OK. Think it’s time to get windows “legally” again. Which flavor is the most economical for my needs.
The ability to run both Chinese and English Software. ENGLISH CONTROL MENUS for the system
Well… that’s about it. I was running windows 7 ultamate. Should I upgrade to windows eight? Where can I find the best price for each version. Freind wants his widnows back… OK Need to spring for my own.
I ask a stupid question because, in the windows game, I did not have full language compatibility until I jumped into windows 2,000. Made a real costly mistake ordering a package from the states only to find it was not compatible with Chinese.
Go to linnux or something else. If it can now do totally what you see is what you get, drag and drop as easy as Windows… Sell me… Until then… I get I must stay windows.
Any Windows let you run any Windows software; language is not an issue at all. Windows also let you install and use one or another language charset input method/keyboard. And if I’m not wrong, you can choose the language you want Windows to use (for menus and so) at the beginning.
As for the system being easy, have you tried Ubuntu Linux? You can configure the system in the language you want and have different input systems (same as in windows, but you’re not limited to the system languages of the version you buy), and many companies are following Valve in announcing future native Linux support for their games. You can make a booting USB pendrive and try it without installing. You don’t even need to use the command line if you don’t want to.
Windows 7 was OK, but Windows 8 is a pain in the ass. I had to configure a laptop for my mother last january that ran windows 8, and it was really unintuitive. The change from Windows 7 is so radical, that you might as well get Linux.
Of course, if you need to run a specific software that doesn’t have a Linux native version and it doesn’t run in WinE, you might want to think a little bit more. On the other hand, I managed to run Office 2010 flawlessly in WinE, so if you need support for certain kinds of office formats, it’s an option.
Who do I prove I’m a student. Actually, I’ve got 3 elementary school age students at home. Looks like a nice price. Wonder if the purchase would go through with a Taiwan credit card. I can use a proxy.
Darn… It needs verification of student status. Can I use my school age kids?
I’m a fan of WIndows 8, though I run it in Chinese. You can finally change the OS language on the fly (just like you have been able to do on cell phones for years…) and you can type in any language from any language.
You can consider Linux, too, but a friend of mine says the support for typing traditional Chinese in pinyin is really awful.
Windows 8 can look like 7 if set up properly (I think that it’s actually a w7 with some “modern” look n’ feel). I don’t really like the windows 8 interface, but I guess that some people may find it cool. TS, I guess that you can have any student to buy it for you, yeah.
I use hanyu pinyin to type traditional chinese with iBus. You only need to change the output set of characters by checking an option in the iBus configuration.
Who do I prove I’m a student. Actually, I’ve got 3 elementary school age students at home. Looks like a nice price. Wonder if the purchase would go through with a Taiwan credit card. I can use a proxy.
Darn… It needs verification of student status. Can I use my school age kids?[/quote]
One word for you, Linux. Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty LTS will be out in April along with its variants, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, PinguyOS, Mint, Ubuntu Gnome… If you are adventurous and doesn’t mind the learning curve (there’s going to be one, it’s just the matter or how big), there’s also Arch and its
You mentioned drag and drop as something you want in Linux, I have never tried a version of Linux Desktop Environment that doesn’t have that feature well implemented (except for those tiling oriented DEs). As for What You See is What You Get, I am not sure what you want to be WYSIWYG. Most DE does exactly that. If you are talking about Word processors or graphics tools, libreoffice and Gimp are both WYSIWYG. It is also extremely easy to install Windows applications through PlayonLinux. Microsoft Office runs really well on that, so do many games.
not true. I once tried to play a zh_TW game in an en_US version of Windows 7 and the fraking thing wouldn’t let me.[/quote]
So what happened? out of curiosity…[/quote]
Installed the game via PlayonLinux on Linux, and played without issues.
[quote=“jesus80”][quote=“hansioux”]
Installed the game via PlayonLinux on Linux, and played without issues.[/quote]
OK, so what exactly happened when you tried to run the game on Windows?[/quote]
It was a while back (ok, I just found my letter to Softstar’s Customer Service, so now I know exactly what happened), but I remember which game it was, 軒轅劍外傳漢之雲
I bought the game 2 years after it was released, and at the time I had a new laptop that had Windows 7 which I haven’t reinstalled into Linux, and I thought I should just play it on Windows and save me from the hassle of trying to run the thing on Linux (I was still fairly new to Linux then). All the traditional characters in the game became gibberish on my English Windows.
I tried setting the region to Taiwan and that failed. There were some programs that supposedly switches the region code for you in Windows, but for some reason they didn’t work, probably because Windows 7 was fairly new and those programs at the time only worked for Windows XP.
The reply I got from the Customer Service person was:
The package already stated the system requirement is Traditional Chinese version of windows 2000/XP/Vista, therefore they want me to change my OS. So I happily complied and install Linux on that laptop right away.
I’ve read that WinE will be supporting multithreaded optimizations in its new version. It might be possible to get certain windows software to run better in Linux than in Windows, then.
Back when I played Guild Wars 1, I got better FPS under WinE than under Windows XP, in the same computer with the same hardware. The hardware actually was almost minimum specs but for RAM and graphic card, and Ubuntu + WinE ran it beautifully.
