That's also one of the reasons why I don't use a localised version of a desktop OS. Especially on Linux, where everything follows the OS locale and the translations of many open source applications are either only half-done or leave a bit to be desired in terms of quality, the original English strings are just a better experience if you're proficient enough.

I'm not saying this to bash open source translations (let alone translators) or anything. A good translation takes a lot of work. That's just how things seemed to be last time I tried, and I don't really have the energy to contribute myself nowadays.

Of course there are other reasons for not using a localised desktop especially if you're a technical person, such as better web searchability in case of problems. But the inconsistent quality of translations is probably one of the top reasons for me.

I wonder if there is just any point in doing translations for software unless you are fully committed to having full time I18n people testing the actual app in the language. At my past job it was basically a throw over the wall thing where we send them yml files and they send us back yml files without the translators ever touching the app.

The translators also likely did not understand which words were key app terms which should stay constant. For example "benefit" is a key term which can not ever be substituted out with something like "improvement" even if it seems like it makes more sense in the particular string. But without knowing the app well, you wouldn't know this.

Seems like it would be better just convincing everyone to use the English versions of everything since those are perfect and the majority of the world knows it now.

> Seems like it would be better just convincing everyone to use the English versions of everything since those are perfect and the majority of the world knows it now.

There are lots of e.g. elderly and less educated people in non-English speaking countries who don't speak or understand much English, at least not enough to be comfortable. You don't even have to go further than Europe for that. The aging might not be a key target audience for many apps and it might make business sense to not bother with translation, but there's a significant number of people who might be excluded by that, and it would be difficult to accept that as a solution at least for the most commonly needed apps.

It also seems a little presumptuous that English should be pushed as a general solution to everyone in the first place, but you don't even have to go there before you get into practical problems.

Sometimes this doesn't work like what happens on the desktop with Google, for example. English is my default language, and in country where English is also the official language but Google in its wisdom, decided that the default for google.com is Swahili. Yet, I don't know of anyone that uses Swahili as his default langauge on digital devices. Microsoft too. Every once in a while they would send me text messages in cryptic Swahili that I have never bothered to find out what it means.