Two and a half years ago, the Ministry of Information and Communication in partnership with NUCES started DzongkhaLinux development, through PAN Localization project.  Prime objective for this project was to promote the use of the national language in computing applications used in the country. The Dzongkha

GNU/ Linux distribution has now been released after the untiring efforts of the Bhutan component of the PAN Localization project conducted through the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communication, Bhutan. The DzongkhaLinux was formally launched on June 2nd, 2006. It is Debian based live CD that provides localized interfaces for open office applications.

 

The launch ceremony was attended by policy makers, localization researchers, localization experts, government, academia, private sector and potential end users. Prominent among the guests were  Dr. Sarmad Hussain, Regional Project Leader of PAN Localization Project,  Mr. Guntupalli Karunakar, the leader of the Indlinux project, and Mr. Christian Perrier, an active Debian developer contributing to Debian installer localization and internationalization and members of the Nepal country component of PAN Localization project. The launch ceremony of this Linux distribution received vast media coverage.