Hello,
There's been a little change in about.en.xhtml file, which I spotted while updating my translation of it:
"Documents that aren't free are locked to some particular product or company."
has been changed to
"Documents that aren't free are locked to some particular software or company."
The commit messages says: software is not product
(r1985 | guest-marado | 2013-03-15 13:42:21 +0200 (Fri, 15 Mar 2013) | 2 lines )
It sounds to me as a bit of diverting readers' attention from the real direction here: proprietary software vendors. That's why I'd like to ask the opinion of the more experienced. On IRC we had a little chat with two of the colleagues there, and their opinions vary.
My understanding is that the section deals with software which lock freedom. Those are, almost all, products of certain companies. So stating that those are "products", goes along our efforts to point to the fact that those are intended to be how they are, proprietary, intended to lock users.
"Software" is the big bag for all kind of them, while our intention are the proprietary ones. So, at least, it should be stated that they're proprietary, if going back to "product" is not agreed upon.
"Software product" was proposed as an alternative by nicooo.
I'd like to hear your opinions before updating my translation.
Best, Besnik
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On 23/03/13 20:01, Besnik Bleta wrote:
I'd like to hear your opinions before updating my translation.
Thanks for your attention to detail!
In my view, whether "product" or "software" is used is not especially important here - "product" is an extremely broad term: "products" are not only created by companies, and not only for profit. Proprietary apps can be projects or products, and so can Free Software apps.
I agree that most user-restricting apps in this context are "products" created by companies, but not all. However we need not make a clear distinction - the clarity of the message is unaffected in English whichever term we use, and I see no benefit in being hyper specific.
If the choice of term in this case would have a significant impact on the meaning of the sentence in your language / translation, then I recommend you choose whatever is most clear and least restrictive in meaning.
Many thanks for your translation,
Sam.
PS This thread is probably most relevant to the translators@ mailing list, so I've put it in CC. - -- Sam Tuke Campaign Manager Free Software Foundation Europe IM : samtuke@jabber.fsfe.org Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org