Re: Opera & Arabic

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Hicham Amaoui wrote:
> 
> Nadim Shaikli wrote:
> 
> >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).
>
> I don't think localizing a proprietary application is a good idea. The 
> efforts wasted on it deserve to be spent on finishing and polishing
> existing free softwares. And why choose opera? there's mozilla, galeon,
> konqueror to name a few.

Agreed.  I was really mixing a couple of things here -- the localization
folk on the one hand (for our KDE/Gnome/etc projects) as well as the
lobbying and prodding that's I'm proposing for Opera (and others) on the
other.

The point shouldn't be - well, since we already have a solution we should
be complacent, but should be in us being treated fairly by most (if not all)
companies out there (include us and our demands into your applications).
We should not be relegated to the back of the bus on every single
application - that's all I'm getting at. We need to show that this is
"pissing" us off and ought to be corrected.  Arabic support (be it in open
source or not) is always an after thought even though other challenging
languages are not - we must work on changing that mindset.  The only way
to start down that road is to voice our opinion and make them know that
our exclusion is _not_ appreciated.

> >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.

 - Nadim


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