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Re: ITP possible story
- To: core at arabeyes dot org
- Subject: Re: ITP possible story
- From: Isam Bayazidi <bayazidi at accessme dot com>
- Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 18:25:30 +0200
Elzubeir, these are draft thoughts, not to be taken directly, needs rough
editing :
Q3. What do you mean that this is the only real GNU/GPL open source project
to Arabise Linux. I thought there were other projects in the pipeline?
No, But it seems that Arabeyes is the only one active now. Most of other
projects lost their maintainers and thus got berried. We will insure that if
there is a berried Open Source Project that we would be able to wake up, it
will be done .. Arabeyes had a good start, that hopfully that would help it
last. And because Arabeyes did touch projects and have good communication
with other teams (KDE ( www.kde.org) , VIM ( www.vim.org) , GNOME (
www.gnome.org) ) it gave Arabeyes a good push forward.
Q4. How are you working with the other group's in the Arab world to ensure
that a standard emerges for Arabic Linux?
We do not set standards, we implement them. Most of the standards related to
Arabic language implementation is set by different Unicode (www.unicode.org)
spec. . We maintain communication with different teams to share efforts, make
sure to complement each other's work (Like with linux-team.org who worked
with trolltech (www.trolltech.com )in QT in adding Arabic support, Arabeyes
worked with KDE to implement Arabic). Communication with teams of similar
interests like teams working in the Farsi Language ( which have more than one
similarity to Arabic) and Urdu, Hebrew, etc .. .
Q6. What do you mean that your project delivers all the recipes of 'open
source?'
Arabeyes provides the infrastructure needed for any new Arabization project,
and the needed tools, and devices for any project to get maintained and
continue to exist. Arabeyes was able to some extent to get recognition from
the Linux users by involving in the most needed projects such as adding
Arabic support to the console, and adding Arabic support to one of the most
favorite editors (VIM- www.vim.org ), and creating and maintaining the Arabic
translation of the KDE( www.kde.org ).
Q7. What stage is the Arabisation project at? When do you expect to diliver
a solution?
The foundation of Arabization in Linux is very much there. Multi-byte
support, Unicode support, TTF fonts support, and so on. Arabeyes was able to
see these sparsed elements, and try to use them to deliver Arabic Language
support. (I personally think here, that the last few months in 2001 did show
real progress in Arabization, and the year 2002 will be the *ix Arabization
year)
Q9. Other than local language support what do you believe are some of the
biggest hurdles in front of the growing deployment of Linux in the region?
Lack of interest from the Linux companies in the possible market in the
region caused having the businesses in the region not aware of the revolution
and changes in the operating system and software fields worldwide. And
furtherly building the belief of the ONE WAY world.
Deploying Linux in the region faces the probelm of lack of technical support,
lack of user base, lack of proper training, as far as I know there is no
center in Jordan or KSA that gives any of the courses related to any of
certifications. Lack of linux solution providers who are willing to risk and
invest in the empty lands in the region.
One other point is that the respect of propertly rights for software in
rather new and incomplete, making some of the advantages of open source
software unclear, and unobvious.
--
Yours,
Isam Bayazidi
Amman - Jordan
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Think Linux + Think Arabic = Think www.arabeyes.org
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