Re: [orca-list] Fwd: Re: check this out

[Christopher Chaltain <chaltain gmail com>]

On 24/08/12 11:48, Kyle wrote:
> To answer the question of why we have Sonar and Vinux, we need to take a
> step back and ask also why we have Debian, GRML, Knoppix/Adriane,
> Ubuntu, Trisquel, Linux Mint, all the other Ubuntu remixes, Fedora,
> Gentoo, Arch, Slackware and all kinds of other Linux distros. Would it
> not be better if they all merged, especially all the Debian/Ubuntu
> derivatives, and gave us a single distro to work with instead of all the
> duplicated efforts?

All true, but just because we have so many distributions, and the nature
of open source lends itself to such fragmentation, doesn't mean we have
to replicate that situation on the accessibility side. Of course,there's
absolutely nothing wrong with someone spinning off another distribution,
but there's also absolutely nothing wrong with people wanting to
encourage more cooperation where possible and reduce duplicate efforts
wherever we can.

> It seems to me that some of the same people who are
> having problems with the release of a new blind-friendly Linux distro
> have already written off Vinux as a lost cause/dead project. I really
> hope I'm wrong about this, but this is my observation so far.

I'm not sure if you think vinux is a lost cause or if you think others
perceive that, but I don't think vinux is a lost cause or a dead
project. Work on vinux 4.0, which will be based on Ubuntu 12.04 is
proceeding.

> Also, it makes sense to have Sonar as a choice, because it offers GNOME
> classic and gnome-shell based on the image that is downloaded rather
> than using Unity2d, which is in fact dead upstream, and will certainly
> not be included in Ubuntu 12.10 or any later version of Ubuntu.

True again, but there's no reason this choice couldn't be folded into
Vinux. If it were, then we'd have one distribution where we could choose
between Unity 2D, Gnome Shell or Gnome Classic, plus console access and
the other enhancements included in Vinux.

> Also,
> Vinux focuses on the Ubuntu LTS releases mostly, so Sonar also fills in
> the gap in the release cycle, as it has been confirmed that the next
> Sonar release will take place within a couple of weeks of the Ubuntu
> 12.10 release. 

Vinux provides long term support on the LTS releases, which is good for
people who use Ubuntu in a production environment and need something
stable, but they also generate versions of Vinux based on interim Ubuntu
releases. I'm using Vinux 3.2.1 based on ubuntu 11.04 to write this
message. I guess you could say that because of this Vinux focuses mostly
on the LTS releases, but I think this slightly exaggerates the true
situation. Furthermore, the plans for Vinux are to move the
accessibility infrastructure along ahead of Ubuntu, so I think there
will be even more work done with Vinux on the interim releases. I'm not
positive about this though and best to hear this from the Vinux
development team directly.

> Yes, a merger can be good, but in this case, is it really
> the best possible solution? This is just my opinion, but I do think
> there is room for another choice in this situation.

I'm all for choice, but I don't see how a merger would hinder our choice
at all. Furthermore, with pooled resources, our choices might even
increase as more resources are brought to bare on the issues that
currently aren't being addressed with these efforts. I also have no idea
if the people behind Sonar and the people behind Vinux talked at all or
not. Like I said, we are where we are, and there's nothing wrong with
that, but it does seem like more could be accomplished with synergy and
cooperation than fragmentation.

-- 
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail