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Phone translations policy proposal

This is a policy proposal for the Ubuntu Translations team, as being discussed on the Ubuntu Translators mailing list . Your input as an Ubuntu Translator to the discussion on the mailing list will be welcome, or you can choose to add comments to the Discussion and comments section below.

Rationale

As with other form factors, the Ubuntu phone is released as an open source OS. Ubuntu for phones can either be downloaded and installed on supported hardware for free, or a retail device with Ubuntu preinstalled can be purchased.

Oftentimes the release timeline of Ubuntu for retail handsets does not align with the 6 month cadence of the public release, yet we want to ensure commercial devices are well translated. We strive to strike a balance that caters to the regular community contributions, does not put a strain on volunteers that commit their time to translate Ubuntu, and at the same time permits Canonical to deliver a fully translated OS for the target languages specified by manufacturers.

Proposal

• As part of the Ubuntu phone release process, Ubuntu Translators will continue to translate the OS and be given enough notice to do their work for the public releases.
• There is an understanding that for commercial project releases deadlines will generally not be made public.
• In those cases where there is a contractual obligation to release a set of languages with 100% coverage and either Ubuntu Translators have stated they do not have the time to complete them, or there is a critical deadline, translations will be outsourced to a translation agency.
• For any open source (or open-sourced) components which have been completed with outsourced translations to meet a contractual deadline, these translations will be made available to Ubuntu Translators after they have been integrated. Ubuntu Translators will be able to modify them as they require to be consistent with their translation guidelines.

Discussion and comments

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