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(Letter written to 'The Hindu' in response to this)
In its response, Microsoft has given a totally
misleading clarification
that puts up a generalized excuse
rather than deal with the specifics.
When the Microsoft's
Director of Corporate Communication mentions that
they
collaborate with State Government bodies and nodal IT agencies
to
create local language interfaces, he does not specify which
bodies they
have worked with. They haven't even clarified
whether these bodies had
any expertise whatsoever with respect
to the language.
The DCC further mentions that feedback
was received "as is normal with
any initiative" when
working on Kannada Language Interface Pack and adds
"all
that has been incorporated". But interestingly, a thread
on
Microsoft's Bhasha India Forum discussing the inaccuracies,
shortcomings
and mistakes was removed hastily.
Microsoft
Developer Micheal Kaplan's blog on MSDN Blogs (Microsoft
Developer
Network) announcing the Kannada Language Interface pack has
long
attracted numerous comments on the shabby state of Kannada LIP
(URL:
http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2006/03/16/552695.aspx).
Micheal
Kaplan's reply to the feedback and complaints was just this:
"The
feedback program is closed for suggestions at this point".
Further,
there have been no detail whatsoever provided on what
feedback Microsoft
actually received.
The Kannada
Language interface pack for one is full of inaccuracies. For
instance, "Estimated time left" has been translated
to "eDakke samaya
andaju". For Kannada speaking
people this makes a hilarious read. LIP is
full of such erratic
translations. Translations have not been done in
context. The
level of translations seem to suggest that Microsoft has
totally
ignored the feedback and neglected on quality.
Also, on
our campaign we're opposing government's choice of
Microsoft
platform. Whether the platform is Open or Closed is
of utmost relevance
since the programs/applications are run on
it. Microsoft itself claims
that it is irrelevant for the "most
part" whether the platform is open
source or proprietary
and thereby admits that it is relevant for some
part, and that
part, we believe is very important. Especially on
projects
where sensitive data is stored on those platforms.
Spyware,
Viruses and Worms have pounded Microsoft's Operating
Systems for a long
time now. Government data would be under
security threat if they do not
further invest on programs that
improve security on Microsoft's
platforms.
Microsoft's
latest Operating System comes with DRM, the controversial
Digital
Rights Management which virtually spies on the users. Surely,
the
government wouldn't want its data being spied by an MNC from
another
nation?
As per the letter of intent, Microsoft
is providing consultants, tools
and the platform. Providing
platform is synonymous to ensuring life long
dependency to the
company providing it. Data migration, migration of
software to
other platforms, standards is complex and expensive. Most
Microsoft tools are platform dependent and most formats they
encode data
in have been proprietary and their license forbids
the formats to be
used on other platforms. In India, the
government is the largest buyer
of software. Microsoft is
laying out a trap for the governments by
binding them to its
platform. Favouring just one proprietary platform
could have
dangerous consequences.
The Unicode Consortium had
released a document as early as 2003 that
revealed linguistic
details about the Arkavattu issue that has been
existing in
Microsoft's only Kannada Open Type font - 'Tunga' (a Kannada
font
shipped only with the latest Microsoft's Operating Systems).
Interestingly however, this issue was never solved in Windows
XP, and no
update has been made available yet. Characters like
'mU' and 'yU' appear
disfigured on Tunga font shipped with
Microsoft's Windows XP. Microsoft
has still not released the
corrected version as an update.
Sir, We would like to add
further that this campaign is not opposing
paperless office
system of administration, but instead it is all about
creating
awareness that better alternatives exist for the government
that
also serve the interest of the public and the nation. The tax
money
could then be put to better use rather than pushing it
into the mouth of
an MNC.
N A M Ismail,
Hari Prasad
Nadig,
Om Shiva Prakash,
Coordinators,
Save Kannada
Campaign.
http://savekannada.googlepages.com
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