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question Linux in Korea

January 18th, 2008 by Gen Kanai

Both Matt Asay and Glyn Moody are pointing to this Guardian article, Can Linux finally unite Korea?, which claims that Linux will be used to try to increase cooperation between North and South Korea. While the goal is a worthy one, the devil is in the details of course.

I’ve outlined in great detail on this blog, the cost of monoculture, and update on the cost of monoculture in Korea, detailing the unique situation South Korea is in with respect to their encryption cipher used only in South Korea for secure transactions over the Internet, and how it requires both Microsoft Windows as well as Internet Explorer.

Thus, when all of these new North Korean Hana Linux Internet users decide to try to make any secure transaction with any South Korean web service which requires the SEED cipher and the Active-X control that SEED must be paired with, they’ll be sadly denied access.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Firefox, Internet Explorer, Korea, Microsoft, open source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “question Linux in Korea”

  1. me Says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

    Thanks for the update, your previous post sprang to mind when i read the guardians headline on digg.
    How is it justified? its not just a browser lock in but a complete OS lock in (as we all know MSIE is for Windows only) With so many stakeholders involved in a modern developed economy (Apple cant sell its computers, Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 Internet abilities are hobbled, mobile phones are fscked) how does this mess continue?
    I would have thought there would have been countless tec industry heavy weights whispering in politicians ears “this mess is costing us money”

  2. Roman Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    SEED is included in 2.6.24 kernel AFAIR.
    People who created a “secure” transaction solution which uses ActiveX are idiots.
    I’m sure the situation can change if goverment says “we will use Linux on our PCs”.
    BTW, wasn’t there something like antitrust motion against Microsoft in South Korea some time ago?

  3. Gen Kanai Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    SEED may be included in the kernel but there’s more work that would need to be done.

    Mozilla bug 307210 has no comments from anyone in Korea, fwiw.

    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=307210

    Roman, there was an antitrust motion against Microsoft in South Korea last year.

    http://blog.mozilla.com/gen/2007/10/18/microsoft-ends-south-korea-legal-battle/

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