Well, I just had a chat with some guys who administrate big networks
in Israel, and it seems that until some points won't be solved, Linux will
not be in the front door to those companies, and here are my point (I'm
really sorry that this email came as HTML Email to people who hate this
kind of Email):
No matter how good Linux will be - Linux without hebrew cannot be installed on many desktop that people would like Linux on they're machines. I'm not talking about Linux as a server, but simply a replacement for Win95/98/NT.
I know that the issue of hebrew is not easy (specially that you cannot just put it like in Windows and switch with Alt Shift combination), but the issue of browsing the net with this UGLY set of fonts which is available from IBM in israel, no hebrew for Java, no hebrew to write text etc.. is UNBEARABLE.
I know that me, and many other people would love to pay a small fee (no, not 100$) for having hebrew for Netscape hebrew support (and mail with hebrew support) - would greatly help.
Two more areas that could be implemented is on KDE, which already gives 18 languages support natively, and a word processor like Lyx (If you'll have KDE with hebrew, you can write hebrew in Klyx which is a front end for Lyx).
With this point - I'm amazed.
Most of the corporate who gives technical support for companies who got Unix systems, already knows Linux, but it seems no one actully suggest Linux for customers - even that they know that Linxu almost NEVER crashes (at least it crashes 1 time agains Win NT 100 times ratio), and yet - no one there is either pushing Linux, nor suggesting it.
I cannot tell names (and I'm talking about the big ISP's), but I know
about at least 2 ISP's in Israel who suggest to small firms that want Internet
connection to their office to do it with a router that is connected to
ISDN line. The router alone costs more than 600$ and installation costs
at least 200$ (my estimation). Everybody that know Linux knows that you
can install Linux on a 200$ PC and with Linux - can do the same job without
any crashes. And yet - no one suggest it - why?
There are many PC related magazines published in hebrew in Israel - we all know that (most of us knows that many of the publications are just CRAP including the weekly Yedioth articles by Dudi Goldman). Did someone think about raising some money and print a teaser Ad in those papers which would gives a URL to a full commercial on the web?
Let me give an example for teaser (I'll do it in english):
Dear System Administrator,
After hours and hours of installing Windows NT Server (didn't the manual stated that it would take only few minutes?), you have it up and running: File server, Web server, Email server - all is running (although the CPU utilization is screaming to it's full capacity - but hey, Microsoft know what they doing, don't they?)
Then you just got the latest driver for your Mylex RAID, and you found on the web the latest driver for your card, and you installed both the drivers.
Now you reboot, and.... ummmm... Windows NT shows something like big blue screen with zillion hexadecimal numbers, no keyboard, and nothing to help...
"Not to worry", you're saying to yourself. "I'll just boot into VGA mode and remove the drivers"..
You try... still big blue screen... zillion numbers... nothing to help.
you decide to call Microsoft technical support. After all - only last month you paid microsoft few thousands Shekels for technical support.
You call, a clerk takes your customer number, your name, and, just by coincidence, all the staff are busy, and they'll return your call "in a few minutes"...
After few hours, the technical support finally calls you. He hears your problems. He's searching in the Microsoft TechNet for help/solution... nada..
The technical guy suggest to you to re-install everything on the same directory as an upgrade. You try it - guess what - it doesn't help.
Would you like something better, cheaper, faster? that many network corps. support?
Check this URL: http://blahblahblah.org.il
Oh, and good luck with NT :)
What do you think?
Hetz Ben Hamo