ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Jonas Endersch <jonas.endersch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Am 06.11.2010 10:47, schrieb Benjamin Humphrey:
> I think translations must begin only -after- the final english manual 
> has been released, to ensure a full freeze and minimal disturbance and 
> loss of work for the translators. I think it has basically been 
> decided that in future, the manual itself, english or otherwise, will 
> be released at least 2 weeks after the Ubuntu OS release date, because 
> the Ubuntu developers have proven that they cannot enforce the UI 
> freeze and continue adding things up to the last minute, sometimes 
> even after release candidate.
If we could start translating just after the final english release, I 
don't think we will get it in only two weeks. Just remember, we're not 
done with lucid-e2 yet! We could definitely finish the translation 
earlier by starting with partial translations, but in this way, we won't 
get it. You aren't typing the whole manual in just two weeks, too, are you?
> My advice would be to research how important it is that every single 
> manual we release is available in more than one language, we should 
> collect some statistics from the downloads to judge how popular they 
> are and whether it is worth all of our time to go through the process 
> every six months. I think it would be much more beneficial for 
> everyone if we only translated LTS versions of the manual, once every 
> two years. This would leave significant time for translators to work, 
> and while it won't provide the latest and greatest in languages beside 
> English, it would certainly take a lot of strain off a volunteer team 
> lacking the necessary infrastructure for such a mammoth undertaking 
> twice a year.
We definitely should translate every release. It's not the server guide 
we're talking about here, it's the "getting started", fresh users to 
Ubuntu will read this one. They have to get a copy in their own 
language! Of course, this will take some time - so who really wants to 
read it directly in english, should do so. But I think many - especially 
new - users would prefer a localized release.
> If we find that people do miss having the newest information available 
> to them every six months in their own language, we could quite easily 
> create change logs for each release as Jonas suggested, which would 
> provide a nice and brief overview of the newest features. This could 
> be small, maybe less than 3 pages, and would be translated within days 
> of the release.
Maybe we won't get it on less than 3 pages (I'm thinking about Unity 
here) ;)
> Benjamin Humphrey
Jonas