The Central Trust of China (中央信託局) yesterday said it had decided to expand procurement of PC models for government to ensure the use of both Linux and Windows operating systems (OS).
Central Trust -- whose business operations include banking, insurance, trade and warehousing -- is in charge of purchasing computers and related IT products for government agencies and education institutions.
According to the state-run enterprise, there were originally 11 desktop units planned for an upcoming tender. These machines were designed for use with either Windows or Linux operating systems, but not both -- a change from the previous tender, which mandated that all desktops run on both operating systems.
But earlier this month Central Trust decided to expand the number of units included under the tender to 44, with 11 items each for machines running exclusively on Windows or Linux as well as a pool of barebone machines that can run on either system.
"The new requirements follow the market trend and we are open to discussion with software and hardware vendors," a Central Trust source, speaking on codition of anonymity, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
The source said the state-run unit decided to change the operating system requirements after "gathering feedback from other government agencies."
He did not elaborate.
The change of specifications for a desktop computer to run on both operating systems will make the machine more costly compared to a system-dedicated machine, and now there are three different options to cater to the needs of different parties, he said.
The tender change is viewed as a victory for Microsoft Corp -- whose Windows operating system enjoys market dominance internationally -- after lobbying Central Trust for the change, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier this week.
Microsoft Taiwan refused to comment on the report yesterday.
The new tender for PCs, the 12th conducted by China Trust, is expected to start next Thursday, and will run for six months, the enterrprise source said.
The last tender saw China Trust purchase 70,000 PCs for the government. Volumes for the next round are yet to be determined, he added.
The combined volumes of both tenders accounted for 20 percent of the nation's desktop market, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last