Sneak Peek of Nepali Support In Ubuntu 16.04

Mark Shuttleworth, owner of Canonical Ltd., the developers of Ubuntu announced on 21 October 2015 that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be released on 21 April, 2016. He announced that it will be called Xenial Xerus. This came as good news for all the Ubuntu users all over the world, including the ones in Nepal. In addition to that, there is one more good news as a fully localized Ubuntu 16.04 will be released at around the same time as revealed by Shuttleworth.

Ubuntu 15.10 is available in Nepali Language but 16.04 will be the first fully localized version. The localization process is being made possible by Ubuntu Nepali Language Localization Team which started this campaign “Let’s gift all Nepalese a fully localized Ubuntu in 2073“. The group is managed by Mr. Saroj Dhakal. The group has around 110 dedicated active members.

When asked about the goals of this group, Mr. Saroj said that, the team wanted to gift fully localized open source OS as a New Year gift for all the Nepalese. In addition to that, he added that this localized version will be helpful for the people who are comfortable with only Nepali Language. He stated that 20-25 e-libraries in the rural areas of Nepal can certainly benefit from this localized OS. This will also be a big positive step for our national language’s involvement in the digital world. He was glad to inform that the localization process is going well and in the right direction with about 80% of the job completed.

Mr. Saroj explained that the localization process can be done both online and offline using tools like POedit and Rosetta. He said that the localized version will be similar to the English edition of Ubuntu 16.04 and the user will be able to switch UI language in the Language Support section of the settings or choose preferred language at the time of the installation.

He was very proud of his team members who, despite their busy schedule, connectivity issues and power cuts and took part in this campaign by making an Open OS Available to all Nepalese in their own language. This is a selfless act toward the national language and its identity and anyone can participate in this. Mr. Saroj was very welcoming of any volunteers who can add to the current 110 participants to this campaign.

Here is the sneak peek of Nepali Ubuntu 16.04, have a watch: