JE Distribution

The JE (Japanese Extensions) distribution is the oldest and most common of the Japanese Linux projects. However, the development effort has slowed down recently and the project has been taken over by the new PJE (Project Japanese Extensions). Still, the standard JE is the Japanese Linux distribution many people encounter first. The JE-HOWTO document explains how to install the JE distribution. I downloaded the JE distribution components from ftp://ftp.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp/Linux/. The top directory shows:

00README.eucj  JE-HOWTO.eucj  JE-HOWTO.sjis  install/       sources/
ChangeLog      JE-HOWTO.jis   accessories/   packages/

The key packages are:

base/        diskset.dir  gs/          ptex/        xclt/
canna/       doc/         mule/        sj3/
develop/     font/        net/         wnn/

Files are tarred and gzipped. You can test installation with:

   $ tar ztvf file.tgz

Files can be installed with:

   # tar zxvf file.tgz -C /

If you are downloading the packages with Netscape, press the shift key while pressing on the mouse button. Netscape has problems interpretting the .tgz extension properly.

The JE distribution is quite good. The one thing I would like to see improved is the ability to install package modules over a Linux distribution such as RedHat or Debian.