Linux Thais up more support

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39187561,00.htm

Linux Thais up more support

Ingrid Marson
ZDNet UK

February 10, 2005, 18:10 GMT


The open source message has been warmly received in
Thailand, where Microsoft is already under pressure from
Linux

A Thai government agency is driving the adoption of open
source software in government departments, not-for-profit
organisations and universities across Thailand.
The Thai Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) wants to
encourage governments and organisations to start using open
source software for server communication applications and
for desktop office productivity applications, and to migrate
to other applications later, the Bangkok Post reported on
Wednesday.

SIPA also recommended that schools and universities should
run introductory open source computer courses and that a
Linux professional certification programme should be set up,
to ensure that more people have open source skills.

At present, less than 1 percent of software on PCs in
Thailand is open source, while open source software makes up
20 to 30 percent of software in large projects, according to
a recent survey.

Thailand is not the only Asian country encouraging the
adoption of open source software. The Chinese, Japanese and
Korean governments are working together to research and
develop open source systems.

Some Asian government agencies have already made the move to
open source, including the Singapore Ministry of Defence,
which has installed OpenOffice.org on over 5,000 PCs and is
planning to deploy it on a further 15,000.

SIPA's move comes at a time when Microsoft is coming under
growing pressure from the open source movement in many
countries. Last September, it launched a slimmed-down
version of Windows XP for novice computer users in Thailand.

To facilitate co-ordination regarding the introduction of OSS SW in Vietnam

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