[nylug-talk] distro recommendations (cjk input and other concerns)

[Scott Robbins]

On Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 01:23:32PM -0400, Scott Robbins wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 12:05:07PM -0500, Allen Shaw wrote:
> > Hi Scott,
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks for the tips. I will let you know how it works out.
> 
> Yes, it's fairly simple in almost any of the distributions.  With
> Ubuntu, be sure, after installation, to add Japanese support, somewhere
> in the system prefs.  That should give you your fonts and such.  
> 
> apt-get install scim-anthy will (after having added Japanese support)
> bring in the other programs you need. 

A couple of minor caveats.  Printing can be non-trivial.  If you have a
postscript compatible printer and set it to postscript level 2 you
should be able to print.  Otherwise, <shrug> cut and paste it into
OpenOffice.

Also, the chances are that her friends use MS which still uses shift-JIS
by default.  They will say to her, we can't read your Japanese, it's
mojibake (gibberish).  

Depending upon what programs she uses, she should be able to use
Shift-JIS encoding.  Her other option is to explain to them that they
can go to their own email program's view=> encoding menu and change it
to UTF-8.   (FWIW, Mac Mail also defaults to UTF-8 and one can have the
same problems with an expensive Mac when sending to a Windows user.)

There are several Ubuntu users on the Tokyo Linux Group list, 

http://www.tlug.jp

So, that will often be a good place to find help if she runs into
issues.

(That's assuming that you decide upon Ubuntu. In reference to Peter's
post, FC5 and 6 both have scim anthy.  See my page, my own inclination
is to NOT select Japanese support during installation, but to simply do 
yum install scim-anthy and some Japanese fonts.)



-- 

Scott

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