Hands up, who here actually has to work for a living? Okay, those of you with your extremities in the air-- how many of you hate Windows with a passion, but are forced to endure its palpable ickiness day in and day out for the sake of a steady paycheck? Odds are you've fantasized about somehow getting your company to dump its evil Wintels and switch to Macs, thus turning your daily grind into a perpetual vacation-- but you've probably never even bothered trying to persuade the suits in charge, assuming that it's a lost cause. Well, here's a quickie to illustrate that even organizations as big and inert as major national governments are capable of prying the Windows monkey off their backs.

Faithful viewer David Johnson tipped us off to an AppleLinks article which reports that the entire government of Korea has reportedly decided to purchase 120,000 copies of Linux as an alternative to pitching yet more cash at Microsoft. HancomLinux Deluxe 2.0 is apparently a Linux distribution localized for Korean and includes a suite of productivity apps called HancomOffice that's compatible with Microsoft Office's file formats. (Side note: HancomOffice is supposedly being ported to Mac OS X as well.) By going the Linux route, Korea expects to save "80% of what an equivalent purchase of Microsoft products would have cost."

Now, granted, since the goal here was obviously to save money on the up-front purchase price, it's probably safe to say that Korea never even considered buying 120,000 Macs instead. (More's the pity.) But it's still sort of inspirational to hear that an organization that big decided to buck the trend, do the unthinkable, and purchase and deploy so many Microsoft-free workstations. So the next time you're at work and thinking that the best thing about the operating system you're using is FreeCell, consider telling your boss about Korea and asking for a Mac. If he or she refuses, consider getting belligerent and making thinly-veiled threats of violence. Heck, what's the worst that could happen-- you could get fired? Big deal; they made you use Windows anyway...