PARIS (AFP) - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will meet with French President Jacques Chirac here Wednesday during a visit to France to defend his company's software against competition from Linux and other free Internet-based software.
Gates will also sign a cooperation deal with Dassault Systemes, the French maker of software for designing and operating industrial products in the French capital, the two companies said.
The chairman and founder of the world's leading software maker will begin the day by addressing a conference on electronic administration where more than a hundred public decision-makers of the national and local governments, the Social Security system and the health sector were expected to attend, Microsoft France announced.
The US software giant has campaigned hard in recent months to convince administrations to continue using its products, in the face of a small but growing trend to switch to Linux and other open-code software.
The management of subsidiary Microsoft France, for example, has worked vigorously to prevent the loss of business from the city of Paris, which is planning a progressive switch of 17,000 of its computer posts to free software.
Gates next will visit the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, where he is to sign with UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura a cooperation accord aimed at reducing the "digital divide" between rich and poor countries.
A joint news conference is scheduled at 11:30 am (1030 GMT).
Later, Gates and Dassault Systemes director general will sign a strategic agreement ahead of a news conference at 1:15 pm.
The Microsoft chief is to meet with Chirac at the presidential Elysee palace at 4:30 pm.
11/16/2004 - 20:38 GMT - AFP