In Reply to: Better in Hong Kong posted by JohnA on Wednesday, 11. August 1999 at 06:53 Bali Time:
John,
You might have missed the good shops for computer software in Bali. There is actually a very extensive range of stuff available. My favourite place (last February) was PLATINUM located at: Jalan Teuku Umar 242A, Denpasar (TEL: 62 0361 231664, E-MAIL: platinum@dps.mega.net.id).
When I was there last, they sold software for Rp35,000 per disk, irrespective of the contents...much cheaper than any place I found in Kuta/Legian or Ubud (which charge considerably more for the same stuff!). Some of the collection CD-ROMs are particularly good value. My favourites are the MAGNUM collections. MAGNUM #19, for example, contains (among things): Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Corel XARA 2.0, Macromedia Dreamweaver 1.2, MS Office 97 Professional, Quarterdeck CleanSweep 4.0, Windows 98, etc., all for Rp35,000! Photoshop 5, bought in this way, means it costs less than about Rp800 (yes, you read that right). I've had no problems running any of this software to date.
Of course, prices may have gone up since February (I'd be surprised if they haven't), but even if they've gone up 500%, they'd still be a bargain. Naturally, you should check software bought in this way with an up-to-date and good anti-virus programme (the best is still AntiViral Toolkit Pro, in my opinion). Having said that, I haven't found a single programme so far with a virus. But, better to be sure.