Re: [gnome-cy] Linux and Welsh Windows

[Dewi Jones <Dewi Jones gwelywiwr org>]

Ffiw, yesterday was a frantic day. Relieved that the 'catching up' angle got into the press rather than blind praise to Microsoft.

Pushing the human stories could be used to raise awareness and general interest. I would prefer however that the press would find news on significant releases or big developments like some schools / county councils beginning to make use of free Welsh software or deciding that they're rejecting Microsoft for various reasons including Welsh language support be more newsworthy.

The Welsh windows announcement has raised the stakes. There's a risk that people will take up and stick with the Welsh language versions of Windows which will not be in the best long term interest of the Welsh language, the software industry in Wales nor for the budgets of our schools and our tax money.

So I am more certain now of the need for a Welsh Live CD. Not just for demo purposes but as the easiest alternative for current Windows users to use, and not just XP users, but also Windows 98 and 2000 (which the pack doesn't support). And I feel that a race is now on. For it to succeed, get the press coverage we'd like, maintain the perception Welsh open source software being ahead and ultimately better serve the language, the Welsh Live CD has to be the 'first to market' and come out before Welsh Windows. We don't know what Microsoft's timetable is but I would hope, despite all the work there is that a LiveCD could be ready in June/July.(?)

Being able to take up and be able to get into using a Welsh desktop environment HAS to be easy. There's nothing simpler than sticking in a CD into the PC and hey presto you've got a bilingual environment. (fyi I� went through today through the Welsh installation of Mandrake 9.2 on a machine that used to have win98 but unfortunately despite choosing Gnome to get a Welsh desktop, I ended up with KDE in English. I've no idea of why or where I went wrong - resorce limitations(?))

The Live CD would have to do everything and anything Welsh Windows would do - (spell checkers and Cysill. (Cysill for linux is my own opinion and not (yet) Canolfan Bedwyr policy - we haven't got Cysill/Cysgair running natively in Linux. It will with some tweaks in Wine however as we've just recently discovered) so nobody looses out by opting to a free desktop.

It also has to do more than a Welsh Windows - i.e. it has to be bi-lingual.

When we're sure of the ability to carry it off, it would be newsworthy perhaps to announce who might sponsor financially the CD productions or who might have an interest in using the CD (e.g schools)

Bwrdd Yr Iaith might have an interest. I really think that after yesterday BYI should at least from now on give equal attention and publicity to free Welsh software (Linux,Gnome+KDE, OOo and Mozilla) as it did to Microsoft. I suppose the problem with our community is that were not as big as an American corporate who can't give BYI as much of an ego boost.

Anyway! sorry Kevin I didn't reply to your invitation to a meeting sooner, but I've been playing with Knoppix and PC Linux OS and Mandrake Move CDs.� But of course let's meet up.

Hwyl,
Dewi.


Ysgrifennodd Kevin Donnelly:

(I'm posting this to the new cy list, since that's where non-GNOME stuff 
should go now, but I'm also copying it to the gnome-cy list, just in case 
there are some on it who haven't signed up to the cy list yet - if you are 
also interested in non-GNOME translation stuff, sign up now ...)

The press release I sent out yesterday has been taken up by the Western Mail 
and the Daily Post (although I haven't seen the latter yet).  The WM has 
about half a page given over to it, although the headline ("Microsoft logging 
on to Welsh") is a bit misleading, since the reporter has in fact put in a 
lot of good stuff about Linux.  There are a few errors, but he's done a 
pretty amazing job, considering I only spoke to him for about half an hour, 
and this was probably the first time he'd heard much about Linux.  I 
especially like the caption to the photo: "Microsoft is catching up with its 
smaller rival, the Linux operating system used by Welsh-speakers such as the 
Donnelly family".  This "catch-up" point also comes up in a couple of other 
places, eg when he makes the points about Nynorsk and Catalan.

I tried in the interview to emphasise the community nature of Linux, and he 
has put a good bit of that in (though he has missed out Owain's name, which I 
gave as an example, and I hope my memory served me right when I said you were 
in Reading, Owain :-), but he was also very focussed on the "human interest" 
side, hence the photo and the info about Steffan.  There was also what seems 
to be a standard request for a few examples of Welsh computerese.  There is 
one surprisingly limp quote from MS, and a small box with the WLB 
announcement.  Interestingly, the box says that MS and the WLB have been 
planning the Welsh version since September 2003.  That would be after the OOo 
demo at the Eisteddfod, and the Golwg article .....  hmmm.

This is a much better article than the Golwg one, but it makes me wonder if we 
shouldn't be trying to push the "human interest" angle a bit more if we want 
to get column inches.  For instance, people outside Wales but still with a 
commitment to helping the language (Owain, Dafydd, others?).  Or David Chan, 
in Birmingham and with a name suggesting ancestry from farther away than 
Pwllheli, helping to create Welsh software.  Or a school class using Scribus 
for their class project.  Or one of the Cardiff schools finding some benefit 
to using Linux on their servers.  There must by now be a few good angles we 
can try.

I know most people here are probably more interested in the "how", but there's 
no point in a great how if there's no "when" (ie people using the how).  So 
we need a few good "whats", and we need to make a serious push on this over 
the next 6 months, before the Windows thing appears.  If anyone is interested 
in this "public relations/marketing" aspect, PLEASE let's try and get 
something going on a formal basis.

  

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