NEWS BRIEFS

San Jose, CA — The Linux Internationalization Initiative (Li18nux) announced the general availability of the LI18NUX2000, Globalization Specification. Those who are interested can obtain this specification from the following: http://www.li18nux.net .

The LI18NUX2000 specification includes the best of globalization functionality that commercial UNIX systems have successfully implemented and compliments the functionality with extensions that will make Linux Internationalization comprehensive for all national and local requirements. By conforming to the LI18NUX2000 specification, application programmers will benefit from UNICODE-based multi-lingual capabilities in a portable manner across Linux distributions and UNIX systems.

“The members of Li18nux including all the major Linux distributors are very active in developing globalized Linux distributions that conform with the LI18NUX2000 specification,” said Akio Kido, co-chairperson of Li18nux. “I hope that a Global Linux distribution which supports multiple languages simultaneously will be available before the end of Q4 2000.”

Preparation of the LI18NUX2000 Certification Program has been underway to assure LI18NUX2000 conformity of various Linux distributions. The actual certification program is expected to start at Q4 of this year.

These projects at the Li18nux are strongly supported by the following member organizations:

Compaq Computer

Conectiva Linux

Digital Factory and Kondara Project

Fujitsu Limited

Hitachi, Ltd.

IBM Corporation Japan PPC Linux Users Group(JPLUG)

Legend Computer Systems Limited

Miracle Linux Corporation

Red Hat, Inc.

SGI

SuSE Linux AG.

TurboLinux, Inc.

VA Linux Systems, Inc.

Li18nux is a project under Free Standards Group. The members of the project consist of Linux and Open Source related contributors who are working on Globalization, a combination of Internationalization and Localization. The project was formed in August 1999. The ultimate goal of the project is to achieve software/application portability and interoperability in the International context for Linux and other open source projects. Its activities are focused on the internationalization of a core set of APIs and components of Linux distributions to achieve a common Linux environment. This will allow an internationalized Linux application to be executed regardless of different flavor of distributions used. The results of the working group will be open to everyone.

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