Re: ITP possible story

[Mohammed Elzubeir <elzubeir at fakkir dot net>]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 06:25:30PM +0200, Isam Bayazidi wrote:
> Elzubeir, these are draft thoughts, not to be taken directly, needs rough 
> editing :
> 


> 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 

I have a reservation on this statement here, and I cannot send anything that
credits linux-team.org for anything I cannot verify. I have e-mailed Lars
Knoll (of Trolltech) a long long time ago asking him about linux-team's
involvement and what exactly have they done, if anything. He never replied.
Their page doesn't say much, and Magid's very vague about what he has
done/does. So.. that being said, I will not participate in propogating
non-credible information. Unless you know otherwise, I consider linux-team to
be a vapor project. 


> 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.
> 
> 

Otherwise, yeah.. more thoughts are good. Nadim will probably be better at
restructuring and rephrasing. 

-------------

On another note -- gnats is 95% working now -- just need to get some
authentication business sorted.. cause as it is now, I can set it so anyone
can claim to be anyone. That's too open for my taste. But, otherwise, it's
fully functional and operational ;) 

http://www.arabeyes.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl

[the url will probably change to something like:

http://www.arabeyes.org/arabugs/

later

-- 
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| Mohammed Elzubeir    | Visit us at:                 |
|                      |  http://www.arabeyes.org/    |
| Arabeyes Project     | Homepage:                    |
| Unix the 'right' way |  http://fakkir.net/~elzubeir/|
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