Dear Mr. Gates!
The Internet dazzles with messages "Bill leaves. Long live Gates!", that you leave business and will be engaged in charity and that more than two billions persons are waiting for your money. It is impressive.
We wish to express expectations of quite small quantity of people, namely about 1 million person. It is a trifle for you - mere trifle. But approximately so much people of one not numerous nationality - Mari - live on the Earth.
It's turned out, that the majority of us do not have possibility to buy Apple Macintosh computers. Almost all of computer shops sell only IBM-compatible computers and of course with licensed Windows package. Many of us bought computers with licensed Windows.
We use Cyrillic alphabet in writing but also our native language - mari language - has 5 additional letters more:
Possibly you can't see these 5 letters - they are not displayed, right?
They are written using Mari-Time Roman font.
So then please download the font Mari-Time Roman from: www.marisong.ru, install it - and you will see them!!!
There isn't any problem with Cyrillic alphabet but it's absolute hell with 5 additional letters. We have been suffering for more than 15 years using such kind of "homemade" fonts as Mari-Time Roman and other, which don't come with the standard Windows package. Mari language is not dead language. Books are being published, newspapers, magazines, children are being taught on native language at schools, there are variety of web sites in Mari language as well.
The text written with Mari-Time Roman font is not displayed at those who uses only the standard Windows package.
Some people can demur, that in Windows there is a universal font Arial Unicode MS for all languages of the world! But if Arial is not pleasant for everybody, if somebody wishes to write on the native language using Times font? Whats to be done to thousand of such Windows users? And in general, whether it smells slightly as some kind of "Arial Unicode MS reservation" for such small nation as we are? What's to be done to sites who do not wish to use Arial Unicode MS? What with thousand of books composed using fonts different from Arial Unicode MS?
You leave business and will be engaged in megacharity so more than two billions of people on this planet are waiting already for your money. But we - Mari people - actually don't need your money. Buying yours Windows, we have already paid you. Therefore we ask just to include these 5 Mari letters in the list of standard fonts of Windows.
Yours faithfully,
A.Chemyshev,
V.Vasjukov
and other Mari users of Windows.
MariSong.ru
The Internet dazzles with messages "Bill leaves. Long live Gates!", that you leave business and will be engaged in charity and that more than two billions persons are waiting for your money. It is impressive.
We wish to express expectations of quite small quantity of people, namely about 1 million person. It is a trifle for you - mere trifle. But approximately so much people of one not numerous nationality - Mari - live on the Earth.
It's turned out, that the majority of us do not have possibility to buy Apple Macintosh computers. Almost all of computer shops sell only IBM-compatible computers and of course with licensed Windows package. Many of us bought computers with licensed Windows.
We use Cyrillic alphabet in writing but also our native language - mari language - has 5 additional letters more:
Possibly you can't see these 5 letters - they are not displayed, right?
They are written using Mari-Time Roman font.
So then please download the font Mari-Time Roman from: www.marisong.ru, install it - and you will see them!!!
There isn't any problem with Cyrillic alphabet but it's absolute hell with 5 additional letters. We have been suffering for more than 15 years using such kind of "homemade" fonts as Mari-Time Roman and other, which don't come with the standard Windows package. Mari language is not dead language. Books are being published, newspapers, magazines, children are being taught on native language at schools, there are variety of web sites in Mari language as well.
The text written with Mari-Time Roman font is not displayed at those who uses only the standard Windows package.
Some people can demur, that in Windows there is a universal font Arial Unicode MS for all languages of the world! But if Arial is not pleasant for everybody, if somebody wishes to write on the native language using Times font? Whats to be done to thousand of such Windows users? And in general, whether it smells slightly as some kind of "Arial Unicode MS reservation" for such small nation as we are? What's to be done to sites who do not wish to use Arial Unicode MS? What with thousand of books composed using fonts different from Arial Unicode MS?
You leave business and will be engaged in megacharity so more than two billions of people on this planet are waiting already for your money. But we - Mari people - actually don't need your money. Buying yours Windows, we have already paid you. Therefore we ask just to include these 5 Mari letters in the list of standard fonts of Windows.
Yours faithfully,
A.Chemyshev,
V.Vasjukov
and other Mari users of Windows.
MariSong.ru