Re: Localization work, evangelism
Quoting Sacha Chua (sacha@free.net.ph):
> Promoting Debian in the Philippines needn't start with localization.
No-one will be surprised to hear that I strongly disagree.
Localization is a key point for entering new places. All current
examples of Linux systems penetrating new "markets" such as Spanish
Estremadura, cities of München or Paris, french ministry of
"Équipement" (about 14000 desktop systems) and all other examples I'm
not aware of have been possible because software is localized.
A school in Badajoz or Trondheim cannot use a system mostly using
English for its display. Nor can the desktop system of Monsieur le
Ministre..:-)
The only (but probably important) differences with Philippines is
certainly that, unless I'm wrong, English is among your official
languages and I guess it is often the only common way to exchange
between the various communities of your nation.
But, even with this, I'm pretty sure there's a strong involvment in
keeping a good "local culture" (sorry for the bad imprecise
wording...my English may be limited from time to time) and all efforts
for preserving the identities are worth it.
Involving people in localization also has another interest : this is a
field where the neeedd skills are somewhat different from what's need
for hacking. So, you're very likely to attract and involve new people
who would never think about contributing to free software
otherwise. *that* also is a big opportunity...
Reply to: