Oleg Goldshmidt wrote: > > * There were no postings from people who do not know Hebrew. I think > there used to be quite a few. Have all of them left the list > recently for political or other irrelevant reasons? I hope not.
I stayed silent because it was a holiday. From sundown on Thursday to Sundown on Saturday I was offline.I checked my personal email Several times on Thursday and last night, but not my "work" email. To me reading this list is part of work, and I have to do this 9 hours a day 5 days a week, often more. That's enough. As for my opionion there is no one who would or could read a Hebrew list in my houshold. The adults can't and my 7 year old can't read Hebrew or English, and wouldn't care if he could. :-) I > hope they just stay silent on the grounds that "this is an Israeli > list and I cannot influence this any more than I can influence the > Swedish LUG". It is certain though that those who are still > subscribed find the list useful (those who don' have unsubscribed by > now), and if a significant fraction of traffic is in Hebrew they > will suffer. I won't unsubscribe, I'll just ignore Hebrew postings. If the list becomes 20-30% Hebrew, I'l automate the disposal. If it becomes 100% Hebrew, it will have "unscubscribed" me. > * There is a small minority who say, in effect, "I want it in English, > and that's it. You want Hebrew, I won't talk to you." While > respected, I hope, this attitude does not seem productive. In my case it's the way it is. Say what you wnat in Hebrew, but if you expect more than a blank look back, say it in English. > * There is a small (but larger) group of people who promote Hebrew on > linux-il on the patriotic grounds that "Swedes do it, Finns do it". No they don't. They have No, ZERO, NADA, ZIP, efes, Hebrew on their lists. And have you ever looked at their lists? How much Swedish, Finnish, etc do the have on them? I'll bet all the really juicy questions are in English or if not, could be understood by an English speaker. > * A significant number of people (I am not sure if it is a majority, > but it seems so) think that the technical nature of the list favors > English over Hebrew. Creating a second list will split the discussion. IMHO fine. If you want only Israeli's to answer you, use your software, etc, say it in Hebrew. If you hope for wider distribution, you'll have to say it in English. Mightas well start out that way. > * The majority seem to think that while they wouldn't mind seeing > Hebrew postings, they would prefer English. Whether or not Hebrew > postings are worth the current hassle of setting one's MUA/editor > properly seems to depend mainly on one's habits and toolbox. There > is quite a bit of resistance over this point. Hey, I use MicroEmacs and ELM. Same editor/mailer I installed in 1991, when I wanted to have my from address be [EMAIL PROTECTED], instead of gsm!gsm001!........ I like it. It works, It's virus proof. If you don't like it, that's fine with me too, but don't expect me to read it if you don't send it in a compatible format. Well, maybe you don't care if I read it or not. I don't take that as an insult, just as an invetiable consequence of narrow minded thinking. (mine, yours, or both). > * There seems to be a consensus that technically we are not there yet, > especially where writing Hebrew is concerned. This is where I think > the most important point is. All I know is that Windows support for Hebrew is there and it works well out of the box. This is a good thing for people that want to use Hebrew, becasue they don't have to spend any time adding Hebrew. Especially those that use compouters as a tool, not as a toy, learning experience, etc. I think fighting Microsoft is a bad thing. They've already won "the hearts and minds" of the Hebrew computer using masses. > * It seems there is an effort to create linux-heb, but I have a > suspicion that those of us who consider teaching their computers > Hebrew a hassle will opt out, which is a pity because that's the > population of potential early adopters. Also note the unfortunate > consequence of splitting the list (mentioned above). I'm out, but a lot of people could (and should) be in.It depends upon whether or not they want to be a part of the EVENTUAL desktop appearance of Linux. Some day it will be, but IMHO the people really fighting that fight are at Apple, not here. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson Bloomberg L.P., BFM (Israel) 2 hours ahead of London, 7 hours ahead of New York. Tel: 972-(0)3-754-1158 Fax 972-(0)3-754-1236 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
