On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 7:28 PM, Loui Chang <louipc.ist@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Sun 01 Jul 2012 23:08 +0800, Zero, Chien-An Cho wrote: >> Hello, >> >> First of all, I am sorry to bring political issues to here. I have >> been using ArchLinux for years, deployed on many servers, though I'm >> not joining the community until now. The recent changes to the >> ArchLinux webpages (ex. Downloads, Mirror Status) is really offending >> Taiwanese people. I would like to bring up this issue, and preferably >> to resolve this issue. >> >> I have posted this message on the forum: >> https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=144315 . The moderator >> suggested me to post on arch-general, so here it is. :) >> There is also a bug tracking issue submitted by other Taiwanese user >> that I'm requesting for reopen here: >> https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/30444 >> >> The following text is the same as the post on forum, except a few >> modification to make text smoother. >> >> The recent changes on the download page named Taiwan as Taiwan, >> Province of China, which is not reflecting the truth that Taiwan is a >> independent country which having its own government. I think this >> might be caused by following the ISO-3166 country name list standard. >> However, I don't think ISO-3166 is a good list when it comes to the >> country name. >> >> Many open source communities have encountered this problem before. >> Most of them understand that ISO-3166 is not really a neutral list >> that we all hope for, and thus made switch to a separate maintained >> country list. For example, FreeBSD[1], Rails[2], Debian[3]. Many big >> commercial entities also opt not to use "Taiwan, PRC" in their country >> list, like: Apple[4], IBM[5], also try Google, Facebook, Twitter, et >> cetra. A possible solution might be using the country name list from >> ICU[6]. >> >> I believed the ArchLinux is trying to expand its user-base around the >> world, so a neutral country name list would be the best for the >> benefit of all of us, ArchLinux developers and users. As a Taiwanese >> ArchLinux user, I'm really happy to see that user base of ArchLinux is >> growing in Taiwan. Some educational institutions provide mirrors site >> in Taiwan, Wiki localized in Traditional Chinese in the recent years. >> I sincerely hope this issue can be resolved as soon as possible. Let's >> keep the issue simple and not flaming it, thanks. >> >> References: >> >> [1] FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=138672 >> [2] Rails: http://www.koziarski.net/archives/2008/9/24/countries-and-controversies/ >> [3] Debian: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/04/msg00798.html >> [4] Apple: http://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/ >> [5] IBM: http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/select/selector.html >> [6] ICU: http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/trunk/source/data/region/en.txt > > I agree. I'm very disappointed by the response of Dave Reisner on that > bug report. The reality is that the PRC does not have jurisdiction or > claim over Taiwan. When standards are false they should not be followed. > > Dave: Can you educate yourself a little about the Republic of China and > Taiwan vs the People's Republic of China, before making a final > decision? Thank you. This has been discussed a number of times. While no one has so far questioned the validity of the bug, the consensus seems to be that this should be taken upstream [0]. I hope it is clear that no offense is intended, and that we do not want to make any political judgments (and hence defer to the UN). [0]: <http://www.iso.org/iso/updates_on_iso_3166.html>.
