Re: Localization work, evangelism
Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org> writes:
> Localization is a key point for entering new places. All current
> examples of Linux systems penetrating new "markets" such as Spanish
Translation is good. Attention to local culture is good. That said, I
don't think those are the problems we face in the Philippines.
The business language of the Philippines is English. Although many
Filipinos have a hard time expressing themselves in grammatically
correct English, most have no problems reading menus, messages and
documentation. People are used to using English software, and will
probably find it easier to understand familiar English messages than
to try to figure out what a localized message means. Unlike many other
Asian countries, we use Latin characters for written documents, so we
don't need special language support.
So why aren't we all into Debian already? Well, before we can get
people into Debian, we need to get them into Linux first, and that's a
sticky point.
Computer gaming is a big thing in the Philippines (isn't it
everywhere?), and cybercafes are everywhere. Some of them use Linux to
protect their networks, but desktops are almost always Windows because
of things like Ragnarok and Microsoft Office.
Businesses are starting to be interested in Linux. Many businesses and
some of the larger schools rely on Linux servers. Linux consulting is
also starting to pick up. One of my friends deployed a Debian-based
point-of-sale pilot implementation for a large supermarket chain, and
results have been quite good. A major bank is in the middle of
switching its terminals to Linux, having decided that high
implementation risk is more manageable than high operational risk. (To
Microsoft's embarrassment, actually, as this fact was revealed by the
person Microsoft had invited to an open source panel.)
Following the example of other governments and the recommendations of
our science research institute, the Philippine government has
recommended (but not required, I think) the use of open source
software for government systems. We're currently in the middle of a
FUD campaign by the Business Software Alliance. It's kinda funny how
they're now trying to advocate choice by saying that a bias toward
open source for government apps will hurt our commercial software
industry. (Time to repost the Peruvian congressman's rebuttal...)
On all these fronts, English is the preferred language. Translating
Debian into various dialects may make it more accessible to people in
public schools who are learning how to use computers if they are lucky
enough to have their own computer lab and a geek who can help them run
it, but will probably not make it more appealing to businesses, the
government, system administrators, or gamers.
(Then again, I live in Manila. The situation may be different in the
provinces. Let me check...)
Knoppix and other live CD distributions are important to us because we
need to make it easy for people to try Linux out without much risk.
People usually don't have a spare computer just lying around. Most
people share computers, so reformatting and reinstalling is tricky.
A live CD lets people get a taste of Linux.
Now if we could just make it easy to squeeze Linux onto an existing
system without worrying too much about zapping partitions... <laugh>
Easy setup and maintenance of popular servers is also important to us.
debconf and apt-get work wonders here. Sysads tend to be a little
biased when it comes to the distro they use, though, and there's not
much one can do to convince, say, a RH or Gentoo sysad to try Debian.
;) (Just like there's probably no way they can convince me to stop
using Emacs or Debian! <laugh>)
You're right about the importance of looking for alternative forms of
contribution. A few people have expressed some interest in
localization, but efforts haven't really gotten anywhere yet. Far more
likely, I think, is the possibility of getting people involved in
documenting how to set things up, how to get things to work. Hmmm...
(I think I'm getting off-topic for debian-women. What is the most
appropriate list? Then again, I'm not sure if this is useful to other
people... <laugh>)
--
Sacha Chua <sacha@free.net.ph> - open source geekette
http://sacha.free.net.ph/ - PGP Key ID: 0xE7FDF77C
interests: emacs, gnu/linux, personal information management, CS ed
applying as a Debian new maintainer | looking for a grad school
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