“China, South Korea and Japan are to boost joint research into a new computer operating system to rival Microsoft Windows.
The project, expected to be open-source software, was proposed by Japan and is intended to give a helping hand to Windows rivals, such as Linux.
The Japanese Government has already earmarked one billion yen (US$85.5m) for the project.”

“Recent problems regarding viruses that attacked Windows software have shown to the three countries the risk of relying on a single software product.” (BBC)