Chinese schools ditch Microsoft Office

A Chinese-made office suite will replace Microsoft Office in Shanghai schools following a raid by anti-piracy officials and a demand to pay licence fees.

Chinese-made software suite Kingsoft WPS Office 2003 will replace Microsoft Office applications in Shanghai public schools from the beginning of September, according to Shanghai's education officials.

The move to snub Microsoft comes after the software giant asked the Shanghai Education Commission to buy licences for the office suite on every school computer. Several schools in the city were earlier raided for using pirated versions of the software, said the report.

The ruling comes after a similar announcement by officials stating that all civil service PCs will gradually adopt WPS Office.

The Shanghai Education Research Centre signed a contract with Chinese software company Kingsoft a week ago to buy the company's WPS Office 2003 software. The centre acquires software for public schools in the city, and has notified each school of the change, according to Chinese news website, china.org.cn.

Most schools have removed Microsoft Office programs to make way for the Chinese-developed software. Also, a new computer textbook containing little content about Microsoft Office will be used from next month onwards. The domestic-made office suite is cheaper, at half the price of Office XP.

The Beijing-based company has also scheduled special activities for this project, such as launching online examinations through the schools' local area network. The company also plans to market its WPSOffice 2003 on the last day of this month, at the retail price of $156, compared with Microsoft office XP's $464.52.

Kingsoft's marketing manager of WPS business unit, Xia Ji, said that the company will market its software at highly discounted prices as schools are often limited in funds, according to the report. WPS, while being promoted by the government, is unlikely to fully replace the use of Microsoft Office in the civil service in the near future, said Dorothy Yang, research director for software and services at research firm IDC China, in a report. Foreign vendors are also not likely to be fully excluded from government contracts.

Analysts and other sources have said that transition to WPS and other local software will be gradual as too many systems in the Chinese government now depend on Microsoft Windows and Office.

Staff CNET Asia