[Ubuntu-manual] Ubuntu Manual Translations

[Tom Davies]

Hi :)

I think the translations should be completed before release but only for 
projects that have stuck to the agreed freeze points.  Then 2 weeks after 
release a "patch" or "update" to deal with those pesky devs that released 
changes after the freeze.

Inevitably that will mean some of the translators work will be wasted but at 
least it would also punish the devs that don't obey the rules.  It might even 
serve as a warning for next time so that devs stop pushing us.

Reviews in the press and magazine articles about Ubuntu and the general public's 
view will be established within the first 2 weeks of a release.  If we can't get 
documentation out until 2 weeks after then we play into MicroSquish's FUD about 
linux just being old and badly documented.  Within linux-land most people would 
see that as the documentation-teams/translators "fault".

If anything we need to get the documentation out BEFORE the official release 
date even if some of that is not 100% up-to-date because of the devs.  Most 
people in linux-land would then blame the devs or congratulate Ubuntu on 
developing so fast.

Fairly recently a well-renowned online magazine for IT professionals reviewed 
Fedora and concluded that despite being released it was not "production ready" 
and needed a lot of "Quality assurance testing".  The article failed to mention 
that it was reviewing a beta release of Fedora and NOT a final release.  Windows 
professionals seldom understand the difference and would see the article 
confirms what they alway hear about linux, that is that linux is not worth 
trying because it is always quite broken and not ready despite being old.

So, our choice seems to be 
1. get the blame for holding back Ubuntu while griping about devs
2. re-do maybe 10% of translations but be seen as heroes 

If we do go with option 1 then waiting until 2 weeks after release before even 
starting translations is going to make the situation even worse!
Regards from
Tom :)





----- Original Message ----
From: Jonas Endersch <jonas.endersch at googlemail.com>
To: Benjamin Humphrey <humphreybc at gmail.com>
Cc: Ubuntu Translators <ubuntu-translators at lists.ubuntu.com>; ubuntu manual 
<ubuntu-manual at lists.launchpad.net>
Sent: Sat, 6 November, 2010 18:48:34
Subject: Re: [Ubuntu-manual] Ubuntu Manual Translations

Am 06.11.2010 10:47, schrieb Benjamin Humphrey:
> I think translations must begin only -after- the final english manual 
> has been released, to ensure a full freeze and minimal disturbance and 
> loss of work for the translators. I think it has basically been 
> decided that in future, the manual itself, english or otherwise, will 
> be released at least 2 weeks after the Ubuntu OS release date, because 
> the Ubuntu developers have proven that they cannot enforce the UI 
> freeze and continue adding things up to the last minute, sometimes 
> even after release candidate.
If we could start translating just after the final english release, I 
don't think we will get it in only two weeks. Just remember, we're not 
done with lucid-e2 yet! We could definitely finish the translation 
earlier by starting with partial translations, but in this way, we won't 
get it. You aren't typing the whole manual in just two weeks, too, are you?
> My advice would be to research how important it is that every single 
> manual we release is available in more than one language, we should 
> collect some statistics from the downloads to judge how popular they 
> are and whether it is worth all of our time to go through the process 
> every six months. I think it would be much more beneficial for 
> everyone if we only translated LTS versions of the manual, once every 
> two years. This would leave significant time for translators to work, 
> and while it won't provide the latest and greatest in languages beside 
> English, it would certainly take a lot of strain off a volunteer team 
> lacking the necessary infrastructure for such a mammoth undertaking 
> twice a year.
We definitely should translate every release. It's not the server guide 
we're talking about here, it's the "getting started", fresh users to 
Ubuntu will read this one. They have to get a copy in their own 
language! Of course, this will take some time - so who really wants to 
read it directly in english, should do so. But I think many - especially 
new - users would prefer a localized release.
>
> If we find that people do miss having the newest information available 
> to them every six months in their own language, we could quite easily 
> create change logs for each release as Jonas suggested, which would 
> provide a nice and brief overview of the newest features. This could 
> be small, maybe less than 3 pages, and would be translated within days 
> of the release.
Maybe we won't get it on less than 3 pages (I'm thinking about Unity 
here) ;)
>
> Benjamin Humphrey
Jonas

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