[ Thanks to Sam Hiser
for this link. ]
“Its popularity is growing around the world, but open-source
software has particular appeal in developing countries. In China,
South Korea, India, Brazil and other countries, governments are
promoting the use of such software which, unlike the proprietary
kind, allows users to inspect, modify and freely redistribute its
underlying programming instructions. The open-source approach has a
number of attractions. Adopting open-source software can reduce
costs, allay security concerns and ensure there is no danger of
becoming too dependent on a foreign supplier. But there is another
benefit, too: because it can be freely modified, open-source
software is also easier to translate, or localise, for use in a
particular language. This involves translating the menus, dialogue
boxes, help files, templates and message strings to create a new
version of the software.“Large software vendors have little incentive to support any but
the most widely spoken languages. Microsoft, for example, provides
its Windows 2000 operating system in 24 languages, and Windows XP
in 33. The company also supports over 20 languages in the latest
version of its Office software suite. Yet for many languages,
commercial vendors conclude that producing a localised product is
not economically viable…”