China's Ministry of Science and Technology and French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) plan to jointly develop software for Lixun operatng system.

The two governmental departments will cooperate in developing a platform, based on Linux, able to be applied under various environments, such as personal computer, server and personal digital assistant.

The system will support online service and communication application software.

Sources say, Lixun has been developing very fast in France in recent years. In the second quarter of 2004, China's market of platform software also witnessed a high growth rate, with an aggregate of 2.701 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 29.9 percent.

In terms of the product mix, Linux has become the focus of the market with a year-on-year growth of 72.1 percent, and also 20.5 percent up from the previous statistical period.

Linux still holds a market share as high as 60 percent among governments and large enterprises while in the meantime penetrates into small and medium-sized enterprises at a year-on-year growth rate of 74.4 percent.

By People's Daily Online