As I’ve mentioned before, I run my translation business using free and open source software almost exclusively. I say “almost” because I have in the past run Microsoft Office and Wordfast using CrossOver Linux, a tool that allows you to run Windows software on Linux without a Windows license. In addition, although my primary computer is Linux-only (running Ubuntu Linux), I have a dual-boot laptop that can run Linux or Windows, and I sometimes use the Windows side when I’m splitting a highly formatted project with another translator, just to make sure that things like outline numbering are not disrupted by the conversion from OpenOffice to MS Word. Oddly enough, the only real incompatibility I’ve ever found between OpenOffice Writer and MS Word is highlighting; when I highlight text in OpenOffice, the person using Word often cannot remove the highlighting. Otherwise, Writer is essentially fully compatible with Word when it comes to creating or editing documents; just don’t try to run a macro-dependent program like Trados in OpenOffice!
My path to free and open source software use is definitely smoothed by the fact that my husband is a Unix systems administrator and has worked on free software development for 15+ years. However, there are a lot of resources available for people who want to learn more about using Linux and/or other flavors of free and open source software. Recently I found this page of free Linux books on various topics. “The Linux Starter Pack” looks very useful for beginners, and “Getting Started with OpenOffice.org” applies not only to Linux users, but to those who want to run OpenOffice on other operating systems.
Speaking of OpenOffice.org, Solveig Haugland, the author of the OpenOffice.org Guidebook (her website Get OpenOffice.org is also excellent!) writes a very helpful blog here. Most of her posts have screenshots to help you understand the concepts she covers, and they discuss very specific uses of OpenOffice.org, for example how to multiply two fields in OpenOffice Calc or use your Microsoft Word templates in OpenOffice Writer.
Many translators who would like to run Linux are concerned about what translation environment tool they will use when they make the switch from Windows. There are some good options already available; my favorite cross-platform tool is OmegaT, and I’ve also been happy with Heartsome other than some difficulties with very slow file conversion. With the advent of Wordfast Pro, the field is really opening up, since WF Pro is a Java-based tool that can run natively on Linux. I’ve installed WF Pro but I haven’t really learned to use it yet; but with Wordfast’s upcoming series of free 20-minute webinars, hopefully I’ll be using it soon and I’ll review it here!
The one tool that I could really use in a Linux environment and that doesn’t seem to exist is a really powerful OCR/PDF conversion tool such as Abbyy FineReader. There are a few Linux-friendly OCR tools out there and they work decently when the document plays well, for example with PDFs created from Word documents. However, I’ve found them basically unusable on PDFs created by scanning, faxing or photocopying a document, which applies to many of the PDFs I receive for translation.
Hi, Corinne
I have been thinking of changing to linux for some time now, but I am a little scared of messing up with configurations and stuff… when I have a free software developer close by I will certainly give it a try ^-^
Now, seriously: free software applications for translators were very limited before, but nowadays more and more tools are making work much easier. I have tried Omega T and I like it, and there are also a lot of apps for terminology and format conversion which are very interesting.
I am planning to buy a new computer in a few months (waiting for Windows Vista to expire, the word is that in Spain new Windows will be on sale from October), and I will use the old one as a experiment subject with linux configurations. So I will probably turn to you for some advice then.
When I started translating, I used Unix and the Mac exclusively. Most of my clients weren’t very computer savvy, however, and they’d often complain about incompatibility between the Word files I made on my Mac, and the version of Word they had on their Windows machine.
After a year or two of this, my biggest client actually bought me a Windows machine as a gift. From that point on I gave in; I haven’t bought a Mac since, and although I also run Linux (Ubuntu for me too — yeah!), I do all of my translation and most of my programming on a Windows machine.
Perhaps Linux “live CDs” are a good option for Windows users who have doubts about switching to Linux from Windows and do not want to alter their system’s partitions, settings etc. I have tried Knoppix and I think it’s a good choice if you want to get a taste of Linux without getting into trouble.
One aspect that I would like to point out is the choice of your main translation environment tool (TEnT). If you are a professional translator and if you spend a great deal of your time working with such a tool, perhaps choosing the platform (Linux, Mac, Windows) first and then choosing your TEnT as a consequence might not be your best option, since your choice will be very limited on certain platforms.
My suggestion is to gather as much information as possible about TEnTs and choose the one that best fits your and your clients’ needs, and then choose the operating system as a consequence of that.
Wordfast Pro, Heartsome and OmegaT are good tools, but, like all other TEnTs, they have limitations. Perhaps choosing a commercial tool that works on Windows instead of Linux might be a better choice if you notice that this makes you more productive. Of course some commercial tools look expensive at first sight, but what you really should consider is your productivity and (why not?) fun in using the tool.
Any initial saving you make by using an inexpensive solution (no matter if this is open-source, commercial, shareware, etc.) will be wasted if this solution is noticeably less productive than another product that has a high purchase price but that will perfectly pay for itself in the long term.
Thank you both for sharing your experience.
I have been doing some googling, and I have found a linux distribution for translators: Linguas OS ( I have just posted about it):
http://nextstoptranslation.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-software-for-translators.html
Being also a LiveCD, I guess I will give it a try.
Again, thank you for your comments, this blog always leads me to finding new interesting things!
Good essay, as always. I really like your blog, and it always contains a lot of interesting and useful information.
I use Google Docs for almost everything now. The documents are saved on Google servers, which some people don’t like, but it is very convenient. I never have to back my work up anymore, and I never have multiple versions of the same document floating around my desktop on my laptop. Also, the Google Docs word processor is powerful, without a ton of functionality that I don’t need.
In the past, I have tried many flavors of Linux using live CDs or temporary installations. Unfortunately, I have found that unless you actually “just do it”, you will never get used to Linux. There will always be something that’ll make you go back and as long as I switched back and forth, I never got into it.
Then, I decided I should have a general file server in the house so my husband and I can share media files etc. and I set that up also with Ubunutu.
Yeah, some things were different and for a while I kept looking back wondering if I should go back and use Windows. I don’t anymore, and I am actually very happy with it. It is not my production environment, but if you plan to go for it, pick a slow time, make a full image backup of your system and jump.
I run on MacOS now. I tried OmegaT and I was very disappointed. Maybe I’m too spoilt by Déjà Vu X that I use at office, but I was not able to become friends with OmegaT. His continuous problems with Cyrillic encoding drive me mad.
So I had to buy Parallels for my Mac and install Win XP inside it to be able to run my favorite translation soft: DVX, Trados and 5 dictionaries.
Microsoft is a necessary evil.
I’m just getting into this whole TenT / CAT thing and found another tool you might be interested in:
Anaphraseus: http://anaphraseus.sourceforge.net/
It was originally called Open Wordfast and is a macro/extension for OpenOffice.org Writer.
I’ve tried it out and was impressed, but it is beta software and I soon hit a wall (error messages about an open/broken segment).
But from the little use I’ve had with both, I preferred Anaphraseus (when it’s working 😉 ) to OmegaT.
Also wondering what people think about OmegaT +.