Sorting it all Out

"UK English" Surely you mean "English" or "real English".

"non-US English"? Surely nou mean "other dialects of English other than Amglish".

The US-prejudiced way you write show that you are part of the problem, not the solution.

You could start setting an example by writing in English instead of Amglish.

You should have called it LATIN SMALL LETTER ZED.

The way I see the problem is that Microsoft is unwilling to outsource translation to people who are willing to do it (and maintain it) for free.

The percentage difference between US and UK English in the Windows desktop shell is pretty small, but the occasional 'canceled' here, 'dialed' there, 'color' or 'gray' add up to a significant irritant (even offence) to a British user, especially when other mutually intelligible language variations have been handled.

I think the trick is to produce a localised version called English (Expletive), code name en-#*$!.  It would replace the standard File menu with Sh*t (as in "this is where I put all my sh*t"), Edit with F*ck (as in "this is how I f*ck with all my sh*t"), Help with What The F*ck, and so on.  Unfortunately, the words Sh*t and F*ck are so versatile (adjective, noun, verb, ad infinitum) that most of the menus and options would consist of those two words in various permutations, and the result would be unintelligible.  But very localised!  (Sorry, localized.)

RE: English Bloke

I disagree. English is a term that can be used to cover all varients of English. If you specially mean the version of English spoken in the UK then you need to specify that somehow, and

In the case where Michael has said "Non-US English" he means varients of English including British English (such as his example of Manchester) but specifically excluding American English. Your alternative phrase just seems to be an expansion of Michael's phrase:

non = other dialects of

English = English

US = other than Amglish

In the case where he says "UK English" he is just being explict about what he means.

Regards,

Another English Bloke

The example of this that always annoys me is the Windows install process (certainly 95 - XP, I'm not sure if Vista is better).

I have to change my keyboard, language AND timezone from their US defaults. Why can't it just ask me where I am located, with no default, and then default the others based on that?

This is particularly annoying when you have a lazy IT department who don't bother to change any of these settings during the install, which means that you are then forced to use a computer with American settings (and normally unable to fix them due to security policies).

PinkDuck - Free != Quality. Also, anybody truly offended by the spelling of a few words here and there (while technically correct, since the company producing the software is based in the United States, and spell checks according to rules there) needs to lighten up.

English Bloke - The way we learn make requests in America, correct diction or no, is not by insulting the person (yea, even their native manner of speaking) to whom you are speaking. Verily.

Your sense of humour and courage to dissent are impeccable.

Hi, I'm a Portuguese (Europe) native, and I can relate to this. But as you know, in our case, It has been solved, we do have a pt-PT and a pt-BR variant. And how do we, a simple 9,5 million potencial windows users, got such a gift from microsoft, since Brazilians are dozens times more!? Simple: there really is a difference, and we are mutually unable to use eachother's version in a pratical sence.

But you see, there also a few other millions out there that are portuguese speakers, like Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, etc. And combined, they are way over our 10 m also.

But they're stuck with either our version ou the BR version. And that, well, sucks!

If the issue will only be solved when there are 'softies high enough in MS piramid that are disturbed by this, well, I guess it's going to take a very long, long time.

But I keep seeing another reason: money, good old green.

And then the obvious is there:

European Portuguese represents the "mother" of a language spoken across the world and plays an important role on it.

Brazil represents a motherload of cash, with it's almost 200 million potencial users. And they can't use the existing european in any pratical daily way.

And the rest are African nations that don't represent a lot of cash at this stage.

I have a feeling that somewhere down the road, if Angola keeps turning itself onto a fully developed nation and decides that my portuguese version of windows no longer suits them, we'll see a new variant rise: pt-AO

And if that happens, you can bet the money will be the drive, not the differences in language.

My point? if that pesky en-US version of windows would prevent Microsoft from making money from all you english speakers out there, the variants would exist for any sizeable market, with or without any 'softie execs disturbed about it.

Well, to someone who actually tries to type documents out in a software like MS word, this turns out to be a really big problem. You see, documents that are written often have to be given in for publication or as reports to other people.

The problem with the 2003 version of office is that it ignores spellings like program, which are not acceptable in an organization that uses British English exclusively. It turns out that this is a big problem. While changing the language to use English (U.K) helps the problem slightly, the fact of the matter is that it still chooses to ignore spellings like organize and regconize which should be spelt as organise and recognise.

Tragic, but true.