Re: [tlug] Need purchasing advice for a linux compatible desktop

[Joseph Essertier <essertier@example.com>]

The order of this thread is going to get messed up, so sorry to use
Dave's message to reply to Lyle, but the individual messages are still
not coming into my box yet, so I don't have Lyle's message. I pasted the
text in below from the TLUG web page archive:

Lyle: Then you are using direct hiragana input? Otherwise, if you're
inputting Japanese text via romaji, the Japanese symbols on the keys are
of no use anyway!

Joe: No, I'm using romaji like everyone else, but for example, on my
English Mac keyboard at least, there is no single key to choose between
hiragana or katakana or romaji, at least that I am aware of. (Maybe I
was missing something this past 2 years!) With the input system I'm
using now on Ubuntu, I can use the shift key and the space bar (2 keys)
to switch between romaji on the one hand and kana on the other, but then
I use a mouse sometimes to choose between hiragana and katakana.
Although I discovered recently that you can just hit the F7 key in
Ubuntu to convert hiragana you just finished typing into katakana, which
is cool, and maybe I'll just get used to that, but I've gotten used to
the Windows style J'ese keyboard.

Also the yen symbol? It and other keys like it are probably somewhere,
or can be assigned to some key, but do you just remember where they are,
or do you physically relabel the keys on the English keyboard? I'm used
to using the Japanese keyboard now, so it's easier to just switch
keyboards for a Japanese text document.

I like the Japanese version of Ubuntu, the unofficial one, because the
key labeled 半角／全角　漢字 works as it should on a Japanese keyboard.
(The one on the top left that Japanese Windows users use all the time).
I like that key and like where it is.

It seems like Anthy and the other open source input systems are
advancing so fast, that new, really convenient input systems are right
around the corner. Like the way that some of these systems, including
Atok, can remember what you have written before--what a lifesaver that
is. For ありがとうございます you only have to hit 2 or 3 keys. (And how
far away is voice recognition? 5 years? 10 years?) So I wonder how much
time I should spend on getting just the perfect Japanese-English
bilingual keyboard since many things I learn and get used to will be
obsolete next year, but if there were a keyboard out there that was easy
on the finger joints that cost a little more, I'd buy it right now.

All the keyboards I've seen in the fairly large Laox down the street are
really low quality. The old IBM style keyboard that someone mentioned
sounds really appealing. Those fancy, big electric IBM typewriters had
great keyboards. You could type faster with less pain. Mac keyboards
always leave much to be desired. Definitely more choices in the Windows
world, and since I'm hearing people say that W keyboards almost always
work with Linux, another big reason to use Linux. I tried a Windows
keyboard with my Mac, but many of the coolest keys didn't work, even
after installing the Mac driver for it.

Joe