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Re: Hebrew support (was information)



OK. I see that even after saying it 3 times, it was not understood,
so I'll say it more clearly:

If you want something from me, PLEASE stop waste my time. I have
only 24 hours at day. If, after spending 20 hours to support the
Hebrew UNIX users in Israel, I'll have to spend the hours 1:00 AM
till 5 at morning for phrasing e-mails in my bad English, I will
not have ever time to make stuff for you!

Please use the PHONE!  Call me anytime you want, even in the middle
of the night (except for Shabbat). My cellular is open almost all
the time (050-237338).

To phrase a long e-mail in English, I need, say, 30 minutes. To say
it in Hebrew I need less than 1 minute (I am talking fast). The list
have a delay of about 1 hour. For an evarage discussion of 10
iterations (I write something #1, you answer #2, I answer #3, and so
on till #10), 3-5 days are needed, but only 3-4 minutes on phone. I
know that some people here have spare time, but I use the e-mail
exactly for what it was invented for (and I use it heavilly!). Not
for arguments or religious wars.

> > Now, let me offer to continue this thread in less public ways. I
> > believe that this thread is boring for many of the subscribers, so
> 
> well, if linux-il isn't the right place for discussing Hebrew adaptations
> of unix and its apps, what list IS? I'll create one at a 30 second notice
> if people are interested! feel free to continue the discussion here (or
> send me private Email... if more than 4-5 people are interested, I'll
> create it!)

No, no, not another list !!!!
Ira, you are in America, so I permit you to continue to post message to
me (my address is <marmor@elmar.co.il>, not <linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il>),
Although I am willing to get collect phone calls from you.

> 1. Do you have for sell a Hebrew Motif version for Linux?

Again, the following answer may be boring for most of the subscribers
here, but you insisted of asking it here and not by phone, so people:
I am sorry to waste your bandwidth for these explanations...

I have only 24 hours at day, and even after being awake non-stop,
I am stuck with hundreds of problems to solve and projects to
complete. Do you want to help?  So just stop to waste my time. It is
the only help you can give me.

Current status of that version: As you know, Linux does not include
Motif, and since Motif involves a special license, I can not distribute
it directly. The legal problem is, probably, solved by bundling the
Hebrew support to a Motif package (1.2.5 and/or CDE!  Not the 2.0.1 or
2.1!). In addition, I must re-organize my procedures. I didn't ever
support end-users directly, but only vendors (e.g. SGI, Sun, HP, DG,
etc.) with dozens or hundreds of sub-customers, or software houses with
many sub-customers as well, or big sites (Telrad, Chevrat-Chashmal,
etc.)
with hundreds of users. Currently, supporting each customer, costs me
about $5,000, so together with other costs, the price cannot be under
$10,000. Although when you divide it by 200 users, the cost per user is
only $50, most of the Linux users don't have 200 sub-users, so a way to
price it DRAMATICALLY lower must be found (and don't forget the cost of
the bundled Motif/CDE - about $100 per user). Assuming that this message
will be THE LAST in this time consuming thread, I hope to solve all the
problems very soon.
In any case, since the distribution involves bundling of a Motif
package,
it cannot be done through FTP.

> 2. If 1=Yes  then can you compile Netscape/Mozila static and give it away?

If you will have my package, then you will have the Motif package too
(read my previous paragraph), so there is no legal need to compile the
Netscape statically, but it can be distributed exactly as for the other
platforms (though not through FTP...).
You need to compile it statically only in case there will not found any
legal way to distribute the Hebrew libXm. In this case, I cannot compile
Netscape, since I don't have the object files (I am not Netscape).
Regarding to Mozilla: As I already told you somewhere in the beginning
of
April, it is not going to be ready (English Netscape 5.0) before 1999 or
even 2000. It still lacks JVM - the most critical part of current
browsers, it still lacks SSL (I know about Cryptozilla), it still lacks
TrueDoc/dynamic-fonts, and more 20-30 technologies which are 3rd parties
(not everyone is so generous like Netscape). Currently, Mozilla is
TOTALLY unusable, and this is the reason why Netscape is developing in
parallel two other releases to replace 4.05 (4.06 to be announced soon,
and 4.5 now in beta phase). So, if you ask, I *CAN* compile Mozilla (in
contrast to Communicator), but I don't have anything to do with it.

I hope this will close the thread (unless you don't want to see all this
stuff ever), or I'll leave this list and then enjoy your voice in phone
calls  ;-)
-- 
Eli Marmor
e-mail: <marmor@elmar.co.il>  (AND NOT <linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il> !!!)
Phone: 050-237338 (everybody is welcome, 24 hours at day, except for
Shabbat!).