25. Your Language

amadeOS speaks five languages: English, Deutsch, Français, Español and Italiano. The desktop, the Front Panel, Settings and the amadeOS applications all follow the language you choose.

Where to choose it

At the login screen. The Language field (chapter 20) sets the language for the whole session. Your last choice is preselected next time.

In the Front Panel. The language button under the padlock, in the middle of the panel, shows the current language as a code such as EN or DE. Click it and choose another language from the menu. Programs you start from then on use the new language; the Front Panel itself and the terminals follow at the next login.

In Settings. The Language page (chapter 38) offers the same choice, next to the time zone of the computer.

In a single application. Many amadeOS applications have a language setting of their own in their Settings or Options. It overrides the desktop language for that application only.

Already open windows

A program that is already open keeps its language. Close it and start it again to see it in the new language.

The keyboard is separate

The language does not change the keyboard. A French desktop can be typed on a German keyboard and the other way round. The keyboard layout is chosen at the login screen and, for good, in the installer; the Keyboard page of Settings (chapter 33) set its repeat rate and click.

Region

The language can come with a region, such as Austrian German (de_AT) or Swiss French (fr_CH). The region decides details such as the format of dates and numbers. The menus offer the five languages; a region is set by writing it into the settings file below, and a language chosen in the menus keeps a region that is already there.

Under the hood

Both the login screen and the language button write the choice to ~/.config/amadeos/locale.conf, one line such as de or de_AT. The applications built on the library amade-commons read this file when they start; the session sets the environment variable LANG from it at login, which the Front Panel, terminals and other programs follow. The texts of the desktop are in .properties files, one per language, in the source code of each program, so a new language is a matter of translating those files.

Planned

More languages are welcome as contributions. Firefox is installed with the five languages already.