In a previous posting, I wrote:
Sorry, your Microsoft analogy doesn't help.
I should clarify this. While Microsoft has a dominating position in the desktop computing software market, this situation is too far from the language situation in Norway to be a useful analogy. Microsoft is a single vendor with a marketing department, and there is no corresponding agency (or conspiracy) behind the majority language in Norway.
Bokmål is today the name for the dominating written language in Norway, but this name was not invented by the users of the same. They themselves called it Norwegian, because they contrasted their spelling to Danish, starting in the 1840s. Only in the late 19th century when Ivar Aasen's Landsmål (country language, a synthesis of dialects) had entered the scene, did the need arise for a name for the other version, and in 1899 it was officially named Riksmål (nation language, as opposed to country language). In 1929, Riksmål was renamed to Bokmål (book language) and Landsmål to Nynorsk (new Norwegian), and today's Riksmål is a classic form of Bokmål.
It is estimated that 85 percent of Norwegians use Bokmål today, and the old popular movement for Landsmål, once filled with hopes of democratization and progress and higher education available to all, appears somewhat like Esperanto. I'm a great admirer of the Esperanto movement, and they might have a better chance on the Internet than anytime before. But I write this message in English, because that way I will reach more readers. To most Bokmål contributors to no:, it has felt natural simply to call it "the Norwegian Wikipedia", because it is neither in English nor Danish. It might be a good idea to call it "norsk (bokmål)", but I'm surprised by the strong sentiments that met me when I suggest the renaming of no: to nb: would be unnecessary.
There is an oppression component here, where the mere number of people who prefer Bokmål creates a problem for the brave Nynorsk minority. For example, parents trying to teach their children Nynorsk might find fewer choices of spelling training software for Nynorsk, or a daily newspaper in Nynorsk might not be available for your town. This situation is similar to women entering professions with a male dominance or for ethanol car owners trying to find a gas [sic!] station where they can fill up ethanol. Political correctness or affirmative action can lead to titles such as "mailman" being changed to "letter carrier" (a translation of the German/Scandinavian Briefträger/brevbärare), but as far as I know gas/petrol stations have not (yet) been renamed to fuel stations.
But this kind of perceived oppression is not a conspiracy. Most mailmen didn't chose a profession based on a desire to suppress women, most gasoline drivers didn't actively chose to avoid ethanol or diesel, and the majority of Norwegians don't hate Ivar Aasen, even though they prefer to read and write in a language that resembles that of the former Danish regime.