What’s this, another computer post? Purely a coincidence, I assure you.
Ubunchu is a manga detailing the trials and tribulations of three members of a high school sys-admin club as they attempt to install and use the Ubuntu operating system. Written and illustrated by Hiroshi Seo, the comic first appeared in ASCII Magazine “Kantan Ubuntu!”
That would be the end of it for us English-speakers, but for the intervention of Martin Owens. While browsing the web for Ubuntu-based artwork, he came across Ubunchu, and a few weeks later had worked out the rights to translate the comic into English with the help of Fumihito Yoshida and Hajime Mizuno. Not only has it been translated, but even the artwork has been flipped for those who prefer to read comics western-style, from left-to-right. Those who would like the art untouched have no need to worry: right-to-left is available in English, too.
Two chapters of the manga are available in English right now, as well as Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese and a few other languages. Chapter 1 has more languages available (at the time of this post) than Chapter 2.
There are three main characters: Akane, the club president and an aficionado of Linux; vice president Masato, a Windows user, and Risa, a Mac person. Akane is a strong believer in the command line and thrives on complexity, while Masato seems to prefer Windows for what it lets him do, namely surf YouTube and play porn games. Risa is the one who brings Ubuntu to the club in the first place, mispronouncing it as “Ubunchu” repeatedly.
Though the comic bills itself as a “Ubuntu romantic school comedy,” there’s little romance to be found. Instead there’s plenty of hijinks and Ubuntu usage. The first chapter covers the installation of Ubuntu on their computers, while the second chapter focuses on the Command Line Inferface. And that’s fine, because it achieves exactly what it should do—get people interested in Ubuntu.
