Linux distribution with decent Japanese and Chinese support

[sfuqua]

Does anybody know of a Linux distribution with decent Japanese and Chinese support?
Manjaro is infuriating.
All I need is an IME, and I have been fooling around for hours.
This way and that way, and those instructions refer to an old version, and this file needs to be changed, and that file needs to be changed. and whatever you do don't change that file...
I am about ready to go back to Windows.

And to think that I used to be cool....

[garyb]

It might depend on the desktop environment at least as much as the distribution. I'm on Fedora with Gnome and I got the Japanese IME to work through the settings without having to edit any config files, although it wasn't obvious at first: there are various options and apparently "Japanese (Anthy)" is the right one. And I had to restart before it actually started working. I've not used it extensively yet, but compared to the Windows IME it's a bit more minimal although very configurable. But Gnome is kinda awful in general so I'm hesitant to recommend it if you're currently using something else, although I've not found an alternative that I prefer.

[rdearman]

Ubuntu Kylin, which is an official derivative of Ubuntu tailored specifically for Chinese users. It integrates well with local services and provides better support for Chinese language and cultural specifics​

Should do Japanese too, but I've never used it.

[maouinin]

I would concur with rdearman. Although I have no experience with that particular version of Ubuntu, I use Ubuntu itself for multiple languages (including Chinese/Mandarin) with no major issues. There are several different input methods available for Chinese characters, though, and getting the one that you are familiar with or able to use can be challenging. I have no experience with Japanese, so can't speak to that.

Cheers!

Mao

[M23]

I would also go with rdearman's suggestion of the Ubuntu Kylin OS. I would also go to whatever the Chinese and Japanese versions are of YouTube and see what sorts of Linux distributions are popular over there that might be able to do what you want it to do.

Linux does require a bit of tinkering, but once you get it set up it works well. Also, knowing what you want the distribution to do is half the battle. For example, I am using a modified version of Ubuntu for OSINT and I also use Kali for all of my red team Cybersecurity work. Even though Kali does have some OSINT tools, it would not be a very good distribution to use for OSINT.

[garyb]

To me it seems crazy that you'd need to install a whole specific Chinese distribution just to get IME support. Typing in different languages and scripts is quite a common use case that any complete operating system should handle with a little (graphical) config and perhaps a download. Even in the Linux world, where "obvious" features can't be taken for granted.

I've not used Manjaro, but I know it's based on Arch which I used for a few years and it was very much a "DIY" distro where anything beyond the absolute core functionality had to be added by the user. It took me some time even just to get English text to render nicely, never mind another language. I realise that Manjaro is supposed to be a more complete and ready-to-go version, but I still wouldn't be surprised at all if it's missing some obvious stuff that more mainstream distros (Ubuntu, Red Hat/Fedora, etc.) have.

[M23]

I've not used Manjaro, but I know it's based on Arch which I used for a few years and it was very much a "DIY" distro where anything beyond the absolute core functionality had to be added by the user.

So you know. Without YouTube, Stack Overflow, and Git Hub Linux would be much more of a mystery. I cannot imagine trying to get Arch to function, let alone an Arch variant in another language. That sounds like a project a couple steps beyond my capacity and patience level. Again, I would try out Ubuntu Kylin since Ubuntu is known to be a bit more friendly for users. Hopefully sfuqua let's us know how he makes out.

[sfuqua]

I got Japanese input to work.
The problem I had is that there is a ton of outdated information on the web, and unless you are careful you will waster time following the wrong lead.
If I ever have to do anything like this again, I will ignore all advice more than a couple of years old. This is what worked last week:

Code: Select all

sudo pacman -S fcitx5-mozc
sudo pacman -S keyboard-layout-viewer (fcitx5 configtool)

create a file called [i].pam_environment [/i] with
XMODIFIERS DEFAULT=@im=fcitx
GTK_IM_MODULE DEFAULT=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE DEFAULT=fcitx
in it.

Search and open the tweaks app, go to the Startup Applications tab. Once there, click on the + and either select fcitx or search for it and then select it.(Don't select fcitx configuration, select fcitx instead) Click on add and you're done. Fcitx should autostart now.

It looks like adding

Code: Select all

sudo pacman -S fcitx4 chinese addons

may enable Chinese, but I haven't tried it yet.
I am not sure if I actually needed to do all these steps, but these steps worked.
This worked last week, Late May 2024. if it is a few months from now, good luck.

I took this from from a post on reddit that was a few years old.

The original post was https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/ik64mb/a_guide_for_installing_a_japanese_input_method_on/
It is not really hard, but too many of the guides include advice like, "You might have to do X. If that doesn't work, don't do it."

[M23]

I got Japanese input to work.

Congratulations! You are still cool.