<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 29/11/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Mark Shuttleworth</b> <<a href="mailto:mark@canonical.com">mark@canonical.com</a>> wrote:</span> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div bgcolor="#ffffcc" text="#000000">Ozgur Karatas wrote: <blockquote cite="http://mid49635.195.142.233.194.1164814665.squirrel@ogr.iu.edu.tr" type="cite"><span class="q"><pre>I am exploreing this on me. although ubuntu team made the package of kurdish language, they say that they had done it.. The person who said this lie ise a turkish diplomat. he says that they improved UBUNTU. i will prosecute to him.. The name of the person which maked this mistake is Osman Baydemir. He is a Continent president of Turkey. <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.milliyet.com/2006/11/21/guncel/agun.html" target="_blank">http://www.milliyet.com/2006/11/21/guncel/agun.html</a> </pre></span></blockquote><br>Ozgur, I slow down. I don't think it's sensible to charge around threatening to prosecute people until the full facts are clear, and at this stage its not at all clear what's going on. We want to be supportive of the local Ubuntu team, and the Kurdish translation efforts, and we will need to be diplomatic and effective in the way we approach this. Please work with Jono to get a full understanding of what's going on. <br><br>Mark<br> </div></blockquote></div> <div><br> </div> <div>Our ethos is "Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice. ". This is controversial in many situations, as language issues can be extremely political in many parts of the world. The right to speak your own language is tied up with issues of national identity and minority groups asserting their language rights can be a threat to the state which can see them as separatists. </div> <div> </div> <div>This situation is not unique to the status of Kurdish in Turkey and will no doubt come up again as we increase our language support. </div> <div> </div> <div>The reception took place in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbakir">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbakir</a> which Wikipedia describes as the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan. One of the speakers was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_Uzun">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_Uzun</a> a writer who has been imprisoned for Kurdish language activity and who has recently returned from exile. </div> <div> </div> <div>In short, this wasn't a low profile geek-only, technical launch. This was a major political event.</div> <div> </div> <div>I'm proud as a linguist and a free software advocate that linux was the first operating system to be available for these people in their own language. When we create our own software we can use our own language, and make those decisions that large corporations wouldn't touch because of the fallout. </div> <div> </div> <div>I think we need a way of flagging these up so that we can be forewarned if a controversial release is about to happen. We could have sent out a press release highlighting "Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice" to the Turkish press to explain where we are coming from. We don't want linux to be seen as "belonging" to one particular community, but also we certainly shouldn't back down on our ethos of "your software, your language". </div> <div> </div> <div>Caroline</div>