Cyrillic database for Mac

[Bohdan Peter Rekshynskyj]

At 21:20 9/5/95, James Kirchner wrote:
>On Tue, Sept. 5, 1995, Robert Beard wrote:
>
>>If that is true, certainly uninformed diatribes against
>>particular computer systems should be saved for other places.
>
>He then goes on to make a somewhat uninformed statement himself:
>
>>Anyone about to purchase a Mac should also remember that
>>only PCs are used in the Slavic nations...
>
>I don't know about the other Slavic nations, but Apple had established a
>pretty visible presence in the Czech Republic by the time I left that country
>last October.  (In fact, people even use Amigas there.)  To be sure, the
I also have seen the Apple presence in Kyyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as well
as in L'viv.  They are making inroads.  This is in no way to suggest that they
will overtake the other platform of mediocrity, but I have been there.
Seen it.  Computed it.  Done it.

>majority of the computers in operation there are PCs, but at least two of the
>companies I translated for, when I lived in West Bohemia, used Macs; one of
>them for general use, the other for most of their print production and
>architectural design needs.  Of the two major Czech dailies now on the World
>Wide Web, both are available in Macintosh CE format.  All of the independent,
>Czech-developed word-processing programs I saw there had the capability of
>importing and exporting Macintosh files.
Thank you for this tidbit - this is most interesting!

>
>Rekshynskyj's claims were not exaggerated, as far as the operating systems
>were concerned.  Apple has entire, up-to-date Polish, Czech and Russian
>operating systems installed on the Macintoshes sold in their respective
>countries, and available free from ftp.apple.com (parts can even be extracted
>for customization of the US system, as I did with my own).  The existence of
Yes, this is superb.  No PC operating system can do this now.

>these localized operating systems was quite an advantage, from what I could
>see, since in a country where even camera instruction booklets are seldom
>translated, these OS's made it much easier and faster for the considerable
The Ukrainian Macintosh translation was SUPERB.  I was surprised at how
well it was put together.  Definitely top-notch.  However, the prices for
the products (they're the only Mac supplier in town) were *exhorbitant*.
Yet, in the couple years they have been there their office space has more than
quintupled and the number of outlets increased quite a bit.  Localization for
products continues (Pagemaker, MSWord, et al are already all in Ukrainian).

>number of non-English-proficient (and non-DOS-proficient) local users to
>reach some level of productivity on the computer.  (The language problem also
>made complete hardware information harder to get for those trying to get
>their PC systems up and running.  This can be a hard enough problem for
>native English speakers, even when they've bought a packaged system.)  The
>lack of a localized OS for PC's actually seemed like quite a boon to Czech
>software developers, who did a good bit of business in their own -- rather
>good -- DOS-compatible, Windows-simulating -- software (e.g., MAT, Klasik)
>for users who couldn't, or didn't want to work with English- or
>German-language programs.
>
>Despite the fact that only about 20% of computers in use are Macs (which are,
>by the way, also present to a small extent at Czech universities), that's
>still enough to make Apple, according to some trade magazines, the world's
>largest computer manufacturer.  With new Macintoshes now capable of running
>both their own and PC platforms, some of the major applications programs now
>operating cross-platform, and with conjectures about even IBM possibly
>joining the small rank of companies cloning Mac machines (maybe that's where
>some of that "expected" loss of market share will go), the best advice to
>anyone in any country would probably just be to find out which platform (PC
>or Mac) they prefer, and can afford, and can get support for, and get it.
> Anticipating Macs' future market penetration is a little risky at this point
>(remember that in 1973 experts said that by 1980 there would be no fossil
>fuel).  With courts ruling that Microsoft has to refrain from its former
>"anti-competitive" sales practices for its OS, and the general resentment
>toward Microsoft that computer heads of my acquaintance have been exhibiting
>lately, it's anybody's guess what kind of machine or OS the world will be
>using later on.  Get what you want, it will be obsolete in a little while
>anyway.
The ad sums it up - if you want to see where Windoze will be in ten years
from now, look at a Mac today.  But, mediocrity abounds - and people love
to follow the herd, so I do not forecast significant market changes at
this point.  I do, however, suggest that eyes be opened to "Copland" (you
can call it Win '05) out next year.

                Regards,

                                Bohdan Peter Rekshynskyj

PS - I shan't reply to more Mac vs. PC inanities here.  My case stands.

>
>James Kirchner