users, has failed to get the correct approach to cut into the personal computer desktop market.

It is generally accepted inside the industry that the biggest problems for Linux to be controlled lie in two aspects: firstly, it has no sufficient application software; secondly, there is a lack of talents and too few people can use Linux.

Mr. Wong Hoi Wong, Chief Executive Officer of Thiz Technology Group, indicates that as early as last year, Thiz Technology Group had jointly launched the "Sail Setting" Project with Beijing Software Industry Promoting Center to promote the domestic operating system. It also organized the Linux "1+1+1" Project, which is the first Linux education project fostered by the government. Up to now, the Linux "1+1+1" Project has cultivated almost 1,000 outstanding Linux technical talents for the society, and thus it has greatly push forward Linux¡¯s development in China.

Mr. Wong Hoi Wong noted that Thiz Technology Group Limited would soon set up 3 Linux software academies in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xi'an respectively. With the 5 academies cooperating with each other in future, Thiz Technology Group Limited in Hong Kong will continuously transfer its core technologies in the research and development of THIZLINUX series software to the mainland, making its Linux software academies authoritative R&D institutions of operating systems and application software with independent national intellectual property rights.