Encouraged by your comments about getting CJK input to work in Linux, I decided to give it another shot over the weekend. I was pleasantly surprised at the much improved support since my last attempt (ver 7.10). Check out this SCIM documentation and compare the instructions for 8.04 vs 7.10. In the newest version, everything is done via the Language Support menu in a few clicks. In prior versions, you had to manually install packages and edit config files by hand. Pretty much where I failed last time.
So I have to give Ubuntu credit here. It really is turning into a fully-featured and intuitive OS with every new release. Now they just have to do something about the default fonts. I wished I saved a screenshot but the Japanese fonts out of the box really are horrendous. The kana and kanji don’t even line up properly! So unless you want to punish your eyes, you still need to download Microsoft fonts as described here. If the fonts are freely downloadable, you would think including them in the distro would be the easiest thing in the world. Maybe there are distribution issues or the developers don’t know enough about Japanese to see how bad the fonts currently are.
So I’m using all three OSs now! Here’s my current setup:
Dell Inspiron 530: Windows XP Home and Ubuntu 8.04 dual boot
Panasonic Let’s Note Light W5: Windows XP Professional (Japanese)
MacBook Pro (Loaned from work): OS X 10.5
By the way, the mouse precision and acceleration is horrible in OS X. I just stick to the trackpad because the mouse feels like it’s moving through molasses.
Mouse acceleration does take a few days to get used to on OS X. But believe me, once you *are* used to it, you’ll almost certainly like it much better. Mouse acceleration is there for a reason, because they found it allows you to make much more precise movements when you need to. Doing careful alignment in Photoshop or a layout program is a pain in Windows because the cursor moves too much when you’re trying to be precise. With mouse acceleration, fine adjustments are much less frustrating.
Maybe… but currently I find the acceleration too late and steep. When I’m trying to make fine adjustments, the mouse hardly moves. Then at a certain point, it goes too fast all of a sudden.
Ubuntu, underneath its newbie-friendly glean, is still very much a Linux distro. It won’t package anything without a free license (eg GPL), and most good Japanese fonts are only free of charge. So Ubuntu ships with crappy fonts. It’s a shame, really, but that’s how they operate.
Here’s the good part. Windows, Apple, and Ubuntu are all designed to be intuitive for a large number of users, but only the last lets you throw out that design and make something ideal for you. Ubuntu is totally free, and with freedom you can mess around. Once you experience a system tuned exactly to your needs, the rough spots of Linux will seem less important.
Enough propaganda for now. Enjoy your inevitable frustrations. 😛
aaah I know the mouse is horrible in os x!!!
but i got used to it XD now it is funny to see people struggle with the mouse behind my computer、and I have 24″ (X______X) ‘rolls up to the menu bar………..~ ふ~~ん’
Aaah my mannes!!!
はじめまして！！私はケルトゥです！エストニアで住んでいます。よろしくおねがいします！
I recently started to stalk your blog but now I am determined to really read all you have to say XDD aaaa~ I’ll break !!!
またね;)
Kertu
(I promise not to comment old posts !! XD For the sake of your mentality )
I also heard it works fine if you get Apple’s mouse. I bet the code looks like this:
if (mouse.manufacturer == “apple”)
{
workCorrectly();
}
else
{
beFreakinAnnoying();
}
NO….
I HAVE KUBUNTU AND I CANOT DOWNLOAD THIS CRAP 🙁
i AM USING JAPANESE LANGUAGE VERSION, BUT i CANOOT TYPE IN JAPANESE…
WHEN i CHANGE TO JAPANESE, IT TYPES LATIN 🙁
AND THESE INSTRUCTIONS ON THIS SITE DOES NOT WORK
KUBUNTU IS A CRAP
MAYBE ISHOULD TRY SOMEHTING ELSE…
Sorry to comment on a six month old post, but I just wanted to add that one can have good default Japanese fonts in Ubuntu (as opposed to having to set it up yourself) by using the 日本語 Remix version (http://www.ubuntulinux.jp/). The reason that the standard distribution doesn’t include any good ones is that all the good ones are proprietary, and Ubuntu tends to try to provide only free as in freedom defaults.
Interesting, I’ll have to try it out. Thanks for the link.