From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4076982.stm
Microsoft has reached a deal with the Indonesian government on pirated software - which is believed to affect around 50,000 government PCs. Under the deal, Indonesia will pay $1 per copy and agree to buy legally in the future. Indonesia's information minister, Sofyan Djalil, said, "Microsoft is being realistic. They can't force developing countries like us to solely use legal software since we can't afford it. They want us to gradually reduce our use of it."
In Indonesia, I grew up on IBM PC-AT, first with MS-DOS (pirated), and later on MS-Windows 3.1 (also pirated). <sarcastic-mode>I suppose I have them to thank </end-of-sarcastic-mode>
From what little I know about my friends and fellow CS graduates, Open Source is thriving in Indonesia! Amongst the techies or semi-techies, Linux is one of the fastest growing OS-es and Indonesia even had a few of its own Linux distributions!
Why is the government bowing to M$? And Mr. Djalil gave a ridiculous statement.. "They can't force us to use solely legal software since we can't afford it." What is this?! Last time I checked, stealing is still illegal even in Indonesia! Go use Open Source!
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