Re: [tlug] Install languages

[Thomas <nyuwa@example.com>]

(I just wrote a reply, but it seemed to vanished into thin air ...)
On 2015/10/29 2:56, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> Yes, if you want to customize your system, you need to learn something
> about it.  That's true of Windows, too.  The tuition is a lot more
> expensive with Windows, though, and very few users do more than change
> the wallpaper.
Yes, of course, you are right.
Sometimes I pretend to understand, that everything is my own 
fault/deficiency and I need to study more.
But .. over the 8 years I am trying to get closer to Linux, I have spent 
quite literally "hundreds of hours" toiling around.
Yet .. I am still not "getting anywhere".
The recent heavy work with my Mint installations (2 PCs) seems to show 
some glimpses of hope at the horizon.
Since I am going (trying) to replace the work machine in my acupuncture 
clinic (currently Win XP) with a Mint installation,
I would like, with your permission, continue to bother the list with my 
rather uneducated questions.

If I may make a feeble attempt at defending myself ...
In MOST cases I ALWAYS stick to the default settings. Mostly because I 
have no idea, what the other options mean.
But working also as a translation with three languages requires, that I 
do tweak some settings -
almost entirely related to languages (see my recent posts here).
I "need" those customizations to make my work a little easier.
In general they are not very exotic:
*    choosing English as system language while living in Japan
*    changing keyboard layouts
*    installing language packs (incl. dictionaries etc.)
*    enabling Japanese input            etc.

But maybe the OS views these things differently.

Greetings from Hayama
Thomas











>   > No offense, but this is A LOT more unstable and troublesome than
>   > the much despised MS stuff.
>
> "No offense, but" from your computer's point of view, *you* are "A LOT
> more unstable and troublesome" than the typical Linux user is.  If you
> treated your Ubuntu/Mint system the way you would *have* to treat
> Windows (only select the absolute minimum of additional options and
> never ever refuse to install the installer's default selections) it
> would probably work quite well.  "Accept the defaults" works just fine
> for many users.
>
> Remember, Microsoft and Apple each spend on the order of a billion
> dollars a year on quality assurance to make sure that users get that
> "Install -> let's go" experience (not that it's ever been 100% with
> any Windows system I've used, and even Macs have gotten a lot more
> fragile since Snow Leopard).  Even so, they succeed (95% isn't bad ;-)
> only because they do take that freedom to customize away from you as
> much as they can.  (And even more so with handhelds than with desktop
> systems. :-( )