[orca-list] Where Is Vinux was: Re: check this out

[Mobeen Iqbal <mobeeniqbal gmail com>]

Hi All.

This is, for want of a better term, an official statement from the vinux 
project. Comments inline below with an over all outlook at the end.

On 24/08/2012 18:38, Christopher Chaltain wrote:
> 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.
Work on Vinux 4.0 is indeed proceeding at a steady pace. There are bugs 
that we are working on that need to be ironed out to insure a stable and 
hassle free experience both for users and developers. Because this is an 
LTS release, our aim is to insure as many bugs as possible are ironed 
out so it is suitable for most environments including production 
environments. As always, we would welcome help from programmers  as this 
will insure that bugs are ironed out at a faster rate. Anyone interested 
is more than welcome to join our development list to offer their services,

vinux-development+subscribe googlegroups com
> > 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.
>
> CJ, you are correct. While our focus is to produce stable LTS releases, we do indeed release experimental 
> versions inbetween to insure our users can try out and take advantage of the latest accessibility 
> improvements. This also allows developers to develop/test improvements behind the scenes to Ubuntu.

> > 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.
As far as I'm aware, the guys behind Sonar did not contact any of our 
development team to discuss possible collaboration. We would have been 
happy to discuss options with them. There may still have been a separate 
spin which we of course have no problem with, but we could have helped 
improve the distro. For example, We are currently assisting F123 to 
improve their images.

I am sure every distribution has its target audience. Distributions like 
this will give people the chance to try the latest and greatest with an 
alternative desktop, they have their place a long side Vinux. Vinux is a 
distribution which aims to cater both for end users and developers a 
like. We aim to provide a fully accessible system out of the box that is 
usable by everyone, weather you're sighted or visually impaired, a 
console user or GUI user. It is also very useful as a testing platform 
for developers. I think its unfair to say our goals have changed. Our 
goals are pretty much still the same as they were 2 years ago when Tony 
began the project. To provide a fully accessible, freely available  
system out of the box with the most usable applications available to us 
included. Because we have less developers working on the project, and 
because the project is maintained solely by volunteers, things take 
longer to get done. But rest assured Vinux is still very much alive. You 
can keep up with the status of development by subscribing to our various 
lists,

vinux-development+subscribe googlegroups com

and

vinux-support+subscribe googlegroups com

People under estimate how much work goes in to a project like this. At 
present, Vinux has various teams hard at work on Vinux 4.0. We have our 
testing team who are testing out our nightly builds frequently and 
providing feedback to our development team with any issues they 
encounter. The development team are working as hard as they can, time 
permitting to insure as many bugs are ironed out as much as possible, to 
insure console speech is working in a satisfactory fashion, and to 
insure that we can provide new and improved features for our users for 
example an easier synthesizer installer for other voices, as well as 
A11Y improvements of course, although we could really do with more help 
from programmers. Our documentation team are working hard to insure we 
have adequate documentation for people making the switch from Gnome to 
Unity. Finally, our PR team are working hard to insure we will be able 
to supply Vinux Branded Computers, Laptops, pen drives and other 
merchandise when Vinux 4.0 is released. Unfortunately, this all takes 
time and it has never been our practices to release a half put together 
Vinux version, where most things work but some don't. We would rather 
release a version that is as stable as we can possibly make it and if 
that means holding off releasing for a few months, then that's a 
sacrifice we have to take. Vinux 4.0 will be well worth the wait.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your 
continued support and continued use of Vinux. When Tony left, i dare say 
people thought the project was over. I can assure you this isn't the 
case, and that the project is very much a live. Please feel free to join 
us at the addresses provided above to find out about the latest 
improvements in Vinux, as well as getting involved in the project 
directly. Feel free to post any further questions relating to Vinux 
directly to the Vinux lists, so as not to clutter the Orca list 
unnecessarily. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading,

Mo.
Vinux Project Coordinator.