HancomLinux

[Ben Carterette]

Japanese has two phonetic alphabets; the 50-odd characters in each one 
represent the same sounds, but one (katakana) is used for words 
"imported" into the language from English, Chinese, etc, and the other 
(hiragana) is used for native Japanese words.  The third Japanese 
character set, the kanji, is a subset of about 2000 characters from the 
50,000+ used in Chinese.  Most signs in Japan are written in hiragana, 
katakana, or, increasingly, English; the ones that are written in kanji 
generally mean the same thing in Chinese or Japanese.  (I think).

So..  has anyone ever set up a Japanese-language Linux?

ben

On Tuesday, August 28, 2001, at 09:20  AM, Robert Kennedy wrote:

> --- Jim Herrmann <b3d at kc.rr.com> wrote:
>> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 00:05:59 -0500
>> From: Jim Herrmann <b3d at kc.rr.com>
>> Subject: Re: HancomLinux
>>
>> They are entering a pretty crowded market
>> what with Open Office and KOffice for free, how do
>> they expect to collect money?  They
>> had better be damn good.
>>
>> Peace,
>> Jim
>>>> http://www.hancom.com/en/
>
> Jim,
>
> I'll bet their potential profit is in the Asian
> pictograph based languages. Japanese & Chinese have
> thousands of different symbols. Word processing is
> literally just that. Low cost WP's are probably in
> great demand.
>
> <lecture mode>
> Koreans tend to be multi-lingual. I spent 1972 out in
> the middle of Korea with only a couple of small
> villiges nearby. I met one local gentleman who spoke
> Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English & Russian. He was
> ready to talk to whatever soldier knocked on his door
> next!
>
> Koreans are very fortunate concerning their written
> language. In 1443 King Sejong the Great invented, or
> caused to be invented, a phonetic Korean alphabet.
> Look closely at pictures of Korean shopping areas
> verses Japanese or Chinese. It takes me about 3
> seconds to pick  out the Korean signs with their
> commonly repeated letters. I'd probably need a three
> week course to tell Japanese & Chinese apart.
>
> Korean has roughly the same number of characters as
> English. Converting WP code from Hangeul to English
> must be a no-brainer.
> </lecture mode>
>
> It'll be interesting to see where this company goes.
>
>                 Best,
>
>                      Bob Kennedy
>
>
>
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