Free Software Macedonia

Localization of Free Software:

Projects, People, Problems

Novica Nakov

Free Software Macedonia

novica@bagra.org

http://www.freesoftware.org.mk

info@slobodensoftver.org.mk

About Free Software Macedonia

Free Software Macedonia is a non-profit organization working on promotion, distribution and development of Free Software in the Republic of Macedonia.

Localization projects: Windows

OpenOffice.org

Mozilla

The Gimp

TheOpenCD

StarDict

AbiWord, Gaim, Psi, XChat...

Localization projects: GNU/Linux

KDE

GNOME

Mandriva

Fedora

Ubuntu

What's missing?

Better spell checkers

Better dictionaries

Standardization of the translated applications

Translated users' manuals

Better distribution to end-users

How did we achieve this?

Translation marathons

Individual effort

Groups of users localize what they use

Who are the people involved?

High school and university students

Young people working with IT

About 10 people do most of the L10n work. Almost all of them are experienced GNU/Linux users. Highest (marathon) number of translators is about 50.

Problems with L10n work

The support coming from other entities is close to none

Internet access (or lack thereof)

No official English-Macedonian dictionary of computer (related) terms

Small number of people that do L10n work

Addressing some of the problems

Godot – Web based glossary development tool (demo available at http://legolas.on.net.mk/godot/)

Completely localized version of TheOpenCD

(Work is done in cooperation with Metamorphosis.)

Long term: Involving more people (GNU/Linux newbies, the Windows camp);

Godot + Pootle for a complete on-line localization solution that everyone can use.

Thank you!

http://www.freesoftware.org.mk

info@slobodensoftver.org.mk

2003-12-04T21:01:22