VIA releases open source Xorg driver [LWN.net]

VIA releases open source Xorg driver

Posted Aug 30, 2008 11:38 UTC (Sat) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501)
In reply to: VIA releases open source Xorg driver by JoeBuck
Parent article: VIA releases open source Xorg driver

But then again, the variables and comments in the code of the kernel, xorg and such are English. Don't those porgrammers neer to check the source of the larger programs that they write for?

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VIA releases open source Xorg driver

Posted Aug 30, 2008 15:02 UTC (Sat) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

Sometimes, yes but people can manage without understanding all of it. When Staroffice was released under a free software license, it used to have lots of comments in German and it probably still has but despite that people have managed to understand the code and contribute improvements. The situation for non English speakers is comparable. Also, for many of them, they do understand English to some extend but they are not comfortable speaking in a public forum which is going to be archived pretty much forever.

VIA releases open source Xorg driver

Posted Aug 30, 2008 19:19 UTC (Sat) by salimma (subscriber, #34460) [Link]

Would it not be the same with proprietary software -- the SDKs and documentation will mostly be in English?

VIA releases open source Xorg driver

Posted Aug 31, 2008 2:47 UTC (Sun) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

This is by no means a open source specific issue however proprietary software organizations might be able to buffer it by moving people between sites and there is less of a cultural shock and fear associated with the whole process. The local education system also plays a important role here

VIA releases open source Xorg driver

Posted Sep 1, 2008 8:05 UTC (Mon) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]

Speaking of Microsoft, most of their books are (well) translated to other languages (Spanish here). Also, all of the online documentation is automatically (crappy) translated. This reduces the entrance barrier for new developers considerably.

Regarding English, the distance from being able to read to being able to express yourself is considerable. I haven't been to Taiwan, but in mainland China the percentage of people that can read English is very small.