About 15 hours later, Tmax Window will be unveiled infront of a 3,000 crowd. Demonstration by the presenter will be held, but no public trial is scheduled for now. This OS, if succesfully goes on sale, is expectated to dominate the government and office OS market of Korea, but why do I feel fear than hope? Let's go over step by step.
Tmaxsoft, I have to admit that I heard this name only recently. It was mid June and I was having a drink with two friends whom I haven't seen for a while. By the time we started to run out of topics, one of the friend (who is a S/W programmer) complained on Tmaxsoft and Tmax Window. I asked him what it was and he said that he was surprised that I didn't know about it and explained to me that [it's an GUI OS being made by Tmaxsoft which claims it to be 100% compatible with Microsoft Windows] so I replied that it probably be a linux with a virtual machine inside, which my friend agreed. We soon moved on to the next topic and I forgot about Tmaxsoft and their OS until recently, when they publicized screenshots of the Tmax Window and it is pure comedy.
Link1
This link takes you to the screenshots initially released by Tmaxsoft. Have a look closely. The volume name of C drive (which probably is the main OS drive) is named "Win XP" and the name of the folders from the "tree view" and "detail view" differs. Also, on the shot with the Active X popup, the contents of the browser and the address doesn't match (as well, the Active X window differs with the other part of the OS and uses the Windows XP's theme.)
Link 2
Soon after initial release of the screenshots, Korean bloggers pointed out these problems and before the day has passed, Tmaxsoft has re-released "corrected" screenshots of Tmax Window, claiming that the previous ones were a mistake. The link at the top of this paragraph shows these new screenshots, which is shown with all the problems initially pointed out being solved. The fun thing is that the new screenshots aren't captured new (with exactly same layouts with the initial releases) and only fixed the problems, which would make more sense when assuming that "the initial screenshots were unfinished versions of the compositing and was released by total mistake." Also, even in the corrected screenshots, Microsoft's programs seems to run on Tmax Window, but Tmaxsoft's programs (s.a. Tmax Office) seems to run on Windows XP. How did I know that? Look at the top window frame of Tmax Office, it uses Window XP's theme.
Link 3
One more thing before I go on to the company analysis. The link above is a news article (by I News, dated June 25th) that says Tmaxsoft has invited Bill Gates to tomorrows event. It is also written that Mr. Gates probably won't make it to the show and a interview with a Tmaxsoft director said that "the presence of Bill Gates may not happen, but showing our will of challenge is what is important" which sounds to me a general speech of a impostor.
Anyway, last night, I barely had any sleep and spent about three hours on research. I first did research of official reports on Tmaxsoft and Tmaxdata accessed from FSS (Financial Supervisory Service) website. Then, I did more research through company's official websites, press releases and Tmaxsoft stock holders' forum. (Tmaxsoft is not listed on KOSPI/KOSDAQ and seems to have its stocks traded off market.) Through the short research, I was able to notice several things. (I have not go very thoroughly on the relationship between Tmaxsoft and Tmaxdata, so there is a chance that the two are unrelated.)
1) Tmaxsoft has steady and increasing sales in the domestic market.
As a server middleware company, Tmaxsoft has shown stability and steady expansion of market share for the past seven years. This makes Tmaxsoft look very legitimate.
2) Tmaxsoft is owned primarily by its founder, Dr. Park, Dae Yeon
This ex-professor of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) owns a little more than half of the company's stocks. About 2% is owned by a financial firm and the rest seems to be owned by individuals. Also, it seems that Dr. Park, recently has opened eyes for increasing the value of stocks in methods of "control of people's minds."
3) Tmaxsoft has been trying to expand overseas, but are struggling to do so.
Tmaxsoft has offices in China, Japan, United States and other countries for a few years now. They seem to have steady marginal income, but no actual growth ever since the opening of these offices.
4) The press seems to be quite friendly with this company. Link 4
This link takes you to an article on Tmaxsoft Japan by Electronic Times (dated June 30th.) The title says "Tmaxsoft Japan breaches sales of ten billion won this year", while what's written in the article says that it's just a prospect, that would be twice of last year's, but my research showed that Tmaxsoft Japan had sales of only nine hundred million won last year.
