With a population of only a bit more than 270,000, Iceland makes Israel seem absolutely huge. They're hardly the sort of market that can make demands on producers of world-wide products. Children in Iceland learn both the traditional Icelandic language, and English in school. The Icelandic Language Institute has a state mandate to continue to further the language, and much like the Israeli Academy, it continually produces old/new names for new products, and it does so with a very large degree of success. But since English is also learned in schools, Microsoft decided that it wasn't worth producing an Icelandic version of Windows. Who needs it?, they asked. The people of Iceland, proud defenders of their mother tongue, say they do. They claim that because of the prevalence of computers in people's lives, an English interface will negate all that has been achieved in preserving the language. Ari Pall Kristinsson, director of the Icelandic Language Institute, referring to the refusal of Microsoft to produce an Icelandic version of Windows is quoted in a Seattle Times article as saying:

They are nothing less than destroying what has been built up here for ages.

Go to: Virtual Zionism?