internationalization
hello, (not a rant)
having installed many desktops,routers,wireless boxes, revived old machines,
nuked plenty of windows, installing mirrors and generally spreading the
gospel, even converting my old folks (german speakers) i have only one
big issue: the euro. i know, first thing you'll think is: go to this or
that list and get it sorted. again, having waded thru all the permutations
of 'hamm' to 'sid' and having spent a lot of time at this:
what the heck is it with the euro? i can fix a compiler or 3 page long
iptables without fancy tools, but i am yet to see a euro symbol on any box
i installed, or indeed boxes installed by others. my old folks had to
learn a lot of english and they put up with it. but this is a
make-or-break issue, the language setup beeing inconsistent (at best) is
something that can
be overcome with a bit of training and patience. not beeing able to get
the euro symbol going makes it a non-starter for many small companies or
private individuals. the detailed instructions leave my head spinning.
obviously, there are some postings about the tilted quake2 symbol
elsewhere, but i'm too busy installing. as a technical person, i take a
few nights,
come to grips with it, try to remember it the next time and eventually
even understand how i got there. i have no idea how any ordinary mortal
is to figure out the installation, with the language/font/euro/console
stuff spread out over many packages. indeed, my observation is that this
stops many potential users from trying. once the basics are running, most
users happily take to their debian boxes. i can imagine that this will
become a bigger problem in the future,
yours, zed limerick-city ireland (always a shelter&breakfast here)
btw, we have a large, free of charge wireless network running on the
westcoast of ireland. all debian based. and we couldn't do it
without your work.
.
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