LRC 2004
Open Source Localisation

 Conference
22 September 2004

Pre-conference Workshops
21 September 2004

The theme of the 9^th Annual LRC Conference is open-source localisation. The use of open-source software is becoming increasingly popular, particularly in developing countries. In fact, in many places including China, South Korea, India and Brazil, governments are actively encouraging its use since, unlike proprietary software, it permits users to examine, change and freely redistribute its fundamental programming instructions.

The open-source approach is appealing in many ways. Employing open-source software can cut costs, dispel security concerns and also prevent companies from becoming too dependent on a foreign supplier. There is however another huge benefit: because it can be freely customised and tailored to suit specific needs, open-source software is also easier to localise for use in a particular language or culture.  

According to an article published in the Economist on 4th Dec 2003, “The leading desktop interfaces for the open-source Linux operating system—KDE and GNOME—are, between them, available in more than twice as many languages as Windows. KDE has already been localised for 42 languages, with a further 46 in the pipeline. Similarly, Mozilla, an open-source web browser, now speaks 65 languages, with 34 more to follow. OpenOffice, the leading open-source office suite, is available in 31 languages, including Slovenian, Basque and Galician and Indian languages such as Gujarati, Devanagari, Kannada and Malayalam. And another 44 languages including Icelandic, Lao, Latvian, Welsh and Yiddish are on the way. ”