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Bhutan's
Culture: Dzongkha |
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Bhutan Information |
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Dzongkha
Debain Linux: Made for Bhutanese |
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| Bhutanese
can soon chat, send-email, and surf the internet in Dzongkha.
The
department of information and technology has come up with an operating
system called the Dzongkha Debain Linux, an updated version of the Dzongka
Linux developed in June 2006. The Dzongkha Debain Linux, which was launched
on 28 August 2007, according to DIT officials, can be installed in any
type of computers or can be used with a Live CD.
"The
Dzongkha Linux was not compatible with most computers, so the operating
system has been updated and made stable," said head developer of the Dzongkha
Debain Linux, Pema Geley.
With
the plan to incorporate Dzongkha unicode into Microsoft Vista becoming
a lost case, the Dzongkha Linux has come
as a much cheaper and more advanced software for Dzongkha computing. |
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| According
to Pema Geley, the launch of the Dzongkha Linux marks Bhutan's move towards
free and open source software. "Linux is a free operating system and
we customised the Debain Linux according to the need of our Dzongkha users,"
he said. "Since Debain Linux is recognised worldwide, we encourage people
to use it." |
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The
updated version will fully support Dzongkha computing on standard programs
or applications like word processing, spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations,
web browsing and chatting. Officials said that Dzongkha Linux also
has provision to use Dzongkha in graphics software like Adobe Photoshop,
and multimedia applications.
Developed
over a period of 13 months and at about US$ 80,000, the upgraded version
has also dual booting system. "It can coexist
with both Mac or Windows operating systems,"
said Pema Geley. "It's a bilingual software, meaning that it supports
both English and Dzongkha language."
According
to officials, the operating system has no specific target users, but all
the applications that are used in day to day computing were made compatible.
"We can also develop the operating system to be compatible with existing
publishing softwares for publishing companies on Dzongkha Debain Linux if people want," said Pema Geley.
Pema
Geley said that DIT reused what the Dzongkha Development Authority and
the Orient Foundation developed to integrate Dzongkha Unicode system in Microsoft
Vista in developing the Dzongkha Debain Linux. For instance, Dzongka
Linux used keyboard specification developed by DDA for Microsoft Windows.
Meanwhile,
DIT is aiming to develop software like Text to Speech, Speech Recognition
system, and Optical Character Recognition system on Dzongkha Debain Linux
in the second phase. Text to Speech programme will read out text from the
screen in Dzongkha. "This will be of big use to people, who cannot read
or write," he said. The Speech Recognition system will make the computer
type any dictation. "We have the capacity and are confident of doing it,"
said Pema Geley.
DIT
has also released a 222-paged book on dzongkha computer terms. Officials
said that they will also conduct a training for interested people. Meanwhie,
the software will be posted on www.druknet.bt soon and can be downloaded for free. Live CDs are available at DIT.
| Contributed
by Ugyen Penjore, Kuensel 2007 |
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