Thursday, November 27, 2008

Internet Apartheid

Continuing with an old rant.

I was installing a new computer at work. VISTA operating system.

Note: If you are a VISTA user, please turn off your computer, go to a Mac store and buy a Mac. You are a Mac user, not a PC user.

I have been using PC since MS-DOS 3.36. I have used to have every command in English. I think I had Finnish F-Prot back in the day, but otherwise I have used to have all the applications in English. One language in one computer. I like to have it neat. I have if my right-click menu (the shell commands) are in n+1 different languages.

99% of all programs are first in English and then translated into local languages. All updates come first in English, then in other languages. Therefore it is also more handy to have all the applications in English.

Today, with beautiful Internet Exploiter 7 I tried to download FireFox, update drivers and such. Of course our Führers of the internet have decided for me that I speak fluently the language of the country I happen to be currently.

It was impossible to have Live Messenger in English from MicroSoft webpage. It was difficult to find English FireFox from Mozilla site. It is virtually impossible to have English in any huge company's webpages. They think for you and rule that you need to be fluent in the language of the country you are currently in.

What if I visit China and need to reinstall my FireFox? I do not even recognize the letters, little alone find where to change the language, since there is no link saying "English".

All the big companies limit your internet experience to the country you are currently visiting thus creating a new form of apartheid.

International pages are verboten. Everyone should stay in their own countries. No travelling allowed before we have one-world language.

Look at your application window. What is the link/menu on the top right-hand side? Correct, it is Help. How is it impossible for these people to have a simple link "English" on the top right-hand corner of their webpages - right next to the search field?

Since English is the major language in IT business, there should be an option to see the page in that language. At least that way the person who does not speak any of the pre-decided languages well, that person can at least stagger towards his/her own native language.

I can hardly wait to install FireFox and NoScript. At least that way some of the less-sophisticated pages get fooled and show the page in default language (English). But the more sophisticated pages, MicroSoft webpages in the lead, decide the language according to ISP, methinks. Not according to my preferences.

Oh yes, Google has some sort of simple single-search option to change the language to English. It just every now and then decides that hey, you should search pages only from local Google, not the international Google. What if I want to have as wide search results as possible? Can I please search webpages outside the Netherlands?

Google.nl and Google.com do return different results.

And no, I do not want to buy that Dutch product you are offering me.

No comments: