Re: [orca-list] What distro would people like me to cover in some audio walkthroughs

[Michael Whapples <mwhapples aim com>]

That's certainly an option. I hadn't really considered LXDE as the 
computers I have are enough for gnome. When I tried archlinux on my 
laptop I actually found gnome was very responsive, possibly better than 
I found it in other distros. May be because of the building up idea I 
had only the things running I needed. So I just wonder, how necessary 
LXDE really is on a properly configured system.

The little bit I did see of LXDE I have to be honest and say I wasn't 
taken. Certain parts just were inaccessible (eg. lx_terminal). Having 
said that, something like ArchLinux would be the system for setting up a 
minimal system using LXDE.

Michael Whapples
On 03/02/2010 04:30 PM, Alex H. wrote:
> Hello Michael,
>
> I think the Arch distro idea would be great. How about a walkthrough
> of building a system that contains LXDE instead of GNOME, then just
> throw Orca on top of that and Speakup for the console etc, add a few
> favorites like OpenOffice and Firefox, and so on. I'd love to make a
> minimalist GUI OS like that for a netbook or similar device.
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
>
>
>
> On 3/2/10, Michael Whapples<mwhapples aim com>  wrote:
>    
> > Hello,
> > As my GRML install has become old I think its time for some new audio
> > walkthroughs from me. I have to say after some use of GRML on HD I don't
> > know whether I would advise it for HD installations (NOTE: GRML is an
> > excellent liveCD and I would recommend it for text based LiveCD work eg.
> > system recovery, etc). In fact look at my comments on ArchLinux for an
> > interesting use I may put GRML to.
> >
> > This means I am now looking at what other distribution to use for the
> > audio walkthroughs. Has anyone any suggestions of which they would like
> > to be done. Below you will find some notes on what I have looked at and
> > views, etc, I would suggest reading that before suggesting a distro to
> > be covered.
> >
> > I thought I had managed to reach a decision on what distribution I would
> > use for some orca audio walkthroughs but hit a bit of a unexpected
> > problem with installing fedora from the liveCD, the "first boot"
> > application which is certainly inaccessible with no obvious work around
> > (NOTE: the speakup modified fedora won't do, I will be installing it on
> > a system already with windows XP on the disk and the text installer
> > would clear the whole disk).
> >
> > An alternative I had been considering is OpenSolaris, regardless of my
> > view of oracle there currently is a technical show stopper for me with
> > it as on the computer I intend to use X won't start on the latest
> > development builds (I suspect its the intel graphics issues which were
> > introduced around b130). I believe they intend to fix the issue with
> > intel graphics by the release, however that's getting quite close. If it
> > can be fixed by the release then it is back in the list of choices.
> >
> > Another one I have given serious consideration is ArchLinux. This takes
> > a very different approach to the others I am considering, although it
> > probably fits better with my personal views, build up the system the way
> > you want rather than rip apart a large default system and fight it to
> > work the way you want. While I like build it up approaches, I am
> > concerned whether it works for a audio walkthrough as the system can
> > have so many possible configurations. My other concern is how well
> > supported ArchLinux is, by this I mean third party software (an example
> > would be skype don't make a package for it, but this skype example
> > doesn't work fully as there are skype packages in the community
> > repository). Actually that skype example probably demonstrates that my
> > concern may not be real, there seems to be enough software in the
> > repositories for most (if not all) general desktop usage.
> >
> > To install ArchLinux I probably will do an install using the GRML
> > LiveCD, yes its possible, reason why, its a more full system to be
> > working with while installing (eg. nice handy applications like
> > grml-network to configure your network, etc).
> >
> > Now for the distros I ruled out fairly early on:
> > * OpenSuse: They seem to go their own way for things with no clear
> > reason (eg. SBL instead of brltty (SBL lacks for me as it doesn't seem
> > to support USB Braille displays whereas brltty has had support for USB
> > for years), gnome's menus (why do they make that odd menu/application to
> > replace the standard gnome ones, it just makes it unfamiliar), etc).
> > * Debian: I am saying this a bit reluctantly, but essentially the
> > problem seems to be stable too old, testing and unstable too unreliable
> > for the step by step nature of an audio walkthrough.
> > * Ubuntu: Just don't like it, too many reasons really to list.
> > * Slackware: While installation can be done with speakup, there is no
> > software speech option for install and I don't have the resources to
> > provide an espeakup enabled slackware install CD. Also possible issues
> > with installing gnome as you need a third party gnome distribution but
> > this is minor compared to the install issue.
> > * Gentoo: While a nice idea the compile from source thing gets to you
> > after a time, too slow to install/upgrade packages for little gain in
> > running the system.
> > * Vinux: Don't really believe in the idea of specially developed
> > systems, I am sure that accessibility can be well integrated into
> > mainstream distros (OpenSolaris is an example where it has been done
> > well). I believe the route of educating on accessibility is better in
> > the long term, if distros don't know about the accessibility concerns
> > they may do something which makes your adapting task much harder in the
> > future without even realising the impact of their decision.
> >
> > OK, enough from me, now for your suggestions.
> >
> > Michael Whapples
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> > The manual is at
> > http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> > The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
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> >
> >