In response to "A Greener Apple" from Steve Jobs

[JSSmac]

"In response to the article "A Greener Apple" from Apple's CEO Steve Jobs".

 

Dear Mr. Steve Jobs,

 

I am kindly writing this letter to you, not to beg you anything but to tell you that we are a lot of people who like and love to give the best of ourselves, as your company also does in every project, that would feel even better if we had the chance to work also using our own language: Catalan.

 

Please, let me explain.

 

Mac users, or at least most of us, have special sensitiveness on our environment. I am sure that all of us are doing what is in our hands relating to recycling manners, to give our environment the chance of a sustainable growth, instead of growing without control, wasting limited resources and underestimating our planet.

 

"A Greener Apple", you claimed.

 

I do not think that a real greener Apple only has to focuse on removing toxic materials nor only obtaining high energy-efficient products.

A greener Apple shall go beyond, as it also does in many of its products (design, technology, materials, ...). All of them gorgeous and respectful to their environment.

 

Material products, such iPods, iMacs, ... have to deal and agree with its physical environment. So they must be designed, engineered and built-in having the less-impact on the environment as possible, trying to integrate on it as worthy as possible, Naturally.

 

Then, why when it comes to the new Apple operating system, Mac OSX Leopard, it is not as respectful to the environment as the other Apple Products are?

 

So should try to do a non-material product, such an operating system, to be respectful to the environment where it is designed to be used. Shouldn't it?

 

In this globalised world, there are a lot of cultures, among them the Catalan one, (spoken by more than 7,000.000 people) trying to remain alive without being extinguished, or replaced for the most "common culture", in our case Spanish or even English.

 

This is what catalan people stands for. Some with better manners than others, but we are trying to keep our identity alive in this world where every culture can co-exist, and so should we do if we do not want to lose the richness that minor cultures of this small planet have.

 

So, I can't see any reason why Apple is not predisposed to allow the translation, because I am sure any of us would be delightful to translate it, to the Catalan language. Giving this culture a little tap to remain alive in this globalised world.

 

I really believe in a Green, juicy and tasty Apple. In all senses. Leading the product industry in design and technology, with a green sustainable attitude, respectful to every environment, and to every culture from every corner of this planet.

 

Joan Sistach

Architect

Barcelona - Catalonia - Spain

[A Nonny Moose]

This fails for several reasons:

 

1. Stevie Jobs isn't here. Email it to steve@mac.com for better results.

 

2. "Green" means better with the environment.

 

3. The word you're looking for is "Multicultural." You're asking for multiculturalism, not greener policies.

 

4. This letter is very confusing, because you're essentially going off on a very unusual tangent.

 

That being said, I like the tone of the letter, but you seriously need to look at those four points.

[JSSmac]

Maybe there is a big leap on what it is being told between the intro and the final claim, (I am on it!)

but the letter wasn't intended to be very extensive because then the possibilities that it has to be read, immediately fall down.

 

As for the "Green" meaning, I understand the word as a whole of everything that surrounds us: Air, Earth, Materials, Cultures,...

Not just staying on material things, such as waste or toxic materials.

That is why I try to give it a wider meaning to the "Green" word, being respectful on all of the things that, without our effort, can be easily injured or lost.

 

Let me thank you for your time to write me and also for your tone.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joan Sistach

[apowerr]

What Steve Jobs adresses as green in 'A Greener Apple' and what you're adressing here are very different. Although Catalan is spoken worldwide by ~10million people, do you think the native speakers of Catalan are inclined to buy a Macintosh?

[Urbz]

As for the "Green" meaning, I understand the word as a whole of everything that surrounds us: Air, Earth, Materials, Cultures,...

Not just staying on material things, such as waste or toxic materials.

I don't want to sound mean or anything but, well, you're wrong! Green = environment. Culture =/= green! I understand that you extended the meaning, but really, it just makes people misunderstand you. So fix that up and it will become a very nice letter indeed! Hope I don't come off as arrogant, I don't intend on it!

Although Catalan is spoken worldwide by ~10million people, do you think the native speakers of Catalan are inclined to buy a Macintosh?

You bring up a good point. Please allow my elaboration:

In an ideal world, everyone would have their own language right there on their desktop. But Catalan is an official language in only one country, the tiny Andorra with a puny 71 000 people or so. If Apple's software engineers are to include language support of any kind, it should be an official language. That said, how many Andorrans own, or plan to purchase, a Macintosh computer? What kind of market do they represent? A very, very, very small market, even if every single one of them owned a Mac. When you factor in that those people could simply be using Spanish or French, which from what I gather most of them speak, I come to the obvious realization that this is a bad business move. So while I would agree that it would be nice to have this language supported, it simply isn't economically sound. And like I said, if they have the official language of a country supported, the majority of the people of that country are probably using that language.

 

On a different note, is it possible to create a language pack? Are they available for Windows? I'm sure you could at least get a dictionary supported natively.

 

-Urbz

[JSSmac]

Of course I also understand that Apple is not going to invest a dollar in having some lost sheeps happy because they finally have Leopard, for instance, in Catalan.Even, If I was Steve, I wouldn't!But I wouldn't resist neither deny any Country to have my OS translated into their language!Of course, I would simply deliver the source needed (which I already have) to the developers of the Country thus they could simply translate it! And Boom! It's that easy!I don't think this would be ask too much!What do you think?

What Steve Jobs adresses as green in 'A Greener Apple' and what you're adressing here are very different. Although Catalan is spoken worldwide by ~10million people, do you think the native speakers of Catalan are inclined to buy a Macintosh?

In Catalonia there are a lot of Apple users, in art, design, photograpy, architecture, ... and I am sure that most of them would switch to the Catalan version on their copy of Leopard.I don't think anyone would buy a Mac because it is translated to Catalan. Here we buy Apple for all the other reasons. If not we would be working on Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista, which already support the Catalan Language.

[apowerr]

Of But I wouldn't resist neither deny any Country to have my OS translated into their language!Of course, I would simply deliver the source needed (which I already have) to the developers of the Country thus they could simply translate it! And Boom! It's that easy!I don't think this would be ask too much!What do you think?

I agree with you here. Apple should make an OS X language development kit or something.

[(MoC)]

All of this could have been avoided with Google Translate (jk)