Kilinux Explained

Kilinux (klnX), the Open Swahili Localization Project, is a project by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), and IT+46^[1] for localizing major applications to the Swahili language.

It is based in Tanzania and run on Linux, and aims to create an operating system in Swahili, which is spoken by an estimated 100 million people. The project was started as a joint effort between the University of Dar es Salaam and Swedish company IT +46.

Background

Swahili is a Bantu language spoken by about 100 million people in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and other areas in or near the African Great Lakes region. Most users are using Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, but since that is not available in Swahili,^[2] they have to use English or French.^[3] Kilinux tried to reduce the threshold by localizing Open Office.^[4] In June 2004 Microsoft announced a Swahili version of Windows.^{[5] [6]}

History

The Kilinux project began in 2003 with the development of a glossary and a spell checker for OpenOffice.org.

The Kilinux Project received an award in May 2006 as the best ICT project in the category education of the 2006 Stockholm challenge.^{[7] [8] [9]}

Swahili IT Glossary

In October 2004 Kilinux released a Swahili IT Glossary^[10] under the Creative Commons ShareAlike license containing over 1500 "computer related terms in English and their Swahili equivalents",^[11] because the Swahili language did not contain any computer terminology.

Jambo OpenOffice

The first major release by the project — Jambo OpenOffice (Hello OpenOffice^[3]) — was a localised version of OpenOffice.org, an open source office suite, and was aimed primarily at schools and colleges.

Jambo Firefox

On 15 June 2006 the project announced they had localised the web browser Mozilla Firefox.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20090225090659/http://www.o.ne.tz/pressrelease_en.php. 25 February 2009. Because it could be done, we play our part! Swahili Free and Open Source Software.. 30 December 2011. 4 December 2004.
2. News: OpenOffice.org goes Swahili. Ingrid. Marson. ZDNet. 6 December 2004. 30 December 2011.
3. Web site: 1 January 2012. BBC. L'Afrique dit "Jambo" aux logiciels libres. French. 15 December 2004.
4. 1753-6839. Pambazuka News. East Africa: Kilinux OSS Innovation Propels ICT localization in Ki-Swahili. Aloyce. Menda. 17 March 2005. 198. 6 January 2011.
5. Web site: BBC. 'Jambo' to open source software. 1 January 2012. 9 December 2004.
6. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20080611211054/http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2418/050201africa/. 11 June 2008. 2 January 2012. Microsoft bets on Africa's IT future. 2 January 2005. IDG News Service.
7. Web site: Kilinux . 2 January 2011 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120425030956/http://www.stockholmchallenge.org/project/data/kilinux . 25 April 2012 .
8. Web site: Winners Stockholm Challenge 2006. Kilinux. 2 January 2011. Ulrick. Mkenda. 15 May 2006. dead. https://archive.today/20120804044522/http://www.kilinux.udsm.ac.tz/kiblog/archives/permalinks/2006-05-15T15_50_46.html. 4 August 2012.
9. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20060925125152/http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=1005. 2 January 2012. 25 September 2006. African localisation wins at Stockholm. Richard. Frank. 24 May 2006. tectonic.co.za.
10. Web site: IT46. Swahili IT Glossary. 14 September 2016. IT46. 2004.
11. Web site: Ethan Zuckerman . Jambo OpenOffice . 2 January 2012 . Ethan . Zuckerman . 3 March 2005 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110525164847/http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002262.html . 25 May 2011 .
12. Web site: The Kiswahili Linux Localization Project: Jambo Mozilla Firefox Ready for Download . 2006-08-14 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070312093257/http://www.kilinux.udsm.ac.tz/kiblog/archives/permalinks/2006-06-15T16_23_10.html . 2007-03-12 .