FYI,
-- mks --
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 19:51:07 -0000
From: t_vasee <t_vasee@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: tamilinix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: tamilinix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tamilinix] Mandrake 9.0rc1 first impressions
Hi Prabu Anand and Tamilinixers,
I installed Mandrake 9.0rc1 (on a Dell Inspiron 2600) yesterday. The
install went very smoothly with Mandrake's fabulously user-friendly
graphical installer.
The Executive summary: The Tamil stuff simply works: no tweaks, no
packages to install, no messing around with myriad config files.
Hats off to Prabu Anand and Pablo from MandrakeSoft for pulling this
off!
INSTALL
=======
1. Mandrake installer asked me for the default language. I selected
Tamil (TSCII).
2. A bit later, the installer gave me three choices for keyboard
layout:
- TSCII
- Unicode
- English
I choose default TSCII keyboard layout. In the next screen, I choose
the CAPS LOCK key (also default) to switch between keyboards.
3. After Mandrake correctly detected my graphics card and set up X, I
picked KDE as my default desktop and said yes to a graphical login
screen.
KDE
===
As I logged into KDE, I was greeted by a fully Tamilized desktop. The
desktop icons and menu items all were in Tamil.
I launced Kedit and hit the CAPS lock key to switch to Tamil and I
was typing away in Tamil!
No need to select even select fonts, everything was set up perfectly,
the first time.
I noticed that the (nedil) uukarams were missing from the keymap file
and the Ikaram was using still the TSCII 1.6 codepoint. I guess Pablo
used a older version of my keymap file. I'll have to send the latest
version to Pablo ;-)
Next I opened Konqueror. It started up with the Tamilized Welcome to
Mandrake page. I visited http://www.aaramthinai.com ;(a TSCII website)
and it loaded the Tamil fonts perfectly. (although, as the Netscape
flash plugins do not come with Mandrake, the site loads an annoying
series pop-up Windows trying to connect to the Macromedia site)
Then I opened KWord. Again, default font has been setup correctly so,
I can type Tamil without any setup.
I tried printed the KWord document and it turned up perfectly on the
printer. I tried printed the Tamil KWord document and it turned
nicely the printer.
GNOME
=====
I'm not GNOME fan. I'll leave it to GNOME afficianados to fill in the
GNOME stuff.
-Vasee
