Hello Claudio, Here is the rough information about Georgia (Caucasus region). Please note that the numbers are ot official.
> 1) Today, what is the estimated number of desktops with OOo? Georgian OOo Native-Lang project having just started, the number, I guess, is less than 1K. > 2) How many computers(desktops) have in your country? (so, we can know > the % of OOo in country). Georgian pop. is est. 5 Million. The desktops are up to 1 Million and is growing very fast. > 3) How is the "pirate" softwares in your country ? What is the estimated > % of legal software? Georgia ia a member of the UN and Council of Europe. Also a candidate for NATO membership. Since the new government that came to power a year ago, the UN flag is hanging nect to the Georgian flag, meaning georgia is striving to become a membe rof the EU. Georgian copyright law was enacted in 1996. Georgia is also a member of Warsaw Convention. Nervertheless, today Georgia is 'heaven' of pirated software. You can purchase the CDs full with unlicensed (usually woth several thousand $) software on regular stores. Indeed it is very hard to find a retailer selling licensed software. The est % of licensed software on desktops is less than 1% (!). This will change very soon though. In a year or two, the government will hopefully pass a bill regarding the use of licensed software (as well as selling licensed software, music, movies and books; broadcasting licensed materialon tv and radio) and this is when open source applications and platforms will become popular. The open source produicts will also have the advantage of being fully localize to Georgian language and that will play its role too. > 4) Last! What is the cost of a M$ Office, in US$, in your country? (so, > we have a idea of economy of country with royalties, based in number of > desktops * % legal software * cost US$/package) MS Office license starts from about $350, if you find it somewhere. Usually, unlicensed MS Office Professional bundled with WinXP and loads of commercial plug-ins sold everywhere cost 7 Georgian Lari, which is less than $4 :) Pretty shocking, I guess ;-) All this has a very bad impact on development od software market, showbiz market, tv market, book market etc. but, like I said, will surely come to end in a year or two. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
