Sun helps Linux go global
The company releases software to the open-source community that could make it easier to make Linux software usable in a myriad of languages.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Sun this week released the internationalization software included in the X Windows graphics component of Linux and Unix. The software, based on code originally from the X Group (now X.org) was released under the X license. That's the same license that covered the software initially, Sun said.
The software is a layer that makes it easier to write software onto which any number of languages can be grafted. A program written to use the layer can be more easily shifted so Japanese as well as French people can use a program.
The code from Sun will help several facets of Linux internationalization, said Dirk Hohndel, chief technology officer of German Linux seller SuSE and a major contributor to the Xfree86 project to bring X to Linux. The effort will help with complex text arrangements--some languages read right-to-left or top-to-bottom--as well as support for Unicode, a character set that allows use of many international alphabets, Hohndel said in a statement.
Akio Kido, co-chairman of the Linux Internationalization Initiative, also endorsed Sun's move.
The X license allows people to use the software in any way they desire with no restriction.
Sun uses the internationalization software in its own version of Unix, called Solaris. Linux is a clone of Unix that has expanded from a hobby to a serious part of many computer company product lines. Linux is open-source software, meaning that anyone may modify and redistribute the underlying programming instructions of the software.