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In honor of International Mother Language Day last year, we announced 59 new Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. A Language Interface Pack is a free download that adds a language layer on top of a genuine version of Windows, Office, or Visual Studio. A Language Interface Pack will provide roughly 80% of a localized experience in Windows and Office.
Today to honor this year’s International Mother Language Day (as designated by UNESCO) – we are announcing support for even more languages for Windows 7 and Office 2010: Dari (Afghanistan), Mongolian (Cyrillic - Mongolia), Turkmen (Turkmenistan) and Valencian (Spain) and for Office 2010 specifically – the previously mentioned languages plus Maltese (Malta).
With these additions, Windows 7 and Office 2010 are now available in nearly 96 languages - 60 of which are available for download (for free) through the Local Language Program. With the Local Language Program, our goal is to create economic opportunities, build IT skills, and preserve local languages and cultures. We want to help ensure that the identity of communities and languages continue to thrive worldwide.
For more about International Mother Language Day today and how Microsoft is celebrating, I recommend reading this Feature Story from Microsoft News Center and this blog post from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog. I also recommend checking out the below infographic:
All that is very nice, specially towards language minorities, yet it'd be even nicer if Microsoft started to provide free multi-language support from scratch and for all.
Myself I'm Spanish, living and working now in Japan with my Japanese wife (previously in France), and I don't understand why :
- I am forced to pay for Windows Ultimate for something as simple as being able to share a computer with my other half.
- I have to buy a computer in Spain for my mother (who lives in France) in order to get her Windows in Spanish.
- my company has to pay extra money to get something as simple as Spanish or French support for the Office suite I use.
I do buy Microsoft products, but I don't support the way they make money out of multiculturalism and multilingualism. Anyone buying a Microsoft product around the world should be able to use it in as many languages as he/she wishes.
> our goal is to [...] preserve local languages
What happened to English English, then? I don't see it in the LLP Language Offerings list.
Noel
Thanks Microsoft corporation realsed new feature of international mother language day.......