Country officials are looking for an affordable alternative to XP

Dec 17, 2013 16:41 GMT  ·  By

They do admit that they are behind the times with some of their local laws, but South Koreans are fully prepared to make a surprising move for all government workers.

The country wants to abandon Windows XP and go for a much more affordable alternative, especially because Microsoft is giving them no other option, they said. Windows XP will be discontinued on April 8, 2014, so the tech giant won’t release any other updates and security patches beyond this date.

Since neither Windows 7 nor Windows 8 are affordable options for those planning to move from Windows XP to a newer operating system, South Koreans are planning to transition to Ubuntu, a freeware alternative that’s gaining more users every day.

In South Korea’s case, the local IT experts apparently agree that Ubuntu doesn’t come with the same options as Windows and it might be a bit hard for some to get used to it, but they still think that its open source license is a gift from God.

“Ubuntu does not support as wide an array of programs like Windows but is easy to install, and has evolved into a highly sophisticated program,” a local source was quoted as saying by Business Korea.

“PC users today do not need clunky packaged software. In a desktop environment today, users can perform most of the tasks with the aid of a simple browser.”

And still, we can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen when all users make the move to Ubuntu, as local online shopping services only work in Internet Explorer, which basically gives users absolutely no option than to buy stuff from retail stores.

The government is working to change these laws but, until then, dumping Windows and moving all computers to Ubuntu will be a funny thing to watch.