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Bill Gates offers cheap Windows to Asian governments

Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates said yesterday that the company will hold talks with Asian governments to offer tailored, cheaper versions of its Windows operating system geared toward bringing computer skills to millions of poorer people.

The discussions will grow out of a project Microsoft announced last week to offer a version of Windows, dubbed Windows XP Starter Edition, in Malaysia and Thailand under government-sponsored programs to provide more affordable personal computers to beginning users.

"We will talk with other gov-ernments about whether they have a program to get very, very low-cost computers to their citizens," Gates told a news conference during a visit to this Southeast Asian country.

"When they have a program like that, we will talk to them about which of the versions of Windows would make sense there," Gates said. "We've shown a lot of flexibility about tuning the versions to meet any government program."

Gates, who sits on a panel advising the Malaysian government on technology policies, held talks with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for about 45 minutes on improving access to technology for Malaysians.

The company and Malaysian officials signed a memorandum of understanding for Microsoft to invest 10 million ringgit (US$2.62 million) to train teachers and improve information technology in 10,000 schools over five years.

Gates said that making Windows "very, very inexpensive" would benefit people who want to train on Microsoft software.
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