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Poll: Lemmys outside the Anglosphere, do you have your computer set to English or your mother tongue? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 42 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

Here are the reasons why I use all of my electronic devices in English:

I already know English, so it’s not a burden.
Localization is never perfect. Just dig a bit deeper into the settings in Windows, and you’ll always stumble upon some English here and there, no matter what the language setting says.
Troubleshooting sucks if you have to use another language. There are a million posts, answers and articles about your problem written in English, but only 9 written in your local language. Among the million articles in English, you’ll also find a few that were written by people who know what they’re doing. The 9 articles and posts in the local language were all written by clueless idiots.
With some applications, like Excel, localization really hurts usability. I guess it’s fine for people who make calculations only a few times a year, but people who use Excel on a daily basis just hate the translated function names. If you already know your way around the English functions, using a translated version means you’ve got your both hands tied behind your back. What used to be trivial, suddenly becomes an epic voyage, just like it is with those who use Excel only once a year. Good luck trying to get anything done with the translated version. It might even be be faster with a pen and paper.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 26 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Excel translating function names surely has to be among the most pathetic decisions of software history

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 5 points 5 days ago

When you see someone using it in another language, you can immediately tell that they aren’t doing anything serious.

[–] oats@piefed.zip 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Dunno, isn't logo older, with the whole frigging language translated?

[–] Gumus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Holy fuck, I despise translated Excel with passion. That's a crime against humanity and the dumbest thing Microsoft ever did - and that's a stratosphere-level high bar already.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I kinda get it where MS is coming from with this decision, but I don’t approve of it at all. They want to be more user friendly with all audiences, so that they can sell excel to small farmers in France, who definitely don’t speak a word of English. I guess that attitude should tell you that doing serious calculations wasn’t the main goal here, even though nearly everyone is using Excel that way.

This application is a victim of its widespread success. People make some pretty intense things with it that definitely call for switching to Python, R, C#, fortran or whatever. Because of that, serious professionals can’t avoid it any more. They can’t just treat it as a fun little toy it really is.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Is it really a toy if it's turing complete?

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 1 points 4 days ago

As long as you’re doing simple little things, it’s fine. Try to do serious stuff with it, and you’ll end up fighting against the program at every turn. Professional grade software aims to make your life easier, not harder.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

It also sucks to use excel with tutorials amd you need to translate them on the fly.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 3 points 4 days ago

Translating the UI is annoying, but trying to translate the function names is just pure agony.

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh god! Localization on function names must be one of the stupidest things Microsoft does. A literal anti-pattern.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 3 points 5 days ago

If you’re a small strawberry farmer in rural France, it’s fine. If you’re doing something even a bit more serious like making technical or scientific calculations, you’re using a wrong tool. Excel wasn’t designed for that even though pretty much everyone is constantly pushing those limits.