Last May, South Korea had announced that all of its government computers would be switching from Windows to Linux following Window 7’s end-of-life. On January 14, 2020, Microsoft’s most popular Windows 7 operating system was officially declared dead.

With the end of technical support for Windows 7, starting end of this year, the South Korean government will be switching the computers used in its central government, local governments, and public institutions to Linux-based operating systems.

The operating systems planned by the government are Cloud OS, Harmonica OS, and TMAX OS, which are based on Linux. Currently, the country’s Ministry of Defense is already using Harmonica OS while the postal service is testing TMAX OS.

Following the termination of Windows 7 technical support, South Korean Govt has drafted a strategy to replace Windows 7 dependency with a Linux-based open source OS at full scale.

In May last year, the Korean govt announced the migration from Windows to Linux. Subsequently, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security plans to adopt the Open OS fully for all public institutions and local governments by 2026.

With Windows 7 in its support coffin, some institutions are finally giving up on Windows entirely. The biggest of these may be the South Korean government. In May 2019, South Korea's Interior Ministry announced plans to look into switching to the Linux desktop from Windows. It must have liked what it saw. According to the Korean news site Newsis, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Planning has announced the government is exploring moving most of its approximately 3.3 million Windows computers to Linux.

Other government departments have already moved part of their fleets to Linux and are working on plans to expand the adoption to more devices.

The Ministry of National Defense and National Police Agency, for example, currently runs Harmonica OS 3.0, which is customized with a series of Korean applications, while the Ministry of Public Administration and Security installed the locally-developed Gooroom Cloud OS based on Debian.

South Korea's government is exploring moving most of its 3.3 million PCs from Windows to Linux.

In May 2019, South Korea's Interior Ministry announced plans to look into switching to the Linux desktop from Windows and it appears that it liked the idea.

According to the Korean news site Newsis, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Planning has announced the government is exploring moving most of its approximately 3.3 million Windows computers to Linux.

The big idea is to reduce software licensing costs and the government's reliance on Windows.

Choi Jang-hyuk, the head of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, said, "We will resolve our dependency on a single company while reducing the budget by introducing an open-source operating system."

South Korean officials said it would cost $655 million to move government PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Last year, we reported that South Korean government is considering to migrate its Windows 7-based desktop PCs to Linux. Recently, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Planning has revealed its plans on how it will migrate to Linux OS. Overall, South Korean government is planning to migrate 3.3 million Windows PCs to Linux.

“We will resolve our dependency on a single company while reducing the budget by introducing an open-source operating system,” said Choi Jang-hyuk, a South Korean government government official involved in the planning.

South Korean government has announced that it will switch the computers used in its central, local, and public institutions to Linux-based operating systems starting this year-end.

The announcement comes just one month after the end of “free” support for Microsoft Windows 7, the most prevalent operating system used by the South Korean government.

The reasoning behind the switch is two-fold. South Korea was looking to reduce its reliance on Microsoft and Windows and cut down on software licensing costs.

It is interesting to see different governments handle their computer-based needs. In South Korea, Microsoft Windows will be removed from government computers fairly soon. Instead, the operating system will be Linux, albeit it is unclear which distribution will be used.

A total of 3.3. million devices will be upgraded by year’s end.

The main objective of this switch is to handle the lack of support for Windows 7.

Rather than paying a hefty fee for licenses to upgrade, switching to Linux makes a lot more sense.

The South Korean Government is on the verge of migrating from Windows 7 to Linux on the desktop. This began back in May 2019, when South Korea’s Interior Ministry announced the plans to look into making the switch.

Since that initial date, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Planning announced the government is now exploring migrating over three million Windows 7 desktops over to Linux. According to Choi Jang-hyuk (head of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance), South Korea will resolve their dependency on Microsoft while reducing the budget by migrating to an open source operating system.