[Am-info] The Register: Opera makes hay with MS Mac Arabic/Hebrew snub

[Paul Rickard]

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D On 2002.06.20 10:30 PM, Mark Hinds typed: =
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

>This apparently has prompted an anti-trust complaint in Israeli following =
a
>further refusal by Microsoft to accept a programming team to implement Heb=
rew
>character support in Office for them!

   OK, here it is... Two stories from my site.

Aufust 23, 1999:

      *The government of Spain, as part of a movement to reduce chronic 
sexism, has asked Microsoft to remove several entries from a Spanish 
dictionary. The phrases in question, included in Spanish Word's 
dictionary function, give different (often derogatory) definitions for 
the male and female versions of several words. The word ansioso, for 
example, was defined as "covetous, yearning, painstaking, ambitious," 
while ansiosa - the feminine sense of the same word - was said to mean 
"nymphomaniac, lecherous, sexually avid."
      Spain's Women's Institute said that when the complaint was filed, 
they offered Microsoft help in correcting the problems. A Microsoft 
representative said she was unaware of any complaints related to the 
Spanish dictionary. Microsoft has been similarly unresponsive to other 
requests from small countries; back in 1998 the company refused to create 
an Icelandic version of Office - even after the government of Iceland 
offered to cover the costs of creating one. The last we heard, they were 
enjoying native-language copies of WordPerfect. Perhaps Spain will choose 
to do the same. -|

July 13, 1998: (newsbrief)

Even though the parties that requested it were willing to pay the costs
of development, Microsoft has decided not to produce Icelandic versions
of its software and refuses to even give a price as to how much it would
cost to make the products. -=9E

  Just sounds like pure stubbornness to me.



=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Camp=
aign =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
--------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------

  "As Internet technology itself vaults into new areas, so too does the
   Microsoft monopoly and its tried-and-true bag of tricks."
       -US Senator Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah