Linux Rides The Rails in China

Asia’s dominant Linux distribution, Turbolinux, has notched another win to provide the operating system for the China Ministry of Railways. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the agreement Turbolinux will install and deploy Turbo HA, its high availability server application on 160 servers as well as 300 copies of Turbolinux Server. The system is intended to help modernize the Chinese package delivery process, which operates in tandem with the postal service and railways.

According to a Turbolinux statement, the system “will process 95 percent of total freight volume [and] nearly 200 million parcels annualY.”

“Turbolinux continues to penetrate market share and expand capabilities in China, particularly in the area of large-scale Linux deployment,” said Koichi Yano, president and COO of Turbolinux in a statement. “We look forward to helping the China MOR streamline its parcel delivery process, which will also encourage IT standardization in governments and municipalities throughout Asia.”

The market for open source Linux products in Asia is seen as a ripe
opportunity by many Linux vendors. According to IDC Japan statistics, the Linux market opportunities in China are expected to reach $41.9 million by 2008, and $105 million in Japan by 2007.

The update comes at a time when Raleigh, North Carolina-based Red Hat is adding more sales staff to its Asian efforts, such as Stephen McWhirter as vice president of Red Hat’s Asia Pacific Operations

“The addition of McWhirter is further demonstration of Red Hat’s
commitment to the Asian market,” Red Hat noted in a press statement.
McWhirter was formerly a high-flier with IBM where he led their Asia
Pacific sales in over $1 billion of new net revenues.