[Ubuntu-PH] Re: newbie pow

[eric pareja]

Noong Mar, Okt 11, 2005 ng 08:41:26AM +0800, sinabi ni Dean Michael Berris:
> On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 08:28 +0800, jan gestre wrote:
> 
> > Depende yan Charles, meron contract in Filipino, meron din software in
> > Filipino. I tried the Filipino language version ng ubuntu, medyo
> > nakakalito kasi nde tayo sanay, pero sanayan lang yan dba, nde naman
> > tayo old dogs that can't learn new tricks, right?
> 
> I'm a new dog who chooses the tricks I wanna learn. And using software
> in Filipino just requires Too Much Work for me to even consider using
> it. ;)

The translation efforts aren't aimed at people like us who are
already comfortable working with computers in English. All translation
efforts, whether Filipino or French or Vietnamese, are aimed at
lowering the barriers to accessibility for non-English users. This
includes users who aren't as comfortable in English as we are. The
whole thrust of translation efforts is to make the technology
accessible to all, regardless of language.

It is easy for -us- to say that it is easier to work in English. We
have that luxury and advantage because we already understand English,
or think that we do. To those of us who comprehend English, all the
translation efforts are unnecessary because most of the software that
we might be interested in is already in English. But what about the
software that from the onset is not written in English? What do we do
about those? There are many programs that are written in French or
German or Japanese, do we then have to learn French or German or
Japanese to be able to use them?

The point of translating anything is to make the source
document/program accessible to a wider audience. If you already are in
the audience as an English speaker/reader, you may not need the
translations, but that doesn't mean other people don't.

Let me put it another way that might make more sense (or not).

Before the BSA started cracking down on unlicensed software use, was
there any interest in Free/Open Source software? Was there any real
need for F/OSS when all the commercial programs you needed were
readily available for a few pesos at your friendly software copier?
What would have happened to F/OSS if no one thought that we should
write F/OSS, since the commercial software companies already write the
stuff we "need"?

For a long time, F/OSS advocates like me had an audience majority of
whom didn't see the need for F/OSS because they could have commercial
stuff for peanuts and get away with it. They saw no reason to install
F/OSS except for some niche applications.

And then the BSA came. Now people are taking a serious look at F/OSS
because of costs. There are other reasons for using F/OSS, but all of
these help further the reach and scope of F/OSS.

-- 
___  Eric Pareja (xenos AT upm.edu.ph) | Information Management Service  [IMS]
\e/  Network and Systems Administrator | University of the Philippines Manila
_v_  [ http://www.upm.edu.ph/~xenos ][GPG: B82E42D9][http://tinyurl.com/68dkm]
 "Ang hindi marunong magmahal ng sariling wika ay higit pa sa malansang isda."