In Lithuanian  VLKK approve two words: „Failas“ and „Rinkmena“. 
Mos programs use „Failas“ or „Byla“. I think, that „Failas“ is the best.

You all know that the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language has officially changed the status of the word „Byla“ to NOT RECOMMENDED, leaving only the following terms as recommended: „Rinkmena“ and „Failas“. The first is a new lithuanian word and the second is a transcription of an english word „File“.

All software used in official public sector must follow rules and guidelines of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language. Will it be Free or proprietary software. So will GNOME. And I, as a long time GNOME contributor, want to see people working with GNOME in schools, municipalities and so on. With „Byla“ GNOME can't reach these people.

So I see this as an improvement instead of as a bug. It could be marked as a such with „Byla“ instead. However, it's not the case.

A minor fix: SCLL (or VLKK) status of „Byla“ is even NOT USED (instead of previous  NOT RECOMMENDED).

"Byla" was used as translation for 15 years. Most popular programs as OpenOffice.org , mozilla, firefox are using "Byla". All users understands "Byla". All computer books use "Byla".
There is no need to change it to artificial word, whis is used very rare.

From my point of view all programs should use the same word for file. And i do not think, that this is good idea, to change word on every new version of program. it confuses users.

I'm one of GIMP translators to Lithuanian and the author of Lithuanian GIMP web site (http://gimp.akl.lt). The Lithuanian translation of the GIMP and all articles in this site use Byla for File translation and I think this is the best term for File translation. In any case I'm against replacing Byla to Rinkmena without reaching agreement with other free software translators and Lithuanian GNOME (and other Linux environmens) users.

It would be really a big mistake if "Rinkmena" appeared in GNOME. Starting using this artificial term in all GNOME, will decrease usage of this environment in Lithuanian language, because the absolute majority of users don't like and understand that artificial word.
At schools there are practically no books, where the word "rinkmena" is used, "byla" or "file" are used, so it's naive to believe that usage of "rinkmena" will help GNOME to reach schools or municipalities, because the main problem is because of using closed document standards, formats and unwillingness of heads/IT Managers/employs to change anything :( 

If Mr. Berucka afraids that GNOME can't reach people at a public sector with „Byla“ there is a possibility to chose "Failas" as another recommended term. This term is a much better solution as is well known by all users, even though not as intuitive as "Byla".

Free software translations have to be as user friendly as possible and *stable* as users get used to the translated terms. If the *main* terms are changed without deep and wide discussions, it can lead to an absolute chaos in translations. And it would be harmful to all free software.
Translators have to pay attention to users opinions, haven't they? Not only to the State Commission of the Language, which opinion changes with the change of its members.

I've translated most parts of AbiWord text processor to Lithuanian and never used such a practice - I think all translation terms must be approved by users, not by some artificial "State Commission of the Lithuanian Language", which opinion have changed several times - few years ago word "Byla" was approved as official translation for "File" by the same State Commission of the Lithuanian Language.

I'm reopening this bug, because lots of free software users and translators, including GNOME Office translators, are requesting to revert word File translation in Lithuanian GNOME 2.13/2.14 to "Byla" or change it to "Failas", like in OpenOffice 2.0.x, Mozilla FireFox/Thundrebird 1.5.x, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other Microsoft product translations to Lithuanian language.

Please don't make experiments on Lithuanian free software users and use words, which are tolerated by Lithuanian users and free software translators.
If you wanna change important terms then please make usability tests on users at first and also reach an agreement with other free software translators, at least with GNOME-related software (like AbiWord or GIMP) translators.

GNOME desktop environment is used in other Lithuanian free software projects, for example in Baltix GNU/Linux operating system (look at http://baltix.akl.lt and http://lauchpad.net/distros/baltix ), so you should understand the impact of using incompatible terms in translations. Users will be scared if same in operating system (for example in Ubuntu or Baltix GNU/Linux) in one tool, for example in file manager File will be translated as Rinkmena, in another tool, for example in GIMP will be translated as Byla, in third tool, for example in OpenOffice.org Writer - as Failas. Today tens or hundreds of Gnome/GTK software uses word "Byla" for "File" Lithuanian translation, not talking about other free software translations and you alone will not change this in one month.

Please don't close this bug with resolution NOTABUG, if you don't have a time please at least revert your changes, related to File translation ASAP, this is very simple - run few times these commands:

sed -i s/Rinkmen/Byl/ *.po
sed -i s/rinkmen/byl/ *.po

I guess you'll bury me, if it won't be like you want. But you see, this is a bit tough, it cannot be solved, because it's not a bug.

I'll repeat myself, the resolution of „Byla“ is NOT TO BE USED. See? It's banned. Forget it. Whether it's by „artifical commision“, like you say, or not, whether we like its members, or not. Its resolutions are official and they ought to be followed. We wouldn't be here if it didn't happen.

