Re: [tlug] Japanese-language on SuSE

[Joseph Essertier <essertier@example.com>]

On 木曜日, 5 12, 2005, at 08:28 AM, Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon wrote:

> Keith R Mannisto wrote:
>
>> I shipped my daughter a HP NX5000 SuSE (9.2) Notebook for her to use 
>> in
>> Japan.  Before I shipped the system I loaded every package that had 
>> the
>> word JAPANESE  in it (at least that is what I recall) with YaST.  
>> But, my
>> daughter has NOT been able to get the system to enter into a Japanese 
>> text
>> entry mode.
>>
>
> A quick and easy solution would be to use one of the Japanese version 
> "live" CD's.  One might be available from a cheap magazine from a 
> large book store.
>
> I've experienced both successful and unsuccessful installs of SuSE 9.1 
> (from the standpoint of being able to input Japanese).  The successful 
> attempts have been when I installed it in Japanese, and then set up 
> English and Japanese users.  I still (in spite of trying many 
> suggestions) have not been able to get English language installs of 
> SuSE to input Japanese however.  I can switch them over to Japanese 
> menus, but they remain mono-lingual for text input.  So - not an 
> answer for your current problem, but for anyone installing SuSE with 
> the intent of using both Japanese and English, I do recommend 
> installing it in Japanese first and foremost, as that solves the issue 
> right at the start.
>
> Note: My experience with this is with SuSE 9.1.  Yesterday I installed 
> SuSE 9.3 - in Japanese though, so I don't know if anything's changed.
>
> Lyle
>

I am doing exactly as you suggest, Lyle.  I cancelled my order of 
Turbolinux and ordered SuSE 9.3.  I know Linux is a whole new world 
from the Mac, but all the same, it is nice when Linux works in ways 
that are familiar to me, and what you have described in this post and 
others sounds familiar.  :)   I've had similarly good experiences with 
installing OS 10 in Japanese on the Mac and selecting English 
afterwards.  Going  the other way--installing in English--never worked 
for me.  The way i have it set up now, it's very easy to switch back to 
Japanese when necessary, and Japanese file names remain in Japanese 
orthography even when the menus are all in English, which is great.  (I 
try to keep file names in the Roman alphabet as much as possible, but i 
get a lot of files from other people with Japanese-script file names, 
so that's important to me.  Another strength of SuSE).  So with this 
positive experience on the Mac in mind, i'm hoping that i will be able 
to set up SuSE in such a way that i can switch back and forth with 
similar ease, as you describe.  By now i've read many of the past posts 
in the TLUG archives relating to SuSE, and with all the trouble that 
people have had with previous versions of SuSE, i will not be surprised 
if the installation does not go smoothly, but i'm willing to experiment 
a little, and as long as i am able to type in Japanese relatively 
efficiently in a word processing application, i'll be satisfied.  Other 
people have successfully installed in English, and added  the Japanese 
input feature later, but that sounds a little tricky and time-consuming 
for a total newbie.

So between my own experience, what Lyle has written about SuSE, what 
i've read on the internet lately, and the article in Linux World saying 
that Japanese input works well in SuSE 9.3, i decided to take the SuSE 
plunge.  We'll see.  Again, i'm satisfied with Ubuntu in English--it's 
working fine, except for the resolution--and will probably continue to 
use it for  English applications, but i have the sense that Japanese 
input will be a lot smoother in SuSE from the get-go.

At first i was going to install Ubuntu in Japanese on the G3, but 
aborted that installation and installed on the G4 in English.  The 
Japanese during the initial stages of the installation process on the 
G3 was of a low quality, i'm afraid.  This is not a criticism of the 
producers of Ubuntu.  It seems like they have created a wonderful 
distribution.  But perhaps they have had trouble getting good 
translators to work for free on their project?  I don't know.  They 
will have to raise the quality of their translation, i think, though, 
if they're going to attract Japanese users.  I saw one favorable review 
of the Hoary version of Ubuntu in Japanese, but that reviewer did 
indicate that he believed Ubuntu was at an early stage as far as to 
what extent it could attract Japanese users.

By the way, i'm still trying to decide what used, home 
desktop--probably Dell--to buy.  Is there a quick and easy way to find 
out what machines SuSE runs well on?  I could look at earlier posts to 
see what machines Lyle successfully installed SuSE on and check SuSE 
user forums on the internet i guess, but what i'd really like to have 
is a list that i can print out and take with me to Akihabara, to help 
guide my purchase.  The Japanese Turbolinux site had such a list, but i 
don't see one at the Japanese Novell/SuSE site.

One more "by-the-way":  I searched for an online version of the article 
comparing SuSE to Turbo, but couldn't find anything.
Joe