5) Tmaxdata has failed to be listed on the stock market.
Tmaxdata tried to have its stocks sold on the market since May, but they have failed to pass the FSS' deliberation, three times, and has officially given it up (for the time being) in late June. (Like I said previously, I haven't done good enough research to find the proof of relationship between Tmaxsoft and Tmaxdata.)
6) Tmaxsoft is under a lawsuit for plagiarizing an Australian company's software.
It seems that there were two lawsuits, which Tmaxsoft has lost one and the other one still on going. The fun fact is, even though Tmaxsoft lost a case, no penalty has been given.
7) Short term bonds make up nearly half of Tmaxsoft's circulating assets.
I know most chaebols are like that and Tmaxsoft is a quite a big company, too. This company does make quite a lot of money so this fact may not be a big problem. One more thing, EPS for Tmaxsoft has dropped to nearly half for 2008, compared to 2007.
8) No logical support in counter arguments, when people point out possible problems of Tmax Window.
If Tmax Window is true, then it would be very likely that it runs Windows XP virtually so people would still have to buy another box of OS if they want to run S/W made for Microsoft Windows. There are a whole lot more problems that can happen for Tmax Window and when people point these out, the only type of counter argument I was able to find was the appealing to people's patriotism, saying "why are you against an OS that is a proud made in Korea?" (Actually, I was proud of Haansoft Hancom Linux several years ago, but too bad it couldn't run Starcraft!)
It was a short research and I did do it with a sleepy head. Still, I could learn some. Despite the fact that Tmaxsoft has strong base in domestic server middleware market and their founder being a well respected person, I don't trust this company, for the recent line of actions they have shown. I am well sure that the Tmax Window will demonstrate finely on tomorrow's show, but by the time it gets in reach of people's hands, it will be nothing better than an eight year old OS by Microsoft, relying on CPU's virtual machine technology. Will Tmaxsoft be the next NCsoft or will Dr. Park, Dae Yeon be the next Dr. Hwang, Woo Seok?
Tmaxsoft, I have to admit that I heard this name only recently. It was mid June and I was having a drink with two friends whom I haven't seen for a while. By the time we started to run out of topics, one of the friend (who is a S/W programmer) complained on Tmaxsoft and Tmax Window. I asked him what it was and he said that he was surprised that I didn't know about it and explained to me that [it's an GUI OS being made by Tmaxsoft which claims it to be 100% compatible with Microsoft Windows] so I replied that it probably be a linux with a virtual machine inside, which my friend agreed. We soon moved on to the next topic and I forgot about Tmaxsoft and their OS until recently, when they publicized screenshots of the Tmax Window and it is pure comedy.
Link1
This link takes you to the screenshots initially released by Tmaxsoft. Have a look closely. The volume name of C drive (which probably is the main OS drive) is named "Win XP" and the name of the folders from the "tree view" and "detail view" differs. Also, on the shot with the Active X popup, the contents of the browser and the address doesn't match (as well, the Active X window differs with the other part of the OS and uses the Windows XP's theme.)
Link 2
Soon after initial release of the screenshots, Korean bloggers pointed out these problems and before the day has passed, Tmaxsoft has re-released "corrected" screenshots of Tmax Window, claiming that the previous ones were a mistake. The link at the top of this paragraph shows these new screenshots, which is shown with all the problems initially pointed out being solved. The fun thing is that the new screenshots aren't captured new (with exactly same layouts with the initial releases) and only fixed the problems, which would make more sense when assuming that "the initial screenshots were unfinished versions of the compositing and was released by total mistake." Also, even in the corrected screenshots, Microsoft's programs seems to run on Tmax Window, but Tmaxsoft's programs (s.a. Tmax Office) seems to run on Windows XP. How did I know that? Look at the top window frame of Tmax Office, it uses Window XP's theme.
