[1] Bringing Classics Back: The Rebirth of Extreme Five-Stroke in openKylin 3.0
Many users of the Wubi input method cannot avoid one name: Extreme Wubi. It was once an efficiency tool for Chinese input and a shared memory for a generation.
Now, this memory has a new home—Extreme Wubi Input Method 4.0 Has been completely rebuilt and is now available on the OpenAtom openKylin (referred to as "openKylin") software store, with compatibility support for fcitx5、fcitx4 and ibus input method frameworks.
For old users: the encoding rules and input habits remain unchanged, so you can get started right away.
For new users: the Wubi-Pinyin mixed input mode lowers the barrier, allowing Pinyin as a fallback when unsure about character decomposition.
Using Extreme Wubi on Linux has always involved issues such as complex installation, insufficient compatibility, and difficult maintenance. After in-depth communication, discussion, and research with theExtreme Wubi Input Methodauthor and several experienced users, these pain points were systematically optimized in the rebuilt version: more complete framework adaptation, more stable operation, simpler installation, and truly out-of-the-box usability.
- English mode: added Shift quick switch, aligning with mainstream input habits;
- Pinyin mode: supports switching to Pinyin input mode, making it easy for Pinyin users to get started;
- Wubi: designed for proficient Wubi users, retaining the classic efficient input experience;
- Wubi-Pinyin mixed input: combines both, allowing users to leverage Wubi's advantages while using Pinyin as a fallback when unsure about character decomposition.
Previously, the default was Wubi, and other modes required manual switching each time. Now you can change the default mode to Wubi, Wubi-Pinyin, or Pinyin in the settings interface—so it starts directly in the most convenient state.
During the rebuild, special attention was paid to aligning with the usage habits of Extreme Wubi on Windows (the tenth anniversary version): input rhythm, candidate selection methods, and state switching logic are all kept as consistent as possible.
The goal is simple—for old users migrating from Windows to openKylin, muscle memory can be directly carried over, with no gap of "it works but doesn't feel right."
The original Extreme Wubi Input Method 2.0 only supported x86_64 and arm64 architectures. This rebuild expands architecture coverage to x86_64、arm64、mips64el、loongarch64、loong64、sw64 six types, with plans to support RISC-V。
Not just "usable," but "great to use"
The significance of this rebuild goes beyond bringing Extreme Wubi to Linux—more importantly, it gives this classic input method, born in 2001, the ability to continuously evolve within a modern input method framework: optimized for the openKylin ecosystem, with an engineering structure that is more conducive to future iteration and community collaboration.
Many people remember Extreme Wubi not just because it was fast, but because it accompanied us through writing papers, coding, and completing reports. That input pleasure of "fingers ahead of thought" is still effective today.Download the latest version of the openKylin system, open the software store, search for "Extreme Wubi," and install it to try it out.Extreme Wubi Input Method is currently jointly developed and maintained by the openKylin Input Method SIG and Mr. Du Zhimin.
If you encounter issues or have ideas, feel free to leave us a message.
https://gitee.com/openkylin/freewb
Project source code repository:
https://gitee.com/openkylin/community/tree/master/sig/InputMethod
Acknowledgments: A tribute to the spirit of open source
We would especially like to thank Mr. Du Zhimin for open-sourcing the Linux version of Extreme Wubi, which laid a solid foundation for this rebuild and future development.