Ubuntu Manga

April 23rd, 2009
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How cool is this? There’s a free manga out there about the Ubuntu Linux distribution. I assume it’s a PR thing, but you should totally check it out! It’s a free Creative Commons Licensed PDF download away, and it’s available in Japanese AND English (and Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Russian, Vietnamese, Italian, Thai, and Korean so far), for those studious readers out there. Odds are that if you’re an Ubuntu fan (I’m writing this on my Ubuntu OS based Eee PC 1000 netbook, so I count), then you’ve likely already seen this. If you’ve never heard of Ubuntu before, or think Linux is scary, this is a great way to introduce you to a free operating system. Why not check it out?

(I will remove these hotlinks after a few days and leave only the links to the sources developing the translations. The file names will likely change, and it’s semi-bad manners even for free distribution stuff, etc.)


(An example frame, side by side, for comparison.)

I often wonder about Linux’s popularity in Japan. I’ve known 2 other people in Japan who use it at all. Aaron, a former CIR who now localizes games, originally encouraged me to try Linux (Ubuntu was the “flavor” he favored at the time, dunno what distro he’s toying with nowadays). Then there’s a non-English teacher (no idea what he teaches, but it’s not English) at one of my high schools who I’ve caught playing with Fedora at work. To his shock (and horror?), I knew what it was and enthusiastically encouraged him to continue toying with it. I honestly can’t imagine Japan’s average workplace without old, crappy leased Windows machines. But I wish I could! Think of the yen that would be saved. Think of the pocket change to be saved. Ha ha. It’s mind boggling.

If you happen to use Ubuntu already, and you’re curious about Japanese input options, let me point you to this thread. It’s a little dated, but it worked on Ubuntu 8.10 for me just the same. It helped me install Anthy (like Microsoft IME or Atok) and some helpful fonts. Once I set it all up, I find it easier to type in Japanese in Ubuntu than I do on Windows. The only thing that’s not as accurate is maybe the handwriting recognition for kanji lookups. I’ve found another page here that might be helpful if you’re interested in the differences between SCIM and UIM. (That’s not scary, but it sounds scary. Like a lot of Linux stuff.) :-)

Via DoctorMO which was linked by GeekDad, who got the attention of BoingBoing.

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Deas Customary Drivel, Ubuntu / Linux, Unsolicited Commentary, 日本語

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  • > You seem to be a Linux guy, Jonadab.

    I've used various operating systems at various times, but yeah, I first got my hands on Linux in 1998 (a set of Cheap*Bytes CDs for Debian 1.3.1 that a guy from the Mansfield LUG gave to me and didn't need back because they were a full release cycle out of date) and have long since lost count of how many different Linux distributions I've used over the years.

    I've not used Fedora as such, though I did use the basic non-enterprise version of RedHat back when there was such a thing (in fact, RedHat 6.0 was the first Linux distribution I used that included a pre-compiled ready-to-install X server on the installation CD), and Fedora is probably the closest equivalent to that these days. But I'm pretty sure there are new tools for installing applications since then. Sometime around version 7, Mandrake added something to their distro (which was initially based off of RedHat) called urpmi, which automatically looked up dependencies and prepended them to the install list in much the same way apt does for Debian (though I'm not sure apt existed yet at the time; CPAN.pm did exist already for installing Perl modules, though, and it did this as well). The Mandrake folks then proceeded to create a graphical front-end for it, which they called rpmdrake. I'd be VERY surprised if RedHat didn't follow in their footsteps, but I haven't used a recent version of Fedora, so I don't know for sure what it's called. The word "yum" sticks in my head as something I've seen on various web fora, but I could be getting Fedora confused with Suse (the other major distro I have not used).

    > Hope you don't mind when I hit you with questions

    No problem. I don't promise to know everything, but you can always ask.

    BTW, I went ahead and installed Anthy and tried it out, and it works pretty well. For just kana it's only better than my hand-rolled mode in the sense that it works in applications besides Emacs (which, granted, saves flipping back and forth between windows and copying and pasting), but then it also does kanji, which is indeed very nice. Typing kanji in this way is fairly tedious (always having to look through a list to pick the one you want, since there are usually dozens of them that match the phonemes you typed; I don't know how the Japanese can understand their spoken language at all with so many homophones), but I can't think of a better way to do it that doesn't require the user to memorize a unique identifier or code for each and every character.
  • I tried Ubuntu for a while. It's not bad. I'm back to using Debian now, though.

    I've never tried Fedora as such, but I did use the desktop version of Red Hat for a while back when there was such a thing, though, and Fedora is probably the closest equivalent to that these days.

    I wrote my own custom Emacs modes for typing kana (it's basically just a big fat associative list, some key bindings, and a couple of functions that look up what you've typed in the list and pull out the corresponding thing from another column). I haven't looked into typing kanji yet, but I'm starting to approach the point where I probably should soon (I now _recognize_ just over 300 kanji, which is a start I guess.)
  • You seem to be a Linux guy, Jonadab. Hope you don't mind when I hit you with
    questions after I fail at the next thing I toy with. Ha ha.

    Fedora Core 4 was the first Linux distro that I ever did anything with. I
    managed to install it to a secondary hard drive in my computer, take
    screenshots, customize the wallpaper, connect to the internet, and set the
    screensaver. Never figured out how to install applications! Ha ha. It's
    embarrassing now. Now that they've zoomed through to Fedora 10 (or Fedora 11
    in a month's time, it seems), I'm wondering how far it's come.

    And hey - 300 kanji is a good place to start. (But good luck writing your
    own conversion software for multiple readings, etc. Using an existing setup
    would probably be a lot easier...but perhaps less gratifying.) I actually
    set a goal for myself this Golden Week, since I am not traveling anywhere. I
    will attempt to learn 400 new kanji characters, and corresponding
    vocabulary. Sounds fun, huh? I'll probably fail, but I'll still have learned
    more than I otherwise would have.
  • It looks cool to me. People in Japan seem to really love manga style stuff. People looking to actually use Linux will fall hook, line, and sinker.
  • Facebook User
    Wow! Such a nice manga! Though I wonder if it helps get a new linux enthusiasts in Japan.
  • Yeah, you're right. My guess is that it just makes current fans happy. Ha
    ha. People who already like Ubuntu (or Linux) think it's great, but it's
    probably not a great outreach tool. Oh well. It's still cooler than trying
    to get someone to read a website.
  • Is Anthy any good nowadays? I know one thing holding back general adoption of Linux here is the horrible language support situation.

    The Honyaku Linux group is where translators talk about using the OS:
    http://groups.google.com/group...
  • I have glitches with kanji conversion on occasion. (And once in awhile it totally freaks out and swaps me into typing straight unicode...does anyone actually do that?!) But it's sufficient for me, as a casual user. I imagine the big boys need more serious toys, huh?
  • Playing around with a Linux install is something that's been on my list of things to do for a while . . . Just need to find the time and the spare machine. I don't plan on jumping in headfirst and deleting all the OSs I use for work, though, of course! :-)
  • I think I'm gonna install the latest Fedora on an SD card or USB flash drive
    to play with alongside Ubuntu, once I upgrade over Golden Week. Let me know
    what you think once you try it!
  • bobbyhaley
    Haha! That's so awesome. I'm actually about to start my upgrade to JJ :D
  • Good luck! Tell me what you think when you've got it up and running!
  • Unfortunately I don't use Linux at all anymore because I have to use Windows at work. At home I've always used Mac OS X, though I do have Ubuntu set up in a VM, ready at a moment's notice.

    You can get Japanese support in Ubuntu with zero configuration if you start with the Japanese remix version.
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