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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Oleg Volk on May 08, 2005, 12:22:12 PM

Title: Windows alternatives
Post by: Oleg Volk on May 08, 2005, 12:22:12 PM

A friend is setting up an office computer. She will run Open Office instead of MS Office. My question is: do any Unix operation systems have capability to read and input Chinese (Mandarin) characters AND have graphical interfaces roughly similar to Windows XP? Mac OS X is excluded from consideration because it won't run on standard PC hardware, AFAIK.

Title: Windows alternatives
Post by: Azrael256 on May 08, 2005, 01:15:57 PM

Yes.  You should have no trouble with Unicode support in Linux.  For GUI, I prefer Gnome with the Metacity windowmanager.  It is very MacOS-like in its appearance, but it is very easy to use.  KDE is your other option.  I don't care for it, but it is a fine setup.

Title: Windows alternatives
Post by: Wildalaska on May 08, 2005, 09:54:47 PM

we are using open office now at the shop instead of microsift, awesome piece of free software it is

WildtheoutcastAlaska

Title: Windows alternatives
Post by: Pebcac on May 09, 2005, 06:56:21 AM

Try Ubuntu Linux.  www.ubuntulinux.org.  It has Mandarin support, and some screenshots are available here:  http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=206&slide=1.

Title: Windows alternatives
Post by: roo_ster on May 09, 2005, 08:35:00 AM

There are several good* linux distros out there:
Redhat/Fedora
Suse
Mandrake
knoppix

I have the most experience with Redhat/Fedora and every install I have done has given me the option of one, several or all language support.  I always choose "all."  I have never had a problem with displaying oriental characters as I have had with Windows.

There is a truckload of awesome software out there, free for the download.  The latest I have played with is tellico, a ctalog tool that will take your book's ISBN, search an online database, and populate the book data fields for you.  


* "good" defined as relatively easy to install & use.

Title: Windows alternatives
Post by: cordex on May 10, 2005, 06:44:21 AM

For personal use with limited Linux experience I'd say Mandrake.  Red Hat has been good too, but I haven't played with their newest versions so I can't say for certain.  As I recall, Mandrake has decent Asian language support.

Debian is another good distro, but a tad harder to initially set up than Mandrake.