Is linux in fewer languages than M$?

On 21 May 2003, Carl Parrish wrote:

> would support more languages than a major open source project. does
> anyone know how many languages Linux support vs. M$?

It's hard to judge. I have spent the last eight months building a complete
distribution from source. (In my case, I see the files, but I don't have
the knowledge to test.)

Many different components of a complete Linux OS (which some want to call
GNU/Linux) have varying amounts of different language (and/or character)
support.

Only a few essential projects have a good range of i18n support. Also,
most of the projects are maintained by different developers. And they
don't have the time or knowledge to add different language support. Often
support for other languages is out-of-date (like old man pages or phrases
not kept in sync with the new software).

Plus, there are several different methods for providing the NLS
(Native/National/Natural Language Support), locales, or i18n
(internationalization), like gencat(1)/catgets(3), GNU gettext, Citrus,
and many others.

It makes it hard to have a complete OS with complete language support,
with so many varying parts.

Jeremy C. Reed
http://bsd.reedmedia.net/