Why why must Debian call Taiwan a "Province of China"? Why can't it just stick with a neutral "Taiwan". Why single out a geographical name and append a political statement to it? Sticks out and looks kind of silly. Who cares what the two governments' official names for Taiwan are. Why thrust Debian into politics, where there was no big problem before? Anything more neutral than just "Taiwan"? I'm all ears. Oh great, poison energetic free software enthusiasts with politics. How am I going to explain to folks here in Taiwan that that is just a superficial or temporary part of Debian, or doesn't represent the view of all of Debian? Oh great, just after we moved everybody over from Redhat because of the flag issue.
Anyway, my buddy Andrew Lee sent me this for me to proofread, but instead I felt I'll just post it more widely for him, (naturally before researching the issue further :-)) ==== Hi Dan, I don't know have you heard about the Debian-installer use China replace Taiwan for the menu of language chooser, I felt it's such a Discrimination Against us. Here I want to speak up on the Debian list, before I speak up, I hope you can readjust my point of view to be more fairly to both side. Thanks in advance. Here is the mail: Hi Herbert Xu, I read your message from: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/debian-boot-200404/msg00342.html Please do not say it'd be much better if you didn't use Debian at all to anybody. Debian is a free software and it is likely everyone can use it with freedom. It would be in doubt if Debian is not allowed to be use at all. As we all in the group of Debian developer and understand how it was been use for all this days. Debian is free for everyone, and it should be No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups. I respect you are a Debian developer, but I am wishing you have same equally respect to other Debian users, contributers and developers. However, there is no rules against us to continue us using Debian software for such uncertain law. I heard of that Debian-installer choose a list of ISO-3166 codes for list contry names during installation, I felt the decision are quite wrong, even you guys calling it's "most official" and don't want to face to the truth, the truth are always still only one there. My dad and my mum are both migrate from mainland China a half century ago, and I was born in Taiwan, and I am living in Taiwan, my country is officially naming "Republic of China" however it was and however it will, I can not change it myself how could you a foreigner do? ----------------[ Taiwan Linux Users Group ]---------------- Andrew Lee http://wiki.debian.org.tw Winkler Partners http://www.winklerpartners.com My [EMAIL PROTECTED]: +886 2 2311 2345 cell: +886 968749 055 Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association http://ecosophy.org ==== More from me, Dan Jacobson: next thing you know, we'll need a non-China in addition to non-US. I'm big on standards: http://jidanni.org/lang/pinyin/ , but what if Debian appended statements to each land like that? What, will Debian lose some "contracts"? Maybe there could be a political-correctness package that could adjust Debian for use in each country as needed. But apparently they are talking about names one sees before even installing. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]