„Starting using this artificial term in all GNOME, will decrease usage of this environment in Lithuanian language, because the absolute majority of users don't like and understand that artificial word.“ Don't want to disregard your highly scientific and objective research, but you know I have a few folks who do understand, do like it, and do use it already. :P

Mantas,

"There are *no* *translated* *free* *software*, where artiffical word "Rinkmena"
is used."

I have to agree with Žygimantas, your research is plainly wrong. X-Chat uses it, Midnight Commander also uses it. Both are software, are free, and translated, of course. So these asterisks just do look silly, anyway.

More to the point, MII, which translates Openoffice, Mozilla software by government comission, switched to Failas just because that Microsoft software is translated using it. Microsoft translators do not consult with anyone, which results in very low translation quality. Also, OpenOffice and Mozilla are not used on Windows only, so Failas has very deceptive precedence.

Our geographical neighbours have their national terms for file, not the English one (except Russian, which in all cases uses much more foreign words than Lithuanian does). Computing today is not a science, it's everyday thing for many people, thus Lithuanian words should be preferred. And Rinkmena does sound logical.

It seems problems with GNOME Lithuanian translation still exist - only GNOME software still uses Rinkmena, while majority of other software (KDE, OpenOffice.org, Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla, Microsoft Windows and Office, etc) don't use this word.

It seems, that official Microsoft opinion is to use "Failas" - look at new (and old) public official Microsoft web pages:

http://www.microsoft.com/lietuva/windowsvista/features/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/lietuva/windowsvista/features/foreveryone/ie7.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917925/lt
http://office.microsoft.com/lt-lt/products/HA101748901063.aspx

All these new Microsoft web pages about Windows Vista, IE7 and Office 2007 contains lots of words "failas", "failo", "failai", "failus", etc. and no string "rinkm"...

Firefox 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 2.1/2.2 also use "Failas" and there are no announces from official translators, that this will change.

So, I think now it's a good time to end speculations about various software manufacturers, who will use "rinkmena" someday in the future...
"Failas" is dominant in all areas, starting from mobile phones (NOKIA, SAMSUNG, etc.) and ending with newspapers and journals, less than 10% from newspaper use another word. Situation in software translations is even worser for "Rinkmena" - less than 5% use this term...

Only few persons (for names look above) are pushing "Rinkmena" to free and closed software - nor majority of users, nor developers, nor translators are using this.
Lets end this unsuccessful experiment of pushing non-intuitive artificial terms for GNOME users. If the opinion of users is changed after few years by some big software manufacturers, then we'll be able to use what users want, but now majority of users and developers (more than 95%) don't want Rinkmena.

(In reply to comment #10)
> Lets end this unsuccessful experiment of pushing non-intuitive
> artificial terms for GNOME users. If the opinion of users is
> changed after few years by some big software manufacturers,
> then we'll be able to use what users want, but now majority of
> users and developers (more than 95%) don't want Rinkmena.

I'll tell you briefly:
This won't happen until my word counts here in GNOME Translation Project.

Now the detailed version:
All your collected Microsoft translation examples are correct. But it doesn't mean anything to me. I work for "Tilde IT" and I translate Microsoft products myself (even at the moment). And being behind the lines I know the Microsoft game rules. They give some terms, and Tilde cannot even argue with them. Even if they think that some terms are wrong. This is why Lithuanian Windows XP translation suck big time.

With big efforts of some well known and respected Lithuanian philologists. Microsoft Lietuva was convinced to use Rinkmena instead of Failas. The translations were made with Rinkmena, and suddenly after few months Microsoft changed their minds and ordered to revert to Failas, without any explanation.

Philologist Antanas Smetona, who have had some relationship with Microsoft translations, was very angry on this and even compared Microsoft with times when Russian occupants from Moscow regulated Lithuanian language, except that now it is done by Americans. And I won't hide my feelings, I'm symphatetic to his opinion.

Rinkmena and Failas are both recommended terms, and it's up to me to choose which one I'm using. Whether the American one, or the Lithuanian one. And I, as a native speaker of the Eldest language in Europe, want my language to stay away from unnecessary foreign words and choose to use Lithuanian words. And Rinkmena is gaining its share.

And don't whine about people not understanding new words. People don't understand new things in general, not only words. There are thousands of examples. And now, in the age of communication, it's only a matter of a fraction of second to get familiar with new information. There were times when there were no books, radio and newspapers in villages. But somehow this didn't stopped J.Jablonskis creating a word "degtukas" (a match) for a foreign "sierčikas", even if people used sierčikai in their daily life and have no means to know about the native Lithuanian word.

Here are some more words created by Jonas Jablonskis you call "artificial":
vandenilis, deguonis, atvirukas, pirmadienis, antradienis, vienaskaita, daugiskaita, ateitis, praeitis, pieštukas, pojūtis, įtaka, pažanga, tiesė, kreivė, vadovėlis, teismas, etc.

Oh!... I guess you're not using them because "they are artificial". Now see the brief explanation above.