[A12n-forum] FYI: Impi Linux & S. African languages

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following item from Pambazuka re open source software may be of
interest.  Note mention of African language localization (not only for South
Africa) towards the end.   DZO


AFRICA'S FIRST LINUX DESKTOP IMPI LAUNCHED IN SOUTH AFRICA
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=18812

Africa has given birth to her own Linux distribution, Impi Linux, free for
all at the Linux website. It was not an easy birth. Two years and two false
births, Impi Linux was finally born to South Africa's Gauteng Linux Users
Group, www.glug.org.za.

Impi is the Zulu word for 'a group of warriors' and Impi Linux is one with a
host of proven open source software.

There is also a site called OpenOffice that is freely available from
www.openoffice.org. OpenOffice has word processing, spreadsheet and
presentation software, and can open and save files in existing Microsoft
Office formats, along with its own file formats. Impi also has a South
Africa's open source financial application called Cubit.

The current release of Cubit matches the functionality of a proprietary
application such as Accpac -- the financial guys must get the trend.
Like other open source programmes, Cubit is free. It can also be downloaded
from www.cubit.co.za. What is this about Impi Linux when there are a host of
Linuxes around, you may wonder?

"Most developers in the "first world" countries have no idea of the
conditions on our continent. Waiting around for a foreign developer or
company to give us something that we need, merely echoes the legacy of
colonialism. We need to dispose of that mindset," said Ross Addis in an
e-mail interview.

"Impi Linux proves that Africans are capable of being self-determined in the
digital world," he also said. Addis, technology consultant at MIP Holdings,
is chairman of the Gauteng Linux User Group that gave birth to Impi Linux.

He said Impi is as good as any other Linux system, even better. Impi comes
with the Linux tradition of stability and being less prone to virus attacks.

"Sure a few [viruses] have been written, but they haven't really made any
impact. Linux systems are normally more secure that other OSes and because
of the diverse nature of the distributions, desktop interfaces and packages,
it would be very difficult for a virus to infect all Linux systems," Addis
added.

Another unique feature of Impi Linux is that it will eventually have
translations of South Africa's 11 official languages. But Ugandans and other
Africans should not lose hope. Impi Linux is about choice. Get a free
download from www.impi.org.za and modify it to suit you. So, is there hope
for a version in Luganda or Swahili? "Of course. We will also be looking at
adding the various African languages," he said.

"Where possible, we will try to involve the local academic and IT
communities in implementing their language in Impi Linux," Addis also said.
And that is the spirit of open source software development -- a community of
developers working for the good of all.
(source:New Vision)
2003-12-04