[tlug] Article comparing Japanese-language capabilities of SuSE and Turbo

[Joseph Essertier <essertier@example.com>]

There is an article in the June issue of Linux World in Japanese comparing the Japanese-language capabilities of the Japanese version of SuSE Linux Professional 9.2 and Turbolinux Home.  On the last page the authors sum up the differences in 3 ways--Japanese input system, Japanese fonts, and how much menus and help screens are provided in Japanese.  Their conclusion is that they both have their different strengths and weaknesses and it's impossible to clearly say which is better overall.  After reading this article, i'm leaning towards SuSE myself.  (I'm starting to wonder if i can cancel my Turbolinux order).  They say that SuSE has richer "conversion functions" 変換機能 for switching from kana to kanji, such as how it deals with homophones and homonyms, and how it provides dictionaries of various kinds, such as biographical dictionaries, geographical dicts., and computer dicts.  SuSE uses Wnn7 while Turbo uses the Linux equivalent of Atok 17?  But you can set Wnn7 in SuSE to act like Atok 17.   For people who have to write a lot in Japanese, they say that Wnn7 has the most  convenient input features.  The biggest advantage of Turbolinux from my perspecitve is that file names in Japanese appear in Japanese.  I have this problem sometimes when i receive files from Japanese people.  I always have to re-label the files in romaji.  But that's not such a big problem.

Now to find out which is easier to install...
Joe