Opera & Arabic

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

Salam all.  I had complained to Opera (the web browser - www.opera.com)
about a year ago about their complete lack of Arabic support at which
point they offered me a 'bug tracking number' which after a couple of
weeks disappeared from their system entirely.  I went looking again
at opera not too long ago (one's memory and surfing habits are very
peculiar to say the least :-) and noticed this press release,

  http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2002/06/20020620.html

Which notes Arabic support is forth-coming.  What I'm wondering is if we
can orchestrate some pressure on Opera to give us a definitive deadline
on when that is (Opera had noted to me a year ago that they are working
on it, so let's see the progress...) and whether they would consider
arabeyes and its members/participants as beta testers.  If we are able
to do that we'd have done two things - one, figured out how to organize
ourselves into a cohesive pressure wielding force and two shown our
collective unity in making forward progress as a group.

Another thing to note; looks like Arabic (yet again) has taken a back
seat - check out Opera's localization page

  http://www.opera.com/download/modules.html

Yup, Arabic is missing - know why ?  Its because we're TOO quiet and too
passive about our own destiny !!!  Enough is enough (we need to do our
work (localization files, etc) and we need to get those that support
globalization efforts (opera in this instance) to take our needs
seriously and with due merit).

Any interested parties willing to take this on (or participate) ?  There
has to be more involvement from all those that read this list (and others).
Things, as has been noted on many occasions, will ____NOT____ be handed to
us and so your active participation is much sought.

Wa'salam.

 - Nadim

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