On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 11:09 PM, A Kannan. (CUSAT) forukannan@yahoo.com wrote: <snip>
Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did this When fund got exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another initiative when the government changes.
</snip>
Dear Kannan,
I dont know about your mafia theory . But Why you are taking the credit of malayalam Localization from Free Software Community in Kerala. Swathanthra Malayalam Computing Initiated by Baiju M in 2001 did most of the Localisation of GNU/Linux desktops. In between some projects like Keltron project you pointed & UNDP supported Project through K-BIP also contributed to Localisation of GNU/Linux desktops. Still Swathanthra Malayalam Computing(SMC) is the biggest Free software developer Community in Kerala, with representations from all sectors of society. SMC is completly working in a peer model and not accepted any money yet from any agency for its work. Your Ignorance about Free Software Community initiatives is ok.. But dont attribute the work of free software community to Govt agencies & NGOs
If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial software company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the code developed is GPL , the task might have been over in a very short time. The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually die.
Ho.. Tenders for Localisation with a condition "code developed is GPL"
Great!!
All Free Software Projects are not in same license. If there is tender like this. malayalam localisation may be died long back. And Localisation is not a Fixed time task to be completed on time. There is no finishing point for localisation work. Localisation is a continuous cultural process. Those who are in a project/money mode thinking cant understand it.
Do you know malayalam is officially supported now in Gnome (2.16 onwards) and in KDE(4.1 onwards) At least 2 distros (Debian and Fedora) can be fully installable in Malayalam now SMC is popularised the user to producer model of free software in kerala
Ignorance is fine. But dont make it as a Power to tarnish the work of Free Software Communities
Anivar Aravind