The Korean government is going to use the Linux operating system instead of Windows because of the expensive cost

According to the Korea Herald, the Korean Ministry of Home Affairs and Security will pilot the transition from Windows operating system to Linux first. If no serious security or compatibility issues are found, the Linux operating system will be applied at other Korean government agencies.

Mr. Choi Jang-hyuk, director of the ministry's digital services office, said changing this system to reduce costs and dependence on a single platform.

Currently, information on the Linux version selected by the Korean government has not been published.

This decision was made by the Korean government when the Windows 7 deadline will not be free of technical support and upgraded to Windows 10 coming, January 2020. Meanwhile, the cost to buy, operate and maintain systems running Windows operating systems is too high.

If you switch to Linux and buy a new computer, the Korean government only has to spend about 780 billion won (655 million USD), much lower than the money it has to buy the Windows operating system license.

Compared to Windows - Microsoft's copyrighted operating system, Linux is an open source platform that is rated to have a high level of security, good customization and is completely free. However, the downside of Linux is limited application support.

If the Korean government made this transition smoothly, Microsoft was not too worried. By now, in addition to selling Windows licenses, Microsoft also developed many cloud services. Some online services for its corporate environment have so far not had a complete replacement, so the company can still profit from the Korean government.

Previously, the Linux operating system was also expressed interest by some government agencies, but the Korean government was the pioneer to deploy using this operating system.