[indiana-discuss] Project proposal: Input Method Project

[W. Wayne Liauh]

Hi Petr,

Thanks for replying to my somewhat personally offensive comment.  I know I have been a jerk on this matter and was definitely out of bound in my rather allergic reaction, but there is a reason and I think I owe those that I have offended an explanation.

I was quite actively involved in the development of Corel Linux (about 10 years ago).  This was the first easily installable Linux distro that ever came out, and everyone was very excited.  When I received my Corel Linux box, I was very excited, too, but I quickly realized that it did not have the Realtek driver.  This was a big problem b/c at that time, this was the most popular NIC driver used by DIY computer enthusiasts (b/c of the price and the frequent sales promotions, etc.)  I checked with our local Linux community and everyone else had the same problem.

So I fired a couple of urgent emails to Corel's then CEO Dr. Michael Cowpland ("MC") and his chief Linux developer Ming Pun.  They didn't think it was necessary to take actions--the reviews were so flattering and demands so high, so why spoil the party?  But after a few months, most of the sold boxes were returned--a computer is of no use if you can't go to the internet.  And we lost our best chance to challenge the Microsoft monopoly.  Corel soon went into financial trouble and one of MC's top hands (who later became Corel's CEO) secretly negotiated an agreement for BG to acquire 25% of Corel's shares in convertible stocks, and the rest is history.

After further investigations, I feel that the only locale that will be affected is the zh_TW locale (traditional Chinese).  IIIM/SunPinYin works very well in the zh_CN environment.  However, because of other problems (I will show them in a separate thread and file a brief bug report), I don't think we will be able to reach the general Taiwan market in this or the next release anyway.  The zh_TW market is significant b/c Taiwan is still the headquarters of essentially all the PC manufacturers.  I think this can be easily remedied by making a special LiveDVD.  I am basically a politician and not a developer, and if you or your colleagues can help me put together a special distro for the zh_TW locale, it will be really great.

That said, I still don't agree with most of your comments, but I believe that's moot now.  :-)

Thanks again.
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