Red Hat''s Linux 4 to support 5 Indian Languages

Mumbai: Red Hat has announced that its 'enterprise Linux version 4' scheduled for release in February 2005 will support five Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Tamil.

The Red Hat enterprise Linux version 4 includes productivity applications such as office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool as well as a web browser and an e-mail client. These applications can be used to share the digitised text in local languages, across platforms, which support Unicode. The Indian language versions will also feature the Gnome desktop with localised Red Hat tools for system administration, which make tasks like adding printers, connecting to Internet, etc,. possible through the local language interface. The installation guide will also be in local languages.

At the summit meet on Localisation, organised recently by MAIT in New Delhi, Javed Tapia, director, Red Hat India, had presented the Beta version of Red Hat 'enterprise Linux version 4' to Brijesh Kumar, secretary IT, ministry of information technology.

Brijesh Kumar said, "Availability of Linux desktop in Indian languages has the potential to transform the technology landscape of India. We expect the use of Linux to go a long way in reducing overall costs and giving a boost to our existing e-governance initiatives and education programmes." Linux desktop can help users to access and /or create information in their own language.