Free Software in your Native Language! - Software Localisation and Internationalisation

Most of the software out there is written in English. Proprietary Software Companies tend to have dedicated language teams that translate software from English to local Indian languages but in the world of Free Software it's entirely volunteer driven and there are not many volunteers at this moment to accomplish this task.

Localising software to Indian languages gives Free Software developers a chance to reach out to a wider Indian userbase and aid us in reaching out to the masses who are not well versed in English but such a mammoth task requires a lot of coordination.

Localisation is one of the most non-programmer friendly ways to onboard new contributors as translation can be done on any platform even on MacOS and Windows and it usually doesn't need any knowledge of programming,.

This talk introduces everything about localisation of Free Software in Debian and other projects down from the basics to the method of contributing your first translation.

Participants attending this talk will learn the following:

• Basics of Localisation and Internationalisation

• Current translation status of Free Software into local Indian languages

• Learn how to use PO files and PO file editing software

• Learn how to contribute your first translation