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Dzongkha in Microsoft: out?
What has happened to the US$ 523,000 project which was supposed to incorporate Dzongkha in Microsoft's new operating system?
He said the foreign ministry was following-up with Microsoft Corporation through correspondence and telephone via Bhutan's permanent mission to UN in Geneva, but for the moment it was difficult to speculate on the outcome.
Microsoft Vista's first beta version was still being tested and the second version was slated to be released soon.
In 1998 the government signed a project with a UK-based Orient Foundation to develop the Unicode tool for Dzongkha and incorporate it in Microsoft Vista. The project authority was the finance ministry with DDA as counterpart Dzongkha professionals.
While initially it was agreed that the two parties would share the cost equally, the government, with assistance from the Sustainable Development Agreement and Swiss Development Corporation bore most of cost that amounted to US$ 523,000.
The funds that went into Dzongkhalinux is 10 times less than the cost government invested in the Dzongkha Microsoft project. And the Dzongkha Unicode was not compatible with Macintosh operating system while PC users say it is not user-friendly.
Source: Kuenselonline
FOSS Training / workshop under ASEAN Cooperation at C-DAC, Chennai, India
