Re: tlug: 1.Japanese hard- and software/2.Netscape

[Marcus Metzler <mocm@example.com>]

Scott Stone writes:
 > On Sat, 26 Sep 1998, WolfgangWalter Sauer wrote:
 > 
 > > Hello everybody 
 > > 1.)In case I'm going to buy hard- and softwhere on my next
 > > visit in Japan, is there any possibility that I can't use it
 > > at home? In other words: can I install German or English
 > > software on a Japanese notebook and can I install the
 > > Japanese Linux on my pc? 
 > 
 > you can.  There's no good reason to buy hardware, or especially software,
 > in Japan.  With maybe one or two minor exceptions, it's cheaper everywhere
 > else that I've seen.  And you don't want a Japanese keyboard unless you're
 > going to be *really* into Japanese input, and even then, most people
 > prefer non-Japanese keyboards (except for Jonathan :) ).
Well, obviously you don`t know German prices. But for most cases you
are right, Scott. CPUs, HDDs, CDROMs etc. are about the same price here 
as in Germany or in the USA. You only have small variations depending
on the sales tax (5% on Japan, 16% in Germany). Some items like
(digital) cameras and notebooks are much cheaper in Japan than in
Germany. Additionally, you can`t get most of the new stuff they have
here. For example the DVD-Discman by Sony is only available in Japan,
as far as I know. Or the new generation of notebooks by Sony, Sharp
etc. can`t be found in Germany yet. I don`t think a Japanese keyboard
is such a problem. It is much closer to the US than the German
keyboard which is really tough for C/C++ because you need the Alt key
to get to { and }. 
Of course one other point is the exchange rate, which is rather bad
for Americans right now, but at it lowest for Germans. So Scott may
think stuff in Japan is really expensive, while I think it`s cheap.

Marcus

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Dr. Marcus Metzler
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