I don’t have internet connection at home so I usually connects to the internet by visiting internet cafes. Most internet cafes in Batam still use Microsoft Windows Operating System and various popular softwares, all unlicensed / pirated copies.

There’s one newly opened internet cafe in Batam Centre that interests me and will be my regular place to do my net stuff. It’s Di-en dot net Café.

My first impression when I went in was it’s a nice, clean place. There’s no chair, and everyone sits on the floor that was covered with a thick carpet, which reminds me of a Japanese Style Restaurant. An array of shoes and sandals outside the door strengthen this feeling. All machines there use RedHat Fedora Core Linux. Next to every computer there were a notice that said:

This is a Linux Operating System Powered PC, if you have any problem using it please don’t hesitate to ask for support.

I personally don’t have problem using a Linux PC, and I think many others won’t have problems using it. It is because all the machines there using a XP themed KDE Desktop Environment.

There’s a ‘Start’ menu to open the list of applications to begin. You want to browse the internet, just click the blue e icon. Need to write something, click the blue boxed W icon. Want to work with spreadsheet, there’s the familiar green boxed X icon to click. Of course you don’t get Microsoft Internet Explorer when clicking the blue e, instead a much better browser, Mozilla FireFox 1.0.6 will start, and for all office applications you will have the latest OpenOffice suite.

My suggestion for all of you that is looking for Open Source Solution for your internet café, this Di-en dot net café’s setting is worth a try. Unless Microsoft starts suing the usage of their icons on Linux machines, they have nothing to file a lawsuit against you. I did some searching and you can get the XP-ish theme here: For KDE Desktop: kde3 xp style @ KDE-Look.org. For Gnome Desktop: eXperience by dcberg (requires eXperience-engine by benzea).