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Free and Open Source Software for Translators

Open Source Update newsletter information and archives

Happily, translators and other language professionals are becoming more interested in using free and open source software in their work. Despite, or maybe because of, the fact that translators spend at least 90% of their work time at the computer, they (we!) have also been reluctant to switch from proprietary, and often extremely expensive, software tools to less expensive and more flexible open source alternatives. At the 2004 (Toronto) and 2005 (Seattle) annual conferences of the American Translators Association, I gave a presentation on "Free and Open Source Software for Translators;" both times this presentation was very well attended, which showed me the importance of continuing to encourage translators to consider free and open source software. Following are a variety of links for translators (or really anyone) who are interested in exploring the world of FOSS.

Download the links from this presentation- contains a fairly comprehensive list of links to free and open source translation memory programs

Download Corinne's paper from the Proceedings of the Seattle Conference

After the 2004 ATA Conference, I started a free e-newsletter, Open Source Update, for translators interested in free and open source software. The archives are available for free. The newsletter is now discontinued, but my blog includes posts on free and open source software for translators.

• Linux for Translators, a website written by Marc Prior, with lots of helpful information and a Yahoo Group dedicated to the subject
• Martin Wunderlich's page of helpful links for translators interested in free and open source software.
• FAQ on free and open source software for translators.
• Information about running the Wordfast translation memory engine on Linux, using CrossOver Office
• OpenOffice.org: the free and open source Microsoft Office-compatible office suite
• The Tool Kit, Jost Zetzsche's free technical newsletter for translators

• OmegaT: free and open source translation memory program written in Java. Windows, Mac, Linux
• Sun Open Language Tools: free and open source XLIFF-based translation memory suite. Windows, Mac, Linux
• ForeignDesk: free and open source CAT tool, released by Lionbridge. Windows only.
• Transolution: another FOSS XLIFF package, written in Python. Windows, Mac, Linux.
• Heartsome: XLIFF translation memory program that is neither free nor open source, but runs on Linux and supports OpenOffice.org file formats. Windows, Mac, Linux