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Open Source Software for Translators
The translation community has long had a need for free and open source software. Translators are heavy users of computers, and consequently are expected to keep up with changes in computer software and hardware, which involves spending considerable amounts of money for software (in addition to reference works, etc.). This fact, taken together with the modest incomes earned by most translators, provides strong motivation to reduce the costs of software.
Many translators may not even be aware that an alternative has been available for over a decade: Linux. In its early days, Linux was not extremely user-friendly, and it developed a reputation (well-deserved at the time) of being suitable only for masochistic computer geeks, who might forgo drinking beer to "recompile the kernel" (although I can vouch for the fact that they are not mutually exclusive activities). Unfortunately, Linux has kept this reputation, even though it has become much more user-friendly.
Other obstacles have been compatibility with customers' computer systems, which are almost invariably proprietary desktop systems. By and large, these have been overcome. The only serious obstacle remaining is that most of the major vendors of translation tools are married to proprietary desktop systems. However, the limitations of these products and the emergence of Linux-based translation tools such as OmegaT and Wordfast leaves room for hope that these obstacles will be overcome in the near future.
Articles on Open Source topics by Thomas Hedden
Configuring the AirLink 101 APSUSB2 Print Server on Linux
Running X Applications as Root in Linux
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on Linux/Unix
Installing
and Launching the Heartsome translation suite on Linux
External links on Open Source and Linux topics
Free development tools for Linux
Red Hat's statement on Open Source
O'Reilly (publisher)'s collected quotes on Open Source
NSA Opts High-Security Linux Over Windows NT/2000 article.
Novell and Dell's use of Linux.