OpenSource Software

The last decade has seen a phenomenon that in the preceding one would have been though as impossible. A community of volunteer computer scientists has put together and maintains computer operating systems, advanced user interfaces and a number of applications that compete in quality, appearance and robustness with some of the most developed proprietary (owned by one company) operating systems (such as Microsoft Windows). All this software grouped under the name of OpenSource Software- is in the public domain and can be used or translated by anybody, without having to pay any licenses.

OpenSource Software is also referred to as Free Software, not only because it does not have license costs, but also because it can be modified, translated, improved or distributed by anybody who needs to do so (freedom of modification and distribution).

The most popular OpenSource operating system is called Linux. At this time, more than 60% of the world's Internet servers use the Linux free operating system and other OpenSource free tools.

Large computer companies such as IBM, Novell or Sun Microsystems support the OpenSource model and develop OpenSource software. They consider that it is positive for their business.

OpenSource software included in releases follows strict control rules similar to those of proprietary releases, and is tested by large amounts of volunteer computer scientists.

A larger and larger number of European national and local administrations have developed or are developing policies to use OpenSource software instead of proprietary systems and tools. Japan, China and Korea has recently signed an agreement to develop a full system that will facilitate developments in these languages that use pictograms. The United Nations Development Program is actively promoting the use of OpenSource software in the Asia/Pacific region, as well as coordinating development efforts.

In the OpenSource model, in spite of the fact that the system and many applications are free, any development done by a development company for a customer is governed by the contract between those two parties, and not considered free software unless whoever has the rights to the software decides to put it in the public domain.

Available OpenSource software includes most of  the applications that are traditionally used by computer end-users:

• Office applications similar in aspect and usability to those included in Microsoft Office, and fully compatible with them. Word processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation Tools and database management tools.

• Internet navigation, e-mail, chat, web development, instant messaging and other Internet related applications.

•  Multimedia applications (music and video). Image and photo Editing.

• Utilities (such as calculator, games, etc).

Some OpenSource user interfaces and applications are now being translated into different languages, including Indic languages such as some Hindi or Tamil or languages such as Thai- that use complex Indic scripts similar to Khmer script. There already exist systems that can be used to facilitate implementation of Khmer script, but such implementation did not yet exist a few months ago... but now some people are now actively working on it, with very good results. Please see our status and project news pages.

Unicode

Global communications, as with the Internet, require that computers in all countries and languages be compatible in recognizing the language in which a specific text is written. In order to implement this compatibility, a standard called Unicode is being developed. Unicode is a character identification system that attempts to include all the characters of all the languages of the world that have a writing system.

The tendency is that all the operating systems will start using Unicode-based fonts and phase out old fonts that do not use this standard.

Khmer has already been included in Unicode.

Khmer Fonts

Computer fonts for the Khmer language have existed now for almost 15 years. They were not developed using Unicode, as Khmer Unicode did not exist at the time. These fonts are now being widely used for word processing as well as for newspaper and magazine typesetting. Keyboards for these fonts exist and are used.

Unicode not only establishes which code is assigned to each letter of the Khmer alphabet, but also specifies in which order they are typed, which changes from the prior systems. In handwriting and with non-standard fonts, Khmer was typed from left to right, in the same order that characters are printed. With Unicode, Khmer is typed in the order that letters are pronounced (different), which requires an "intelligent behavior" from the system or word processor.

New font formats (OpenType, ATT) permit the coding of this "intelligent behavior" inside the fonts, allowing them to be used in standard systems, without having to develop much specific code for them.

A standard (developed by Microsoft) and some OpenType fonts for Khmer already exist, codifying all the necessary information. Most of these fonts are proprietary. The KhmerOS initiative has already produced and placed in the public domain a full Unicode OpenType font family, in order to allow for the development of OpenSource software that interprets Khmer fonts. It has also created a font specifically used for application translation (hinted and using little vertical space) and a handwriting font. Other fonts are being developed and announced by other manufacturer. See the download page for more information.

There is not yet a standard keyboard for typing Unicode-based Khmer.

Translation

As English is used as the working language by computer scientists in Cambodia, when the project started there was no glossary of computer terms used in Khmer. Many of the terms did not exist in Khmer and were borrowed from English, but many other terms needed to be translated to help Khmer end-users understand the concepts faster.

The KhmerOS coordination office developed a Glossary that is now being used by the translators for all programs, documentation and training modules. It can be found in our download page.

There exist training modules in English for some of the programs included in this system (specially office programs), which could be translated. There also exist training modules in Khmer for Microsoft Office programs, opening the way to facilitate translation of applications, manuals and training modules.

Page Last Updated: Friday, 22 October 2004

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