Hi all, I'm reaching out to you to discuss a proposal for a policy to codify how translations are delivered for phone projects. To give you some context, the phone is a bit challenging in terms of release cadence and translations. While we do have a release cycle for the public images you can install on supported hardware, most users will buy a phone with Ubuntu preinstalled, the release cycle of which is often not aligned to the public release. And generally manufacturers are not keen on sharing a release date to the public.
>From the feedback on the list, this has caused uncertainty with translations deadlines. While I've tried to send regular calls for translations myself on a best effort basis, I've not been able to share any dates for commercial releases, other than "soon". The other challenge is that phones from some manufacturers, in order to provide differentiation and added value might contain components which are not open source. An example in the bq phone are the Today and NearBy scopes. Even if they are not visible to translators, these private components still need to be translated as per the agreement with the manufacturer, and in these cases, the practice has been to outsource localization to a translations agency. These private components often come with tight deadlines, and this is the procedure we've been following in order to have them completed in time without putting a strain to volunteer contributors. Furthermore, some translation teams might not be keen on translating closed-source components. However, we do strive to publish fully open source code even in those cases, and a good example is again the Today and some other of the bq scopes, the public release of which we're about to announce. In these cases, in the same way we do with the code, translations are also open-sourced so that they can be modified or completed by translators. This policy proposal is actually not much of a change. It is an attempt to be transparent about the procedure by putting it in writing along with the rest of the Ubuntu translation policies [1], to have an open discussion and gather input from translators, to address any thoughts or concerns, and come up with the final version. Without further ado, here it is - your feedback and input will be greatly appreciated: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/KnowledgeBase/PhoneTranslations Thanks! Cheers, David. P.S. Coupled with this, there is an ongoing discussion on a string freeze policy for the phone, which I hope I can share here too soon. [1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/KnowledgeBase
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