Debian now has Shadow password.
In addition, the Linux library of Pluggable Authentication Modules
(
http://parc.power.net/morgan/Linux-PAM/;
a.k.a. libpam) that allow sysadmins to choose authorization modes
on an application-specific basis will be available, and initially set to
authenticate via shadow password.
Debian already has some support for non-English users. We hope to find people who provide support for even more languages.
Some programs already support internationalization, so we need message catalogs. Many programs still must be internationalized.
The GNU Translation Project ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ABOUT-NLS works on internationalizing the GNU programs.
Currently a complete Debian release is only available for the i386 architecture. Complete Debian system on other architectures are expected soon.