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 (
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 (
Fellow PFP legislator Thomas Lee (
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 (
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat