I think for our hardened and/or alpha series, we should just include all of our langpacks in one release, and ask the user for their language. The pref general.useragent.locale exists for this purpose.
The reason we want to do this is to avoid another 2G worth of dist files for the hardened series (which will also need special build options, like 64 bit on Windows and Mac).
This is probably a usability sinkhole, though :/
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My 2 cts: providing a dist that contains all locales data, especially if this was done for the stable series too, would remove one of the stumbling blocks for Tails to use the Tor Browser binary instead of crafting our own. And, by the way, once it's done this way, perhaps more languages could be supported than the handful that get their dedicated dist currently.
intrigeri: Good point. Though I assume that Tails would not be using our alpha series. Would tails be interested in using a separate hardened (but ~2X slower and 2X more memory) stable series?
I don't think this language selection dialog should display in our normal stable series. I think per-language downloads is the right thing to do for that. But you could always turn it on and add in more langpacks.
Though I assume that Tails would not be using our alpha series.
Right.
Would tails be interested in using a separate hardened (but ~2X slower and 2X more memory) stable series?
Most likely yes. The hardening is supposed to land into stable at some point anyway, so we'll have to cope with the slowness and increased memory usage at some point anyway, right? If so, then dealing with it earlier is not necessarily a problem for us.
I don't think this language selection dialog should display in our normal stable series.
OK. But I wonder why a dialog is actually needed, as opposed to simply respect the OS' default locales settings, and optionally offering a way (command-line switch?) to run Tor Browser with a different language.
I think per-language downloads is the right thing to do for that. But you could always turn it on and add in more langpacks.
For the Tails usecase, I think the best thing would be:
have a stable tarball with all laguage packs in (hardened or not);
don't use the language selection dialog;
respect the OS' locales settings (that the user has chosen in Tails Greeter).
Note that we still haven't decided whether we'll try to switch to the Tor Browser binaries for Tails 1.2 (October 14). It's now a bit late to start working on it, but who knows. It partly depends on how much work we have to do to have a Tor Browser tarball that suits our needs (as described above). Of course, I'm aware that the TBB team is even more swamped than usual this month, "thanks" to the migration to FF31 ESR, so it mostly depends on how much time we (Tails folks) can put into adapting the TBB build system for our needs.
Why is it required to have the user choose the language of the browser when it starts?
Would it not be possible to detect the language of the operating system and start the browser in that language?
I believe this is what most pieces of software do.
Maybe they do. But that does not mean it is a good thing to do. Keep in mind Mozilla is not doing it ,and for a reason I think, given that localized bundles are much more expensive resource-wise. Anyway, there are a bunch of other things that make me skeptical here: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2014-September/034745.html.
I am going to cheat a little bit and call this a usability stoppoint: For censored users, it may be hard enough to find any TBB, let alone one in their language.
I think Goerg is right that there may be users for which their desktop is not in the right locale, but really need to use TBB in the locale of their choice (think travelers who just wandered into a censored, foreign Internet cafe and really need to get to their email/twitter/facebook in an emergency). However, I also see the benefit of a clear dropdown language selection dialog in the current OS locale for such users to choose their language.
If we can somehow merge a localized, translated locale choice with the current "Censored vs noncensored" dialog window, I think we have ourselves a winner on a lot of axis. Even if this means restarting the browser quickly if that locale is changed..
Regardless of the UI though, shipping a bundle with some kind of capability to display its UI in any locale is still a win in terms of helping more people use TBB.
Trac: Summary: Provide language selection dialog to Support a multi-lingual TBB that can switch between localizations Keywords: N/Adeleted, tbb-usability-stopppoint-wizard added Priority: normal to major
This would make the job of redistributing Tor to users and trainers much easier, as well. It would also reduce the amount of software that I'd need to make available and verification strings for them (currently 60 per Tor Browser release - 4 would be a major improvement).
Trac: Cc: gk, intrigeri, anonym, arthuredelstein, brade, mcs to gk, intrigeri, anonym, arthuredelstein, brade, mcs, saint
Kathy and I are actively working on this ticket. We propose that a new "locale picker" dialog be presented once the first time the browser is opened. Here is what our work-in-progress dialog looks like:
Each language name will be displayed in its own language. The other portions of this prompt dialog will be presented using the OS language (for example, the "Please select a language" prompt will be localized and displayed in French on a French system). And the default choice for language will be set to match the OS language setting.
Kathy and I are actively working on this ticket. We propose that a new "locale picker" dialog be presented once the first time the browser is opened.
It looks very nice!
From Tails side, users will pick a locale when starting Tails, so we need a way to not show the locale picker and instead use the system locale. I assume that all we have to do is set some first-run pref to not show it, and then set general.useragent.locale properly (or intl.locale.matchOS?) and then we'll have the same result as if the user used your locale picker. Am I correct?
From Tails side, users will pick a locale when starting Tails, so we need a way to not show the locale picker and instead use the system locale. I assume that all we have to do is set some first-run pref to not show it, and then set general.useragent.locale properly (or intl.locale.matchOS?) and then we'll have the same result as if the user used your locale picker. Am I correct?
Yes. We plan to support a TOR_SKIP_LOCALE_PROMPT env variable as well as a hidden pref. Our plan is for Tor Browser to have (via Tor Launcher) intl.locale.matchOS = true. When the user answers the locale prompt, the Tor Launcher code will reset intl.locale.matchOS to false and also set general.useragent.locale to the locale that was chosen.