Kiswahili, a language spoken by an estimated 150 million people living in the vast Great Lakes region in Africa has received Microsoft software specifically targeted toward those who speak it. Microsoft Office 2003 was released in the Kenyan capital recently to make it easier for millions of speakers to use the software.

Isaiah Okoth, the general manager of Microsoft East Africa, said, "The Kiswahili version of office basically lowers entry barrier for a large population of people in our society who cannot speak English but are very conversant with Kiswahili." He added, "The idea is not to develop a complete product. It provides an opportunity for local software players to develop new products and sell it to us (Microsoft). We are partnering with the local players."

Aside from being the official language in Kenya and Tanzania, Kiswahili is also spoken in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Comoros.

Professor Kulikoyela Kahigi of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and his team of linguistic experts have been working to create a glossary of more than 3,000 Kiswahili words for common computer terms over the past year.

With its recent deployment of software in Africa, Microsoft also plans on keeping an eye out on potential piracy concerns. They've had continual problems on all fronts, but have kept on fighting .