[quote=“hansioux”]
It was a while back (ok, I just found my letter to Softstar’s Customer Service, so now I know exactly what happened), but I remember which game it was, 軒轅劍外傳漢之雲
I bought the game 2 years after it was released, and at the time I had a new laptop that had Windows 7 which I haven’t reinstalled into Linux, and I thought I should just play it on Windows and save me from the hassle of trying to run the thing on Linux (I was still fairly new to Linux then). All the traditional characters in the game became gibberish on my English Windows.
I tried setting the region to Taiwan and that failed. There were some programs that supposedly switches the region code for you in Windows, but for some reason they didn’t work, probably because Windows 7 was fairly new and those programs at the time only worked for Windows XP.
The reply I got from the Customer Service person was:
The package already stated the system requirement is Traditional Chinese version of windows 2000/XP/Vista, therefore they want me to change my OS. So I happily complied and install Linux on that laptop right away.[/quote]
Well, the CS person was very helpful
However, I tend to think that it is possible to make it run on Windows with no problems… or may be the game’s code was doing something silly, dunno.
[quote=“jesus80”][quote=“hansioux”]
It was a while back (ok, I just found my letter to Softstar’s Customer Service, so now I know exactly what happened), but I remember which game it was, 軒轅劍外傳漢之雲
I bought the game 2 years after it was released, and at the time I had a new laptop that had Windows 7 which I haven’t reinstalled into Linux, and I thought I should just play it on Windows and save me from the hassle of trying to run the thing on Linux (I was still fairly new to Linux then). All the traditional characters in the game became gibberish on my English Windows.
I tried setting the region to Taiwan and that failed. There were some programs that supposedly switches the region code for you in Windows, but for some reason they didn’t work, probably because Windows 7 was fairly new and those programs at the time only worked for Windows XP.
The reply I got from the Customer Service person was:
The package already stated the system requirement is Traditional Chinese version of windows 2000/XP/Vista, therefore they want me to change my OS. So I happily complied and install Linux on that laptop right away.[/quote]
Well, the CS person was very helpful
However, I tend to think that it is possible to make it run on Windows with no problems… or may be the game’s code was doing something silly, dunno.[/quote]
Most probably the game is region locked, and uses the system settings to determine area, instead of checking the location data from internet.
[quote=“Blaquesmith”]
Most probably the game is region locked, and uses the system settings to determine area, instead of checking the location data from internet.[/quote]
If I understood correctly, what happened is that the Chinese characters were not well displayed, but the application itself run no problem,.
[quote=“jesus80”]
However, I tend to think that it is possible to make it run on Windows with no problems… or may be the game’s code was doing something silly, dunno.[/quote]
I actually had to do something special to install that game (and most Traditional Chinese software) when I use PlayonLinux as well.
I would first create a WINEPREFIX with an aborted install. Then I would open a shell in that WINEPREFIX and use the following code:
The path probably has to be absolute path, I don’t remember, but either way, that will let you setup the whole thing. Then Just do another aborted install to setup the shortcuts (or do it manually), and then it’s done. I don’t recall if you need to modify the shortcut and add LANG=“zh_TW.UTF-8” to the shortcut file, will report back when I get home.
I figured out this process on my own… I couldn’t find any info online. I guess now there is. Even though it took me 1 hour to figure out how to get it working, at least it’s working and this allowed me to install all of the Traditional Chinese games I have.
As far as I know, most versions of Windows XP and up run your avarage every day office software both Chinese and English. But as far as I know, only Window 7 Ultimate has the ability to change the language of the operating system.
This is important, as I’m the “Tech” in my house that has to get things working, including my wife’s Chinese programs plus, if it is something that I can’t fixed with my knowlege, it can be switched to Chinese so my wife or my friend who is loaning me his extra copy can switch to Chinese.
I know for a fact that Windows 7 home or starter can run both English and Chinese Software but you can only CHOOSE 1 OS language. All are in there, but if you change the language, windows will erase the installation and re-install in the chosen language. Actually, I only know about Windows Starter because that it what I have.
So, if I choose to be independent from my friend, who will take my computer away for the weekend what software should I buy? Will the lowest version of windows 8 or windows 7 Home, if I can get a close out deal, allow me to change OS languages?
As for the software, I buy a lot of my software and have invested some change in windows software. Any current windows package that will run everyday program, with a multiple language os. Thanks.
[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“jesus80”]
However, I tend to think that it is possible to make it run on Windows with no problems… or may be the game’s code was doing something silly, dunno.[/quote]
I actually had to do something special to install that game (and most Traditional Chinese software) when I use PlayonLinux as well.
I would first create a WINEPREFIX with an aborted install. Then I would open a shell in that WINEPREFIX and use the following code:
The path probably has to be absolute path, I don’t remember, but either way, that will let you setup the whole thing. Then Just do another aborted install to setup the shortcuts (or do it manually), and then it’s done. I don’t recall if you need to modify the shortcut and add LANG=“zh_TW.UTF-8” to the shortcut file, will report back when I get home.
I figured out this process on my own… I couldn’t find any info online. I guess now there is. Even though it took me 1 hour to figure out how to get it working, at least it’s working and this allowed me to install all of the Traditional Chinese games I have.[/quote]
So yeah, the code was taking for grant the locale was going to match the charset used.
Need to spring for my own.
what software should I buy? Will the lowest version of windows 8 or windows 7 Home, if I can get a close out deal, allow me to change OS languages?