Re: Evolution is out, apparently

[Danilo Segan <danilo gnome org>]

Ole Laursen <olau@hardworking.dk> writes:
>
> Maybe it is because Danish is not near the 80% limit, and maybe it is
> because I have not concerned myself with Evolution as of yet. But
> really! "Officially supported" or not is nothing!

Rare is he who hath thought like thee :)

This is also satisfying (I remember people congratulating Serbian team
when 2.4 was released, who I didn't even know before that), no matter
what drives you -- which means encouraging as well.

> What is important is our users. What they see - what we enable them to
> do. Our translation work is about getting the free software out to
> people. To show them that there is an alternative to Microsoft's and
> Apple's and everyone else's proprietary software.

See, I agree with your motives: I want software to be free, I want to
peruse my freedom with it, and that's the reason of my involvement
with Gnome project (apart from getting mad about Serbian translation
being at less than 2% for more than a year, and not looking like going
forward).  I'm also a programmer, so that's why I value software
freedom even more.

But, not everybody does.  Others are simply making use of this
freedom, and translating Gnome to their language, because that's not
possible with proprietary software.  They value this freedom for this
cause only.  Some may even be willing to use Microsoft's software if
it was available in their language, but it's not (I'm only speculating
here, I don't really know the motives of all the translators, not even
in the Serbian team).

Also, I mentioned one obvious motive -- I didn't say everybody is
driven by it, but that this one is a possibility.

I surely don't have a reason to complain, because Serbian is near 100%
in Gnome CVS, and I may well not update it at all until 2.6 is
released, and it will surely be over 80% (actually, I'm planning on
organizing a QA for Serbian in the string freeze time :P).

> It's about working towards better software. About cooperating and
> doing things for fun. Your work on Evolution may easily be more
> important for end users than your work on the rest of the desktop
> combined.

Of course -- I'm all for it.  That's why I went into to trouble to
implement hiding of languages in the status pages, so we could let
those who're doing translations for the mere fun of it to keep their
translations in CVS.

But lets not mistake and confuse *our* personal motives, with motives
of others.  I have very well observed on this list that there are
people who translate with the goal of having a completely supported
"official" Gnome.  They don't have the time to dedicate to much else.

Even if they do have the time, Evolution release has been postponed
for 3 months, which means that nobody will see those translations
until June.  And instead of getting complete Gnome 2.6, which users
would appreciate much more at this time, they have spent their time
on Evolution, which is not even close to release (read: a lot of
string changes).

So please, lets not disrespect anyone because of their choices, their
ideas, and their motives.  Lets not take a stance where the only
correct way is "my" way, and the only right goal is "my" goal.

> If people feel very bitter about the 80% limit, if it is hampering our
> process, let's get rid of it. It's just a marketing gimmick and it
> doesn't even reflect the end user experience anyway.

Yeah, and it's a "marketing gimmick" which is used for advertising
Gnome as well :)

It's a "marketing gimmick" one is going to use against Gnome (as
recently happened when someone complained about UnitedLinux choosing
Gnome as The Desktop over KDE, for KDE had more support for different
languages).

And it's a "marketing gimmick" I am going to point local reporters at
when they want to help our ideals by running a story about it (which
will probably bring in more helpers as well).

So yeah, damn marketing gimmick it is, and no good ever comes from
that ;)

And once you get to know people around, it's also fun to beat them in
silly ways (like being atop status pages -- hi mitr :).  No, world is
not going to be a better place for that, but I am going to enjoy
translating more that way, when I get poked by him, etc. :)

Cheers,
Danilo