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Microsoft Corporation, maker of the Windows
Operating System, which dominates the market,
officially released its Amharic version for Windows
Vista on February 3, 2010, at a ceremony held at the
Sheraton Addis.
The Vista version of the operating system was first
released in English and other major languages in
January 2007, five years after the last version, XP,
was released, marking the longest gap between
operating systems in Windows history. Vista was
released to improve security in the Windows
Operating System. Since then, however, another
version, Windows 7, was released to the general
public on October 22, 2009.
The Amharic interface pack was released as part of
Microsoft’s local language programme, which is a
global initiative to proliferate local languages,
regional groups and cultures, a statement released
by Microsoft said.
The software was prepared in collaboration with the
Ethiopian Information Communications Technology
Development Agency (EICTDA) and experts from Addis
Abeba University (AAU), Cheick Modibo Diarra (PhD),
chairman of Microsoft Africa and Middle East, said.
EICTDA handled the management part of the project
while Microsoft and experts from AAU carried out the
translation and software development work.
“One major operation that is being undertaken by
Microsoft is translating the software into local
languages,” Diarra told Fortune during the
launching ceremony. “And since Amharic is one of the
widely used local languages in Ethiopia, that task
has been fulfilled.”
The new software, which is two megabytes, will be
available for download free of charge from
www.microsoft.com/llp.
“Apart from the newly launched operating system,
Office Vista in Amharic will be launched by late
March 2010,” Menassie Zewdu, citizenship manager at
Microsoft Ethiopia, told Fortune.
The local language programme is expected to enable
local information technology industries to develop
further.
“This is a vital factor in expanding information
technology, and since language is a vital tool in
information dissemination, we wanted to focus on
making the software available,” Debretsion
Gebremichael, director general of EICTDA, told
Fortune.
“We have translated 830,000 words which will greatly
assist in developing other application software
programmes in Amharic,” he said.
These words include those that will be used for
Vista Office as well as grammatical variations of
various words.
“The software should be free,” Neway Beyene,
business development manager for Microsoft Ethiopia,
told Fortune. “That has been part of our
basic goal to enhance the local information
technology market, so I urge people to download this
free software.”
“Amharic is the first step as other languages like
Oromiffa, Tigrigna, Afarigna and Somali are also to
be included,” he said.
Microsoft first began operations in Sub-Saharan
Africa in 1992 and has expanded to 13 offices in
nine countries, with more than 600 employees and
17,000 commercial partners across the region. |
