Translating is often thought of as transfer of meanings from one linguistic-cultural sphere to another. Often, however, in order for the transfer to succeed the translator needs to revise the target system itself. This is particularly true in software localization. When the concepts in the text are new even for the source culture, translators become the very tools with which the target culture expands and changes. The route to this are the ever-changing norms of language. This article presents some preliminary findings from a study of the Finnish localization team of the KDE SC desktop environment. I will demonstrate the kinds of rhetorical ‘moves’ localizers use when tackling with the linguistic norms and also briefly consider the methodological problems one encounters in investigating this ‘normative work’.