Following is an email that I sent to Tomas Matejicek (SLAX) just minutes ago. After that I clicked “blog” on their site. Please read the following. There is a very big donation here. Thank you for slax. I'm an old ex-computer engineer and I used some Linux distributions occasionally and the experience was always frustrating and very disappointing and proved that I am on the right side among those who discovered that we are on the very wrong track and moving in the very painful and expensive opposite direction even when it comes to freeware, contribution-ware, donation-ware ...etc. Among the Linux distros that I used was slax since the days when the philosophy of slackware was that it should be unable to handle other languages. Your new site lists only packages for specific languages, including one called "English", and (of course) they all have nearly the same size. I speak Arabic and I picked the Arabic package to discover after installation that it is indeed bi-lingual as much as anyone expects but the other language beside English is Pakistan's language !!!. It is not Arabic at all. I discovered that changing the language-related setting in all Linux distros is now a trivial task and this forced me to write to you to thank you first for the small size of your distro download unlike other distros that are growing in number and download size like cancer. Changing the language in slax did not download anything compared with the unbelievable amount of packages that Ubuntu-live downloaded (without permission) when I did the same, and most of them were the exact applications included in their very big distro but (I guess) they are "Arabized" which is a very ancient and totally forgotten word and the surprising total download size can be compared to the size of downloads that Debian-live needed to add gedit to cfx. After the download I discovered that kate is "excellent" in comparison. I need to point out that Arabic is a language not just a bunch of characters, so contextualization is an intrinsic part of this language. I did not have problems at all with contextualization in slax, while both Debian-live and Ubuntu-live terminals were unable to contextualize at all and I had to download a different terminal application. I believe that contextualization should be part of what is called "The Arabic Language" in all distros, i.e. no one should mention the word "Arabic" without contextualization. That's why I believe that It should be dealt with once and for all and should be in the core of the OS not to be repeated in each and every application within the limitations of their knowledge and abilities. I felt very sorry when I tried, (just one more time !!! over the long years !!!) to accomplish what should have been a very trivial task at a very early point in time. This time it was "multi-boot". I know more than many others that I am in Egypt, but the amount of time that was wasted to search for the so many dangerous pieces of junk (the "Google" way) and the higher-than-usual number that I was able to find and the time and extra pressure over my nervous system while trying to even just have one Linux distro in place the right way was very high this time. Only memories of what was called "Focus" are more painful. Finally, I managed to succeed using an older version of Yumi. For slax it was really disappointing to have everything almost "perfect" compared to others then facing the same old problem that I had with the old releases yeaaaars ago, namely "CPU#x not responding". Again I stress that I am in Egypt and I know the kind of machines that we get here. We don't even get just the defective, only what is MUCH WORSE. But the same machines ran other Linux distros and Windows with other problems. I want to make a donation. I am very poor when it comes to money, but I have an idea that is worth toooo much. It is a real "donation" which means that it is absolutely "free" but it is conditional and totally restricted to the full and absolute compliance with the pre-conditions. The condition presented first. I am jobless since the day I was graduated in the early 80's, and I was fired one way or another from the many places where I tried (hard) to do something useful, that's why I was "burned" to a lower level than others in this holocaust. The pre-condition for the donation is that it can only be used in the exact opposite direction. I want to set the fire off, not to pour more fuel. When it comes to Linux, no doubt that there have been good intentions all the time, but we can all compare the current situation, or even what we had ten to fifteen years ago with the amount of efforts wasted. I could not see anything new in Linux when I tried to use it after all those years. Where did all the efforts go ?!!!. To make the picture clearer, let me tell you that the reason why I tried to use Linux this time was that the historical stupidity and criminal silliness' named "windows console" is still unable to even just display Arabic characters !!!, although those miserable, and many others, were able to do that even with DOS on XT's. So it is not a surprise that one of my suns is wasting his life at a university that is telling the soooo many in this generation as well that they will learn computers, and some companies run after them telling them about "training" to suck money out of them too. Linux downloads became GIGA-Bytes and they are all almost the same. I know (enough) about the differences between this library and that one, and consequently this desktop from that one, and consequently this set of applications from that one ...etc. I know "enough" about that as much I knew "enough" about the different versions of "UNIX" itself, and the "parallel" efforts and the "integration" efforts to produce S5R4 for example. I want to donate Linux "S5R As four". "Asfour" is my family name. It is not meant to be an insult. I am a real inventor to an extent that many are not aware of. I am subject to many criminal acts not just threats, theft and robbery ...etc and this is my way to retaliate. I believe that the real differences between "different" Linux distros are little, and that the major part of Linux and its applications is common. So, for example, if I had a way to (even just) compose what I wanted at the firt place from among (even just) what is available, I would have saved a lot of time, effort and misery on my side, together with lots of efforts on the side of the those (so many) who are still making those (countless number of) distros, as if they are trying to set a higher record over those who are still making more BASIC versions !!! the same way !!! all those years !!!. The Idea is not just that. It is easy to have a site where everyone can go, answer some (or many) very straightforward simple questions, and end up with a very reasonable size of "perfect" download. The idea goes further. Many linux distro makers mention low memory and CPU requirements, and many of them mention high performance on older machines ...etc, although they can simply plot 1) The real growth in Linux requirements, against 2) The real growth in the real needs on Linux consumers side, against 3) Anything they added in the direction of satisfying the real needs over the very long long years. So, the idea is for the developers and consumers to sit (ON THE SAME SIDE) and try to see the real needs first and before anything else. That was one of my inventions and I used an example in car industry but the donation is only for Linux (and some of his applications) if and only if they are among the really-totally-free-of-any-charge software. The consumer should be able to express his needs. The site should vey strictly stick to only the ethical ways to help the consumer to discover them. A multi-level questionnaire is a very good start. For example, the consumer should be able to see the relation between what he has (discover the different configurations of his old machines for example), what he wants (discover the different "modes", "profiles"...etc of his activities that need computers), what is available (see the set of apps that are suitable for each "mode" and really try them before downloading anything), and discover the whole picture (the "wealth" of applications that were developed in exactly the wrong opposite direction and were just piled over the years). I believe that after a (relatively) very short period, the word "multi-boot" (as well) will vanish although by that time everyone will get exactly what he wants on every machine and for every "mode", no matter if he downloads a "unified" distro to carry on a USB stick in order to boot in a different "mode" each time, or downloads few very "sharp" distros each of them making a machine extremely happy. I believe that in a (relatively) very short time we will be able to alter many parts of the software (Linux and the applications) to take advantage of this mechanism, up to the extent that we can gather the requests from the consumers' side this way and (really) deliver the early fruits after a month or two after we (as well) will be able to see a broader part of the picture (the real overall demand, and consequently the priorities of each software modification) and divide and restructure the code accordingly. Later, (but very soon as well), we can deliver re-engineered supreme products. The idea is very "Big" so please don't consider it personal for any one or any group or any company ...etc. On the contrary, please make everyone happy by spreading it. You can do that better than many others. But repeat my pre-conditions as well. This is in order to go in the opposite direction, so before anyone can use the donation we all have to sit and talk. Those who are still manufacturing more and more of such stupid mentally-retarded machines and those who are still burning more and more of the very precious human brains in useless development in the opposite direction should be stopped. Anyone that will commit anymore of these crimes must be severely punished for the sake of all of us on both sides. The agreements must be in place and must by respected first, then we can all talk about what to do with "old machines" and "old software"...etc. By the way. I have Ideas for the future that can make much more money than any more such mentally-retarded stupid and silly crimes against humanity. I really appreciate everyone’s efforts and really thank you for slax. Regards.
