Arabic on the Internet: The Issue of Platform and Browser Independance

A sizable population of web developers write their sites pretending that only one browser exists (Microsoft Internet Explorer) on one Operating System (Windows).This is a terrible mistake that even large web sites fall into. Even Al Jazeera did so until they overhauled their site in late 2004. Such web developers are really locked into a "Microsft-only world", and really ignore recognized standards set by W3C and other organizations.Until recently, this was a serious limitation for people who do not use Windows, such as those who like Linux, the Apple Macintosh, or other web sites.It was also a limitation for people who do use Windows but do not have Arabic Windows installed, such as researches and scholar in the West, or Arabs living in non-Arab countries. However, when Windows 2000 and XP came out, they solved this problem, by not requiring a dedicated Arabized version of the operating system.