Link 3
One more thing before I go on to the company analysis. The link above is a news article (by I News, dated June 25th) that says Tmaxsoft has invited Bill Gates to tomorrows event. It is also written that Mr. Gates probably won't make it to the show and a interview with a Tmaxsoft director said that "the presence of Bill Gates may not happen, but showing our will of challenge is what is important" which sounds to me a general speech of a impostor.
Anyway, last night, I barely had any sleep and spent about three hours on research. I first did research of official reports on Tmaxsoft and Tmaxdata accessed from FSS (Financial Supervisory Service) website. Then, I did more research through company's official websites, press releases and Tmaxsoft stock holders' forum. (Tmaxsoft is not listed on KOSPI/KOSDAQ and seems to have its stocks traded off market.) Through the short research, I was able to notice several things. (I have not go very thoroughly on the relationship between Tmaxsoft and Tmaxdata, so there is a chance that the two are unrelated.)
1) Tmaxsoft has steady and increasing sales in the domestic market.
As a server middleware company, Tmaxsoft has shown stability and steady expansion of market share for the past seven years. This makes Tmaxsoft look very legitimate.
2) Tmaxsoft is owned primarily by its founder, Dr. Park, Dae Yeon
This ex-professor of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) owns a little more than half of the company's stocks. About 2% is owned by a financial firm and the rest seems to be owned by individuals. Also, it seems that Dr. Park, recently has opened eyes for increasing the value of stocks in methods of "control of people's minds."
3) Tmaxsoft has been trying to expand overseas, but are struggling to do so.
Tmaxsoft has offices in China, Japan, United States and other countries for a few years now. They seem to have steady marginal income, but no actual growth ever since the opening of these offices.
4) The press seems to be quite friendly with this company. Link 4
This link takes you to an article on Tmaxsoft Japan by Electronic Times (dated June 30th.) The title says "Tmaxsoft Japan breaches sales of ten billion won this year", while what's written in the article says that it's just a prospect, that would be twice of last year's, but my research showed that Tmaxsoft Japan had sales of only nine hundred million won last year.
5) Tmaxdata has failed to be listed on the stock market.
Tmaxdata tried to have its stocks sold on the market since May, but they have failed to pass the FSS' deliberation, three times, and has officially given it up (for the time being) in late June. (Like I said previously, I haven't done good enough research to find the proof of relationship between Tmaxsoft and Tmaxdata.)
6) Tmaxsoft is under a lawsuit for plagiarizing an Australian company's software.
It seems that there were two lawsuits, which Tmaxsoft has lost one and the other one still on going. The fun fact is, even though Tmaxsoft lost a case, no penalty has been given.
7) Short term bonds make up nearly half of Tmaxsoft's circulating assets.
I know most chaebols are like that and Tmaxsoft is a quite a big company, too. This company does make quite a lot of money so this fact may not be a big problem. One more thing, EPS for Tmaxsoft has dropped to nearly half for 2008, compared to 2007.
8) No logical support in counter arguments, when people point out possible problems of Tmax Window.
If Tmax Window is true, then it would be very likely that it runs Windows XP virtually so people would still have to buy another box of OS if they want to run S/W made for Microsoft Windows. There are a whole lot more problems that can happen for Tmax Window and when people point these out, the only type of counter argument I was able to find was the appealing to people's patriotism, saying "why are you against an OS that is a proud made in Korea?" (Actually, I was proud of Haansoft Hancom Linux several years ago, but too bad it couldn't run Starcraft!)
It was a short research and I did do it with a sleepy head. Still, I could learn some. Despite the fact that Tmaxsoft has strong base in domestic server middleware market and their founder being a well respected person, I don't trust this company, for the recent line of actions they have shown. I am well sure that the Tmax Window will demonstrate finely on tomorrow's show, but by the time it gets in reach of people's hands, it will be nothing better than an eight year old OS by Microsoft, relying on CPU's virtual machine technology. Will Tmaxsoft be the next NCsoft or will Dr. Park, Dae Yeon be the next Dr. Hwang, Woo Seok?
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