Microsoft probe too slow for PFP

While the Cabinet-level Fair Trade Commission has launched an investigation into accusations that Microsoft Taiwan has abused its market dominance to manipulate prices, the vice chairman of the commission told PFP lawmakers yesterday that he couldn't disclose details of the probe while the investigation is underway.

The lawmakers complained that the probe was being conducted at a snail's pace and demanded that the commission release its report within a month.

The vice chairman of the commission, Cheng Yu (鄭優), was invited by the PFP legislative caucus to brief them on the probe's progress yesterday morning.

Cheng told them that for the commission to complete its work fairly and efficiently, lawmakers will have to be patient and respect its independence in arriving at a conclusion.

On May 5, PFP lawmakers charged Microsoft with charging unfair prices for its operating systems in Taiwan.

Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) from the PFP complained yesterday that "Windows XP is priced at around NT$6,965 in the US and around NT$5,800 in Japan, but it costs NT$7,790 in Taiwan."

Fellow PFP legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪) said that the party wants the government to bargain with vendors so that its agencies purchase software at bargain prices. He also said that building the local software industry should be a central government priority.

In related news, 10 junior high schools from Taipei and Ilan counties will begin an effort to break the Microsoft monopoly on campuses by forming the Free Software Teaching Coalition starting Aug. 1.

The Taipei County Education Bureau held the first free software workshop at Fu Ying Junior High School (福營國中) in Hsinchuang, Taipei County, yesterday morning to promote the use of free software.

An important figure contributing to the workshop, Mao Ching-chen (毛慶禎), professor of library and information science at the Fu Jen Catholic University, said he found during his trips to 921 earthquake-hit communities that many people were denied access to computers, the Internet and thus information.

And while computers were donated for the quake victims and Aborigines, the high price of software remains beyond their financial reach. This situation became the driving force behind Mao's effort to promote free software.

Fu Ying Junior High School has decided to replace the Microsoft systems initially installed in its 200 computers with Linux and Openoffice, to become Taiwan's first school to use Linux.

Chang Wen-chieh (張文杰), chief of the information section at Fu Ying, said this change will save the school up to NT$1 million.