Of Vietnamese Straws

Lots of interesting trends here:

The Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) has signed an agreement with chip giant Intel to bolster the country's open source efforts.

In the deal, inked by both parties last month, Intel will establish a new open source lab in Vietnam to test and develop open source software that will power some 27,000 Intel-based PCs used by the VCP.

It's not news that the Vietnamese government are moving to open source: they've been doing this for some years. What's interesting is that it's Intel who are helping them. And this snippet is worth noting, too:

Vietnamese authorities are reportedly turning to open source software in an attempt to reduce software piracy, part of its free trade agreement with the United States, and its entry into the World Trade Organization.

This is something that many have predicted, so it's interesting that it might actually be happening. (Via LXer.)