[Mageia-discuss] Contributing Howto : need help

Thu Feb 10 08:12:16 CET 2011

Hoyt Duff <hoytduff at gmail.com> schrieb am 2011-02-10
+> The initial paragraph translates as:
+> Mandriva Linux is a free operating system.
+> ...
+> To me, this does not fully explain the use of "free" in the context
+> of Mandriva/Magia. This topic (free as in beer/free as in freedom)
+> is always one of much debate in any FOSS community.  I propose:
+> 
+> Mandriva Linux is an operating system based primarily on Open
+> Source code and licensed in a way to provide users and developers
+> with greater freedom than proprietary, restricted code.  It can be
+> modified and improved by its users and members of the community of
+> this system. The spirit of this system is summarized in a
+> manifesto.
+I think that's a problem you get through the translation. I'm quite 
+sure Thomas used the french word "libre" which doesn't have the 
+distinction in "free as in beer/free as in freedom".
+I'm afraid it's only in English and German where you do have that 
+double meaning. As far as I know, the french word "libre" can be 
+translated in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese in the same way without 
+getting any double meaning.
+
+Your workarround isn't reading that nicely. It shows that you were 
+trying to work arround something.
+I think it's the job of the different translation teams (and we do have 
+an English team) to find the right words to describe what they really 
+mean.
+Perhaps - in English - it would be better to say:
+
+Mandriva Linux is a free and open source operating system. It can be 
+freely modified and improved by its users and members of the community 
+of this system.
+
+After all the "Free Software Foundation" doesn't call itself 
+"Foundation for Software licensed in a way to..."
+
+Oliver
+