Proxecto Trasno

Proxecto Trasno is a volunteer-led community focused on making free and open-source software available in Galician. It emerged at the end of 1999, when contributors began coordinating translations for major free and libre open-source software projects. Its work has covered a broad range of software, including desktop environments, Linux distributions, spell-checking resources, and tools intended to support the wider localisation process. The project operates at the intersection of language preservation, software accessibility, and open collaboration. Rather than functioning as a conventional commercial software company, Proxecto Trasno brings together volunteers who contribute translation, proofreading, terminology, linguistic review, and technical development. Its activities help extend the practical use of Galician into computing and digital services, areas in which the availability of software in a language can have cultural and educational importance. A major part of the community's work has involved establishing consistent terminology. Localisation projects often require translators to resolve competing terms, maintain glossaries, exchange translation memories, and make language decisions that can be reused across multiple software products. Proxecto Trasno has therefore developed or supported several web-based tools for managing terminological information and translation resources. These include TiBoXe, a terminology server based on the TBX exchange standard; Trobador, a translation-memory search and management service; Glósima, a platform for discussing terminology; and Terminator, a collaborative terminology-management system designed for multilingual glossaries, online searching, discussion, and TBX export. The community's software projects use open licences, including GPL version 3, the MIT licence, and Creative Commons licensing, reflecting the project's alignment with free-software principles and its preference for reusable infrastructure. In 2009, volunteers formally established the non-profit Asociación Cultural Proxecto Trasno, giving the project a legal organisational structure while preserving its community-oriented basis. Proxecto Trasno's significance lies less in a commercial product portfolio than in its contribution to Galician digital language infrastructure. Its localisation work makes open-source applications more accessible to Galician speakers, while its terminology tools provide resources that can support translators and other language-technology projects. The project is best understood as a language-technology and cultural community rather than as a conventional consumer brand. The available reference material does not provide a detailed account of its current governance, membership, funding, or recent activity, so those aspects remain unspecified.

Proxecto Trasno began at the end of 1999 as a community effort to translate free and open-source software into Galician. Its formation reflected the growing importance of open-source computing and the need for Galician-language support in software environments. Volunteers worked on the localisation of major FLOSS projects, including desktop environments and Linux distributions, while also contributing language resources such as spell-checkers. The project developed around a collaborative model. Contributors were not limited to translating interface strings; they also had to establish terminology, compare alternative translations, review language choices, and maintain consistency across different software projects. This made terminology management and translation coordination central to the community's activities. The project consequently became involved in creating tools that could help translators search, debate, store, and exchange linguistic resources. One of these tools was TiBoXe, a web application for working with terminology derived from open-source translation projects. It uses the TBX standard, an XML-based format intended for exchanging terminological information, and was released in 2009 under the GNU General Public License version 3. Trobador followed in 2011 as an online service for searching and managing translation memories. Its support for the TMX format and its ability to accommodate multiple projects and users addressed the practical needs of collaborative localisation work. The community also developed Glósima, a terminology discussion tool released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 licence. Its purpose was to provide a space in which terminology could be discussed and evaluated. Terminator extended this type of functionality through a web-based terminology-management system. It was designed to support collaborative discussion across multiple languages and glossaries, flexible online searching, and export to TBX. The tool was intended particularly for terminology creation and management in free-software localisation processes and was licensed under GPL version 3. In 2009, volunteers associated with the project founded the Asociación Cultural Proxecto Trasno, a non-profit cultural association that provided the initiative with legal protection and an organisational framework. This step formalised the project's status without changing its basic volunteer and community orientation. Across its history, Proxecto Trasno has therefore combined three related roles: a localisation community, a contributor to Galician language resources, and a developer of open tools for translation and terminology work. Its contribution is cultural as well as technical, because software localisation expands the contexts in which Galician can be used. The available sources do not document a complete chronology of individual software translation releases, changes in governance, financing, or recent programmes. Consequently, the documented history is strongest for the project's founding period, its legal formalisation, and the release of its named tools.

• 2011

  Trobador released

  [1]Proxecto Trasnoen.wikipedia.org

  Trobador was released as an online service for searching and managing translation memories, with TMX support and facilities for multiple projects and users.

• 2009

  Non-profit association established

  [1]Proxecto Trasnoen.wikipedia.org

  Volunteers founded the Asociación Cultural Proxecto Trasno, giving the community a formal non-profit legal structure.

• 2009

  TiBoXe released

  [1]Proxecto Trasnoen.wikipedia.org

  TiBoXe, a web application for managing terminology based on open-source translation resources and the TBX standard, was released under GPL version 3.

• 1999

  Community founded

  [1]Proxecto Trasnoen.wikipedia.org

  Proxecto Trasno was established at the end of the year as a volunteer community for translating free and open-source software into Galician.

A volunteer-driven Galician language and open-source community that combines software localisation with the development of reusable terminology and translation-management tools.

• Terminology-management software · 2009

  TiBoXe

  TiBoXe is a web-application server for working with terminological information drawn from translations of open-source projects. It is based on TBX, a standard for exchanging terminology through XML files, and was intended to help localisation contributors store and reuse structured linguistic resources. The software was released in 2009 under the GNU General Public License version 3.

• Translation-memory software · 2011

  Trobador

  Trobador is an online server for searching and managing translation memories. It supports the TMX exchange format and allows multiple projects and users to work with translation-memory resources. Within the Proxecto Trasno ecosystem, it addressed the need to make previous translation work searchable and reusable across collaborative software-localisation efforts. It was released under the MIT licence.

• Terminology discussion tool

  Glósima

  Glósima is a tool for discussing terminology in the context of translation and localisation. It provided a collaborative setting for examining language choices and developing shared terminology rather than treating translation as a purely individual activity. The software was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 licence.

• Collaborative terminology-management system

  Terminator

  Terminator is a web-based terminology-management system designed for collaborative localisation work. It supports discussion across multiple languages and glossaries, flexible online searching, and export to the TBX standard. Its purpose is to support the creation, review, maintenance, and exchange of terminology used in free-software translation processes. The system is licensed under GPL version 3.

1. 1Proxecto Trasnoen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Proxecto Trasno official websitetrasno.gal