Gaim now in Bahasa Indonesia !

I'm sure that many of you who have are into Open Source and or GNU/Linux had the opportunity to use Gaim Instant Messenger. An Open Source multi protocol and multi platform instant messenger. Gaim is not the only multi protocol instant messenger out there, there is for example Trillian for Windows users or Kopete for Linux users and perhaps many others.

What is multi protocol anyway ? Multi protocol means that Gaim supports a wide range of popular protocols like ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk and many others. You can use all this protocols at the same time instead of having to run each individual application which makes your desktop a very crammed place. Imagine running let's say three different protocols and at the same time talking to three people on each protocol, that would be like nine chat windows blinking at the same time. Worse case scenario, you type a wrong message in the wrong window ... brrr.

On the other hand Gaim uses tabbed chat window, so instead of having nine chat windows open in Gaim you just have one chat window with nine tabs. It's kind of similar to tabbed browsing in FireFox, in Gaim it's tabbed chatting. This way it's much more practical and organized than multiple chat windows.

Another Gaim plus is that is supports multi platforms, meaning it runs not only in GNU/Linux but also on other Open Source platforms like the BSD family and of course on MS Windows platform. So for those who have to frequently switch between platforms, work wise or else Gaim is just great because you can use it regardless of the platform instead of switching from one instant messenger to another. Of course Gaim has much more features to offer, however that is more users specific. I've been a happy Gaim user for years now.

Now being a long time user I though it would be great if Gaim was available in Bahasa Indonesia. Why ? Well Indonesia has over 220 million people so we are a big country and not everyone speaks English. In last couple years Internet is becoming more accessible to many. With the current government commitment in developing the infrastructure to provide more affordable Internet and preventing software piracy by spreading usage of Free and Open Source Software than it only makes sense that Gaim will be even more popular in Indonesia.

Adding the fact that you can use it in your native language should further spread the use of Gaim. So after a week of translating several thousand of lines and another week of waiting for translation to be officially accepted to the Gaim project, it's finally done. Gaim is now available in Bahasa Indonesia. :)
Actually Gaim is not the only instant messenger that's available in Bahasa Indonesia, for those who only use single protocol like MSN Messenger there is an Open Source clone named aMSN that is also multi platform capable.

I just hope that there will be more Indonesian people who will get involved in Open Source projects either as coder, developer or simple as translator. Everybody is welcome, so let's do a little something to help spread the knowledge and educate our nation, Indonesia.

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Indonesia's Open Source Initiative

Open Source or as I prefer to call it Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is not a new thing out there. Free Software initiative is dating back for more than two decades started by Richard Stallman in 1983 with the birth of Gnu's Not Unix (GNU) Project and the General Public License (GPL). A movement later followed by many others. Including that of a Linus Torvalds who developed the Linux kernel in 1991, the kernel that became essential part of GNU project due to original GNU kernel the GNU Hurd coming out not as expected.

I'm not sure how but later the term Linux become more popular than the GNU itself, despite the fact that Linux in fact only a kernel. The correct term a Stallman always puts it is "GNU/Linux". Anyway Linux become sort of an icon for Open Source for over a decade now. Perhaps not many outside the IT community know that beside GNU/Linux there are also other operating systems like the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), FreeBSD, etc.

Linux although being around for many years and quite popular among some IT communities became more appealing to general public after the presence of desktop manager or in other words Graphical User Interface (GUI). Many hardcore users until today prefer to use Linux in its console mode or command prompt, however for a common user GUI is a must. GNU/Linux is of course not only an operating system but nowadays there are many applications for it, from office, design, programming and so much more. One of Linux strong points is its reliability and security besides the fact that it's in most cases distributed under GPL so it's free to use. Free here being freedom, not free beer.

So how come that only now Indonesia is catching up with the Open Source tide? Well simple for years the widespread usage of pirated software remained unchecked by the government and only few years back has the law against piracy been issued and enforced. Despite that the government still has a challenging task to change the attitude towards using the legal software, even within the government itself.

Last year Indonesian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft, agreeing to purchase license for software and operating system used within the government institutions. A move that came as great disappointment to every Open Source community in Indonesia. However not many knew that government didn't have much options in doing so because otherwise it would face sanctions within international trading organizations.

With the widespread use of pirated software in government, private sector and also households not many of the users know that whenever they are online they actually let know Microsoft in particular, how many of them still are out there. These numbers are used to pressure the government, which in turn can not deny the fact the majority of software used in the country is not original and had to sign MoU or otherwise.

However even though signing the MoU, the government also realized that there is an alternative solution which is of course the Open Source. Based on that it started the Open Source Initiative with the goal to widespread the usage of FOSS, starting with the government, education sector, private sector and so forth. The policy is there and as it seems the government is really putting an effort to make it happen with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology being at helm.

At the 8th Asian Open Source Software Symposium held in Nusa Dua, Bali, the government also announced a plan to give incentives to the start up small and medium enterprises (SME) who agree to use Open Source in their business. This way Indonesian government also hopes to encourage the growth of Information Technology industry, for example the software and application development, technical support, training, help desk, etc.

The similar initiative has actually been started in past with the "Indonesia, Go Open Source" (IGOS) which is now back to life. Recently IGOS has developed their own version of live CD, derived from Fedora Core distribution. This CD similar to other live CDs like Knoppix, Ubuntu or Slax is a bootable, fully functional and includes the most common used software like the OpenOffice, Firefox and Gaim.

So with the current government focus and attention the open source movement in Indonesia will undergo an interesting change more over for the Linux enthusiasts who have been trying to introduce GNU/Linux to general population for years. In my opinion it's the right way to go and besides saving the already very limited government funds it should also spark growth and self sufficiency.

Let's go FOSS, let's Go Indonesia!

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